Why Jack Dorsey Went To War With Andreessen Horowitz
“Jack was always a slightly restrained volcano.”
For three weeks running, Jack Dorsey has relentlessly attacked the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. Dorsey’s assailed the company’s vision for a new, crypto-powered internet, which it calls Web3. He’s criticized its mission statement (“we invest in software eating the world”), called out its partners, and got himself blocked by its co-founder, Marc Andreessen.
Dorsey’s barrage may seem out of character — “🤔🤔🤔🍿🍿🍿” texted one former Twitter employee as he watched the soft-spoken entrepreneur fire away — but those close to him say we ought to get used to it. “Jack was always a slightly restrained volcano,” said one person who knows him well. But in his capacity as Twitter CEO, “he held back.”
Free from the yoke of Twitter, Dorsey is now unrestrained, and he’s dedicating himself to advancing a vision for crypto — and Bitcoin in particular — that decentralizes power and distributes gains to people, not corporations. “We can’t just see this as an asset we own,” Dorsey said last year. “This is something that has the potential to change everything and make the lives of everyone better.”
To Dorsey, Andreessen Horowitz and its $2.2 billion crypto fund epitomize much of what’s wrong in the crypto movement. By funding companies that enable a new internet built on the blockchain — aka Web3 — Andreessen Horowitz is positioning itself to profit mightily from a system that (if it works) is meant to distribute gains to the users. Funding these companies can also entitle VC firms to tokens they can use to steer governance and take outsized returns, which doesn’t help matters. “You don’t own ‘web3,’“ Dorsey tweeted. “The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”
The principle of the fight is one thing, but its intensity is rooted in Dorsey’s November 2019 trip to Africa. On the trip, Dorsey saw Bitcoin’s potential to help people circumvent a failing global financial system and became a true believer. Dorsey frequently mentions problems he saw while abroad, including 10–30% transfer fees for sending money between countries, as the kind he’d like to solve.
