You could see the internet in pages travelling from one to the other, and it made the internet a lot more accessible to people in their homes. You could look at pictures as well as text. When we installed Internet access on our computer, I got the whole family involved. He helped develop the first widely used web browser, and suddenly the internet became accessible. And then in 1993, an engineer called Marc Andreessen helped change all that. It’s evolved from a US military bulletin . . .Īnd the internet was mainly at that time text based. Internet is a growing grid of independent computer networks interlaced.
And you needed pretty much a computer science degree really to get online. Back then, it was mostly run by computer researchers and hobbyists. Well, you’ve really got to go back to the early 90s, I think, when the internet was in its infancy. And he’s by far the most vocal investor on Web3.Īnd so before we hear from Chris, can you remind us, John, how did Andreessen Horowitz, this firm that Chris Dixon works for, how did it become such a big deal in Silicon Valley?
But anyway, you spoke to Chris Dixon, who heads up that crypto fund. Well, that does sound like a fair characterisation and I guess I have also criticised them in a couple of columns and their billionaire co-founder Marc Andreessen has blocked me on Twitter because I made fun of him. If I can put it this way, if I can describe you as a hard line crypto atheist, I would describe myself as more of a crypto agnostic, albeit with atheistic tendencies. Well, I’m certainly not quite as rude about them as you have been, Jemima. Why? You’re not exactly a bitcoin believer, are you? So you spoke to Andreessen Horowitz, which is this huge VC fund in Silicon Valley, but they didn’t want to talk to me. Luckily, they would speak to my colleague, the FT’s John Thornhill. What could possibly go wrong? But Andreessen Horowitz, I’m afraid, didn’t want to talk to me. Lately, they’ve been putting billions of dollars into companies that are finding new fangled ways to apply crypto technology to the internet. The venture capital firm I’m alluding to is Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most powerful VC funds in the world. Now being something of a pariah in crypto land can be a problem, particularly when you want to speak to one of the biggest Silicon Valley investors that’s putting money into the idea. This is episode two: how the crypto community is shifting its focus away from the crypto markets - I’m sure their recent collapse is just a coincidence - and towards Web3 and how this blockchain-centred utopian vision of the internet has penetrated the very heart of Silicon Valley.
And in this series, I’m asking why people still believe in crypto and why people still believe blockchain technology can change the world. This is Tech Tonic from the Financial Times, a podcast about how technology is changing the world for the better and for the worse. This is about who gets to have the power on the internet, who gets to decide how we interact online, and who gets to make all the money in this new world. The stakes here are not just about whether or not some crypto token is going up or down in value. Web3 is supposed to be the future of the internet, an internet supposedly built using the blockchain technology that underpins crypto. What’s been getting them riled up recently is what I think about the crypto world’s latest big fixation something called Web3. But lately, what’s been upsetting my critics is not my views about cryptocurrencies or libertarian economics or even NFTs. These days he’s blocked me on Twitter so we don’t come across each other very much. And then there was the time a prominent bitcoin bro wrote to my editor to complain that I was libelling him for calling him a bitcoin bro. I’ve also been heckled during crypto panels at events. Unsubscribe.” There are actually much worse ones, but they’re too rude to read out loud. “I like to keep up with news positive and negative, but Jemima Kelly is a moron. You know who you are Jemima Kelly and your bitcoin hating brethren.” That’s on Reddit. A sample: “The worst of the worst economists from the Financial Times. There’s been a whole lot of trolling on Twitter, and that’s not to mention the comments section under some of my FT columns, because that’s what happens to people who question the value of anything crypto-related. There have been some quite unpleasant messages. Throughout my years of writing about crypto, I’ve developed quite a thick skin. So I’ll let you in on something that might disappoint some of you crypto pros out there. This is an audio transcript of the Tech Tonic podcast: A sceptic’s guide to crypto - the ‘smart’ money