Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are talking about ‘Web3’ – here’s what it is and why it matters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey have been voicing their thoughts on a hypothetical new version of the internet this week: “Web3”.
#ElonMusk #JackDorsey #talkingWeb3 # #matters
Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX speaks at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Musk answered a range of questions relating to SpaceX projects during his appearance at the conference.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey — two of the world’s best-known tech billionaires — have been voicing their thoughts on a hypothetical new iteration of the internet this week: “Web3”.
While still a hazy concept, Web3, or Web 3.0, 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.
Advocates of Web3, which would follow Web1 and Web2, argue that today’s online platforms are too centralized and controlled by a handful of large internet companies, like Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook parent company Meta. These companies have amassed vast quantities of data and content that’s been shared on the internet.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted a TikTok of an interview about the internet between Bill Gates and David Letterman in 1995, asking: “Given the almost unimaginable nature of the present, what will the future be?”
He followed up saying: “I’m not suggesting web3 is real — seems more like a marketing buzzword than reality right now — just wondering what the future will be like in 10, 20 or 30 years. 2051 sounds crazy futuristic!”
A day later, Musk followed up saying: “Has anyone seen web3? I can’t find it.”
To the annoyance of Web3 fans, Dorsey hinted that it’s already under the control of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, an early Facebook backer and a Web3 advocate.
“It’s somewhere between a and z,” said Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter CEO last month to focus on his payments start-up, Block, formerly Square.
