Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are speaking about ‘Web3’ – right here’s why

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey ⁠— two of the world’s best-known tech billionaires ⁠— have been voicing their ideas on a hypothetical new iteration of the web this week: “Web3”.

Whereas nonetheless a hazy idea, Web3, or Net 3.0, has been hailed by proponents as a decentralized model of the web based mostly on blockchain, the know-how behind many main cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. A plethora of entrepreneurs around the globe are attempting to design and construct the applied sciences and protocols that might assist Web3.  

Advocates of Web3, which might comply with Web1 and Web2, argue that immediately’s on-line platforms are too centralized and managed by a handful of enormous web firms, like Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Fb mum or dad firm Meta. These firms have amassed huge portions of knowledge and content material that is been shared on the web.

On Sunday, Musk tweeted a TikTok of an interview concerning the web between Invoice Gates and David Letterman in 1995, asking: “Given the just about unimaginable nature of the current, what is going to the long run be?”

He adopted up saying: “I am not suggesting web3 is actual — appears extra like a advertising buzzword than actuality proper now — simply questioning what the long run can be like in 10, 20 or 30 years. 2051 sounds loopy futuristic!”

A day later, Musk adopted up saying: “Has anybody seen web3? I can not discover it.”

To the annoyance of Web3 followers, Dorsey hinted that it is already beneath the management of enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz, an early Fb backer and a Web3 advocate.

“It is someplace between a and z,” stated Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter CEO final month to give attention to his funds start-up, Block, previously Sq..

Web3’s military of supporters in the end needs to see the facility of the web put within the arms of the individuals, not VCs. They imagine it is too massive and necessary for a small variety of firms or traders to handle.

At present the web is significant to the worldwide financial system and performs a job in powering every little thing from nuclear amenities to hospitals.

However Dorsey believes that VCs and their restricted companions would be the ones who in the end find yourself proudly owning Web3. “It would by no means escape their incentives,” he tweeted, inflicting a backlash from followers of the idea. “It is in the end a centralized entity with a unique label.”

His tweet obtained over 26,500 likes and 5,900 retweets in 9 hours, with some saying he was “useless improper” or that they extremely disagreed.

Past the web, there’s additionally a giant push to decentralize finance (DeFi) that’s being led by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and followers of cash like bitcoin and ether.

An identical motion is going on within the vitality business. All vitality was generated by a choose few firms after which bought to the plenty. Now some individuals are taking management of their very own vitality wants and making it extra decentralized.

— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.