Communications of the ACM
Tales From Crypto: A Billionaire Meme Feud Threatens Industry Unity
Billionaires are debating the future of the Internet, a tool we all use, in a new language that few of us understand.
Credit: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
"You don't own 'web3.' The VCs and their LPs do."
Jack Dorsey tweeted this esoteric salvo in late December, not long after he stepped down as the head of Twitter to focus on advancing his Bitcoin ambitions. The post, swiping at the power held by venture capitalists and their limited partners as they try to reorganize the internet around blockchain technology, an effort known as web3, soon set off a public feud among members of the Silicon Valley ruling class. The dispute over what many herald as the next arena of technological revolution has drawn increasingly hard lines. Elon Musk is with Mr. Dorsey; Marc Andreessen is his enemy.
The web3 revolution, backers say, promises the democratization of commerce and information by building a better internet on blockchain networks — distributed ledger systems that form the basis of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It theoretically would cut out traditional middlemen and gatekeepers, letting users transact directly and have a greater stake in the programs they use.
But Mr. Dorsey has a different view. "It will never escape their incentives," continued his post about the role of venture capitalists in web3. "It's ultimately a centralized entity with a different label."
From The New York Times
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