You Don’t Own Web3: Dorsey and Musk Scrutinise the Idea of NextGen Net

Dorsey said in a tweet, "You don’t own ‘web3.’ The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives."

Elon Musk (left), Jack Dorsey (right).

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have caused an online stir after repeatedly mocking those putting their faith in the Web3, or Web 3.0, which will allow users to own the next generation of internet instead of giving power to Web 2.0 giants like Google, Facebook, among others.

Weeks after the Twitter founder stepped down from the chief executive position, Dorsey on Tuesday, 21 December, declared, “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. Know what you’re getting into…”

Dorsey said this in contrast to what is believed about the blockchain-based, decentralised systems and tech that are meant to replace the internet as we know it.

Dorsey has claimed that it is the big venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, who have invested more than $3 billion in the space, that will control these new web systems.

This isn’t the first time the idea of Web3, which has visibly manifested into the trading of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, has received scrutiny.

Musk has been regularly tweeting against the idea of Web3. Recently, he said in a tweet, "Has anyone seen web3? I can't find it."

Joining the conversation, Dorsey replied "It's somewhere between a and z."

Earlier, mocking the idea again, Musk had tweeted a meme:

While several netizens have showed their disagreement with Dorsey, it is yet to be seen if blockchain systems and NFTs will actually revolutionise the net as we know it.