Andreessen’s Dixon Spies Riches in Web3. Others See ‘Rubbish’
The venture capitalist and other backers of the blockchain-based future of the internet view web3 as a game changer. But will anyone want to play?
Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon sees great promise in web3, but there are a lot of unanswered questions.
Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg
For Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon, there are billions of dollars at stake in the blockchain-based future of the internet known as web3. But even as the venture capitalist charms his investors with dreams of what this next stage could bring, his vision relies on an untested premise — chiefly, the presumption that if you build it, everyone will come. Will they, though?
If the first version of the internet was read-only, and the second allowed us to upload our everyday lives to MySpace and Facebook, web3 is where we get to own those outcomes and take them with us. Instead of the tech giants making money from your data, proponents like Dixon believe in decentralizing their power via blockchain networks: Everyone gets a share of the prize, everyone gets a say in how it’s run, and it’s all written down publicly so nobody can quibble.