Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has been blocked on Twitter – the social network he co-founded – by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen amid a growing dispute over the trending crypto concept of “Web3”.
Dorsey – who stepped down from the top of Twitter last month to run his payment company Block, formerly known as Square, full-time – posted a screenshot on Wednesday showing that he’d been taken by Andreessen, the co-founder of Silicon Valley Venture, Corporation Andreessen Horowitz was blocked.
“I’m officially banned from web3,” joked Dorsey.
It was the latest development in an escalating feud between tech titans like Dorsey and Elon Musk and a cadre of Silicon Valley investors like Andreessen who claim to be disrupting the internet.
Proponents of Web3 say there is a vision in which blockchain technology and cryptocurrency will give individual users co-ownership of the internet – diminishing the ability of tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Twitter to control language and squash competition.
However, critics of Web3, including Dorsey and Elon Musk, say the term is just a marketing ploy aimed at taking power away from some wealthy tech investors and giving it to other wealthy tech investors.
“You don’t own ‘web3’. The VCs and their LPs are doing it, ”Dorsey tweeted earlier this week regarding venture capitalists and their financiers. “It will never escape their incentives. It is ultimately a centralized unit with a different label. “
In another post on Thursday, Dorsey – a NYU dropout known for taking meditation retreats while leading Twitter – continued to slam venture capitalists and criticize the cryptocurrency Ethereum, which has been adopted by many Web3 boosters.
“I’m anti-centralized, owned by VC, single point of failure, and corporate-driven lies,” wrote Dorsey, who has an estimated net worth of $ 9.4 billion. “If your target is anti-establishment, I promise you it is not Ethereum. Do not believe me and do not trust me! Just look at the basics. “
Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Dorsey’s derision.
The powerful venture capitalist Marc Andreessen blocked Jack Dorsey on Twitter.Kimberly White / Getty Images
Elsewhere this week, Dorsey berated Chris Dixon, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, who tweeted a “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you” quote, often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi in a tweet to promote Web3.
“You are a fund determined to be a media empire that cannot be ignored … not Gandhi,” Dorsey replied.
In an exchange with Elon Musk, Dorsey also made fun of Andreessen Horowitz, who asked on Twitter if any followers had seen Web3.
“It’s somewhere between a and z,” replied Dorsey.
Shortly thereafter, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, blocked Dorsey on Twitter, according to a screenshot shared by Dorsey.
