WEBVTT

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Welcome back to cheddar news, everyone, venture capitalists

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and ceos clashing over the future of the internet.

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Web three is the tech world's name for a decentralized

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Blockchain based internet that runs on Cryptocurrency? It was

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recently the topic of a tweet from former twitter Ceo

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Jack Dorsey who wrote that Web three will not actually

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be owned by users instead it will be controlled by

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rich venture capitalists. Well, Dorsey later shared that

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he was blocked on twitter by Mark Andrews and co

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founder of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, Which has invested

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billions of dollars into Web three and crypto projects correspondent

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for deal book from the new york Times. Efrat

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livni here with more on what it could mean for

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the future of web three dot thank you so much

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for coming on the show. I know you recently

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wrote a piece about this Web three rift between Jack

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Dorsey and Mark and reason give me some more details

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here about what happened and what is behind this.

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So what's interesting about this is that the rift is

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not a sequel. The issues about the issue is

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whether or not VC involvement, heavy VC involvement in

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an ostensibly democratic egalitarian system actually weighs in the favor

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of VCS and undermines the argument that crypto can democratize

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commerce and banking and all kinds of things. Now

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, the idea is that Web three will be owned

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by users because users will get paid in tokens,

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they will govern the communities that they operate in and

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they will be able to earn tokens and they will

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be essentially like owners. The question is, what

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is the distribution of token ownership. And so the

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harshest critics would say that actually this is just a

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sort of ruse because actually insiders will own the most

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tokens and they will always have the most control.

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And that this is just a sort of form that

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makes ownership seem open while actually it isn't. So

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that's the underlying fight that Dorsey was illuminating in the

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wider public where we're really, most of us are

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not yet thinking about that. So if let's say

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I get it from a dollar perspective right that the

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VCS are making big investments, they own the most

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tokens. As you mentioned when it comes down to

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dollars, they really are going to be sort of

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the ringleaders in this web three world. Just as

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we know the top 1% of Bitcoin owners own a

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substantial portion of Bitcoin. Um itself. But talk

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to me about data right? Because that seems to

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be the differentiating factor here between your data in web

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three versus your data and web two point oh we

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know your data and web two point oh controlled by

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facebook controlled by google, is it different? And

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web three point up so theoretically, yes, it's

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theoretically different. If you could um if a bunch

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of people want to go on decentralized social media platforms

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and interact there, then they would not be targeted

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by ads. Their data would not be harvested and

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sold theoretically this would leading to the displacement of major

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tech monopolies and could could equalize all kinds of things

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. So that's the, that's the theoretical idea.

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Now there is a question, this is maybe an

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aside, but there's a question about whether or not

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people will want to go on decentralized platforms because some

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of the advantages of facebook and google and twitter and

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this is precisely the fact that they are centralized.

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Let me ask you this. If I could tech

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giants, big technology billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, like

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the ceo of google, should they be worried?

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We see tech stocks underperforming today. I'm not necessarily

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saying that's because of Web three for instance, but

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should these big technology firms be worried that Web three

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could really give them a run for their money arguably

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, arguably. Yes. Like there are crypto enthusiasts

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who say that um companies like Apple are already worried

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even whether or not the company's giants themselves say this

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, the crypto community true enthusiasts, I do believe

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this represents a threat. And certainly I think what

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the issue in the debate with Dorsey is that they

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are saying that they offer the solution to all kinds

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of societal and economic problems. And then his tweet

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raises questions about whether or not that promise can be

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fulfilled theoretically there is a difference between uh centralized and

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decentralized organizations and then the question is how deep that

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difference will truly run the venture capitalists really are,

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Let me ask you this F Rod. Um if

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you are a consumer, you want to have a

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stake in Web three, right? That's the basis

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of it, that everyone has a stake in it

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. Everyone can sort of vote, you control your

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data and you make decisions about what happens in this

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new web world as a consumer. Are there real

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action items that you think people should be taking?

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Should they be buying Cryptocurrency? Is this absolutely coming

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and do people need to hop on board so that

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they don't get left behind? So I think what

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people need to do before they hop on board is

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understand the promises and the potential downsides. So,

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for example, there are there are there are potentially

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great things about decentralizing, There are potentially great projects

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. There are people making money. The question is

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whether or not all of this is going to add

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up in the long run and arguably crypto has come

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much much further than a lot of skeptics said.

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And so theoretically, yes, but there but there

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are complicated issues and those are the issues that the

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debate was pointing to, which is who will benefit

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the most ultimately? Do you think it was an

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overreaction that Mark Andrews uh Andresen blocked Dorsey? I

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mean, it seems like they're both in it for

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the same reason. They're both supporters of Web three

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. I don't know. That seems a bit dramatic

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to me. What's your take? So, yeah

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, I don't think we should overstay like Dorsey's opposition

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, he is raising an important issue and he is

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a believer in Bitcoin as the true, decentralized crypto

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that represents the real promise. But uh he's been

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involved in N. F. T. S.

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And and so like there's I just don't think either

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of them are necessarily representing extremes like you're indicating.

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But Marc Andresen is he famously blocks people. So

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I don't think that that was dramatic for him though

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, it might be it's a dramatic otherwise, do

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you think that Jack Dorsey will changes to at some

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point? You know, So this goes to my

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thing about not overstating it. I think he was

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doing something pretty bold by making that statement and sort

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of publicizing the internal debate whether uh this and I

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don't have specific insight into his view because he keep

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his people keep refusing to allow me to speak to

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him. But but what I would love to,

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I think, is that he is not uh such

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a rigid thinker. And that um what he's doing

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is more highlighting an issue rather than necessarily expressing a

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true opposition to the success of crypto. I mean

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, everything he does would indicate. Otherwise. All

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right, we got to leave it there, leave

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me Deal Book correspondent for the New York Times.

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Thank you so much for coming on the show