Jack Dorsey this week renewed his online feud with fellow tech billionaire Marc Andreessen over the future of the internet and blockchain technology.
The Twitter co-founder, who recently resigned as CEO of the microblogging firm, trolled Andreessen on Tuesday, pasting a link to a tweet by the venture capitalist and tweeting: “He’s fun at parties.”
Dorsey’s tweet on Tuesday was in response to Andreessen’s tongue-in-cheek call for startup pitches, including one for a “block button, but for real life.”
Andreessen, the co-founder of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, had blocked Dorsey last month amid an ongoing public spat over the future of “Web3” — a decentralized version of the internet in which cryptocurrency and blockchain technology will enable individual users to co-own the internet.
Andreessen, the founder of Netscape and an early investor in tech giants Facebook, Airbnb, and Twitter, believes that Web3 represents the future of the internet.
But Dorsey, a supporter of bitcoin, and others like Elon Musk say the concept is a marketing ploy pushed forward by Andreessen and other venture capitalists to consolidate control over the technology sector.
“You don’t own ‘web3.’ The VCs and their LPs do,” Dorsey tweeted last month in reference to venture capitalists and their funders.
“It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”
In another post, Dorsey continued to slam venture capitalists and criticized the cryptocurrency Ethereum, which has been embraced by many Web3 boosters.
“I’m anti-centralized, VC-owned, single point of failure, and corporate controlled lies,” wrote Dorsey, who is worth an estimated $9.4 billion.
“If your goal is anti establishment, I promise you it isn’t ethereum. Don’t believe or trust me! Just look at the fundamentals.”
Several days prior to Dorsey’s outburst, he heckled Chris Dixon, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz who had tweeted a “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you” quote that has commonly been misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi in a tweet promoting Web3.
“You’re a fund determined to be a media empire that can’t be ignored…not Gandhi,” Dorsey replied.
Dorsey also made fun of Andreessen Horowitz in an exchange with Elon Musk, who asked on Twitter whether any followers had seen Web3.
“It’s somewhere between a and z,” Dorsey replied.
Shortly afterward, Andreessen blocked Dorsey on Twitter, according to a screenshot shared by Dorsey.