Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey – two of the world’s most famous tech billionaires – have been voicing their thoughts about this week’s new internet speculation: “Web3”.
While still a hazy concept, Web3, has been hailed by proponents as a decentralized version of the internet based on blockchain, the technology behind many major cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
A plethora of entrepreneurs around the world are trying to design and build the technologies and protocols that would support Web3.
Elon Musk thinks Web3 is more of a “marketing buzzword” than a reality, while Jack Dorsey argues that Web3 will ultimately end up being owned by venture capitalists.
Although still a vague concept, Web3, or Web 3.0, has been hailed by supporters as a blockchain-based online version, a technology that supports many large cryptocurrencies and static tokens, or NFT. Scores of entrepreneurs around the world are trying to design and build technologies and principles that can support Web3.
Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX speaks at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition on March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Musk answered a series of questions related to SpaceX projects during his appearance at the conference.
Proponents of Web3, who may be following Web1 and Web2, argued that today’s Internet forums are very sophisticated and dominated by a host of major online companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and the parent company Facebook. These companies have accumulated large amounts of data and shared content online.
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On Sunday, Musk wrote to TikTok in an online interview between Bill Gates and David Letterman in 1995, asking: “Given the almost unimaginable current situation, what will the future look like?”
He continued: “I do not suggest that web3 is real – it looks more like a marketing term than it is right now – I just wonder what the future will hold in 10, 20 or 30 years. 2051 sounds like a crazy future! ”
A day later, Musk went on to say: “Has anyone ever seen web3? I can’t find it. “
To the annoyance of Web3 fans, Dorsey revealed that he was already under the control of big business company Andreessen Horowitz, a former Facebook supporter and Web3 attorney.
“It’s between a-and-z,” said Dorsey, who stepped down as CEO of Twitter last month to focus on launching his payments, Block, which was Square.
The army of Web3 supporters finally wants to see the power of the internet put into the hands of the people, not the VCs. They believe it is too big and important for a small number of companies or investors to manage.
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Today the internet is vital to the global economy and plays a role in empowering everything from nuclear facilities to hospitals.
But Dorsey believes VCs and their limited partners will ultimately be in control of Web3. “It will not escape their encouragement,” he wrote on Twitter, creating a backlash for fans of the idea. “Ultimately it is a medium-sized business with a different label.”
His tweet received more than 26,500 likes and 5,900 XNUMX tweets in nine hours, with some saying he was “dead in error” or strongly disagree.
Apart from the internet, there is also a major push for financial distribution (DeFi) led by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and followers of currencies like bitcoin and ether.
A similar move is taking place in the energy industry. All power was generated by a few selected companies and then sold to the masses. Now some people are in control of their energy needs and are making it very fragile.