Jack Dorsey may have left Twitter, but he continues to make headlines and ruffle feathers. He is unarguably one of the biggest proponents of cryptocurrency and the blockchain tech, but that love has not spread to Web3, and this has got him blocked on Twitter by Marc Andreessen.
Dorsey’s opinion that Web3 will not be decentralized and instead be centrally controlled and owned by venture capitalists did not sit well with fellow billionaires and venture capitalists. He actually referred to prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who then replied in kind by blocking Dorsey on Twitter, the very platform that Dorsey had founded (with others) and had been a part of for a long time.
It is natural to assume that Andreessen did not like Dorsey’s point of view, given that the former Netscape co-founder and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has been a prolific investor in Web3 startups (in fact, it claims to have become the largest investor in the sector).
Dorsey took to Twitter to announce that he had been “officially banned from Web3,” alongside a screenshot showing he had been blocked by Andreessen. This was the sequel to his previous remarks on Web3, where he tweeted, “You don’t own ‘web3. The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”
I’m officially banned from web3 pic.twitter.com/RrEIAuqE6f
— jack⚡️ (@jack) December 22, 2021
At stake is Web3, which is touted to be the future and a more decentralized version of the internet based on blockchain technology. Web3 has caught the eye (followed by funding) of several firms and individuals, including Andreessen, who believes that decentralized technologies offer an alternative to a digital status quo that is increasingly dominated by big tech and oppressive regimes. Proponents of Web 3 believe that blockchain and cryptocurrencies could transform the digital lives of users – ranging from gaming to commerce and finance, all will be decentralized and more transparent. However, VCs such as Andreessen’s a16z, have been at the centre of the Web3 debate, with folks such as Dorsey highlighting how few of such VCs and ‘rich dudes’ control the Web3, which is hence not decentralized by any means.
And Jack is hardly the only one to be against Web3 – Elon Musk is skeptical of it as well. “Has anyone seen web3? I can’t find it,” he had tweeted earlier.
