By: Serach Nissim
Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, has been blocked on his own social-media network.
As reported by the NY Post, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen blocked Dorsey amid a spat about the trendy crypto concept known as “Web3”. On Wednesday, Dorsey posted a screenshot showing that he was blocked by Andreessen, the co-founder of Silicon Valley venture capital firm named Andreessen Horowitz. “I’m officially banned from web3,” Dorsey wrote. Last month, Dorsey had stepped down from his leadership role at Twitter, to focus fulltime on Block, his payments company, formerly known as Square.
Of late, there has been an escalating rift between tech titans like Dorsey, Elon Musk and a squad of Silicon Valley investors including Andreessen, who say they want to disrupt the internet. Web 3 is an idea for a new iteration of the internet that incorporates decentralization based on blockchains.
Backers of the Web3 ideology say it’s a vision in which blockchain technology and cryptocurrency will give individual users co-ownership of the internet, lessening the ability tech titans like Facebook, Google and Twitter have to control speech and limit competition.
On the other hand, critics of Web3, including Dorsey and Elon Musk, say its all just a marketing ploy to take power away from some rich tech investors and transfer it to different rich tech investors. Earlier this week, as part of the argument, Dorsey had tweeted: “You don’t own ‘web3.’ The VCs and their LPs do,” referring to venture capitalists and their funders. “It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label,” Dorsey wrote.
“I’m anti-centralized, VC-owned, single point of failure, and corporate controlled lies,” wrote Dorsey in a different post last week. “If your goal is anti establishment, I promise you it isn’t ethereum. Don’t believe or trust me! Just look at the fundamentals.” The tech tycoon who is worth an estimated $9.4 billion has been criticizing the cryptocurrency Ethereum, which is being embraced by many Web3 supporters.
Last week, Dorsey also taunted Chris Dixon, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “You’re a fund determined to be a media empire that can’t be ignored…not Gandhi,” Dorsey had commented. Dorsey also poked fun at Andreessen Horowitz in a chat with Elon Musk, who asked on Twitter whether any followers had actual seen Web3. “It’s somewhere between a and z,” Dorsey commented. Shortly after that, Andreessen blocked Dorsey on Twitter.
Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Post.
