Elon Musk brought together a motley group of investors ready to finance the $44 billion purchase of Twitter. The list goes from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison to the controversial Qatari sovereign wealth fund, including more or less well-known names. But apart from their different backgrounds, they all share the same mission: to provide the necessary funding so that the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX will fulfill his mission and gain control of one of the most important social networks in the world.
It is clear that none of those involved is throwing millions of dollars into the common well for the love of art. Each side will try to capitalize on these historic negotiations; some will think of it in purely economic terms, but others will be looking for more than just financial compensation. Here, I think it will be interesting to dwell on two names, in particular, Binance D a16z. And not only because of the important figures they single out for this case, but also because of how they can involve Elon Musk on an issue that both companies consider important, but which the businessman has always ignored: web3 development.
Elon Musk is outspoken against the decentralized internet initiative. And he did it, like Elon Musk, through Twitter. In December 2021, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX tweeted “web3 sounds like garbage”in response to a thread by Sam Altman about the flow of investment in this type of project and the possible levels of return.
Dissatisfied with the initial impact of his statements, he doubled down a few days later. “Has anyone seen web3? I can’t find him,” he said, and the answers came quickly.
Billy Marcus, the creator of Dogecoin, the tycoon’s favorite cryptocurrency, responded to the tweet with a GIF of a man with his head in the toilet. “It’s around here somewhere,” he added; and Elon Musk’s response was even less sophisticated: “Go ahead. It’s out there somewhere,” with an animation of a full-length man descending into a toilet.
And as if adding fuel to the fire, Jack Dorsey also contributed to the exchange. “It’s somewhere between a and z,” he said, clearly referring to a16z, the venture capital firm of Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, which has recently been investing in web projects.
In fact, when Andreessen himself blocked the founder of Twitter from the social network, Dorsey jumped at the opportunity to joke. “I was officially banned from web3”, published by then.
Let Elon Musk look at web3 with different eyes, challenge a16z and Binance
Binance and a16z are among the top 5 investors that Elon Musk rounded up to buy Twitter. exchange cryptocurrencies invested $500 millionand Andreessen Horowitz will provide $400 million. Only Larry Ellison ($1 billion), Sequoia Capital ($800 million) and VyCapital ($700 million) have invested more.
And the debate about web3 and the future role of Twitter in its development has every chance of becoming a daily topic. At the end, Changpeng Zhao (Czech Republic), CEO of the crypto exchange, made it public. “We’re excited to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter. We look forward to playing a role in bringing social media and web3 together, and in expanding the use and adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies,” he explained.
In statements to Financial Times, CZ also said that Binance’s contribution is more of a “blank check” than a carefully planned investment. Anyway, the company is gone as we are going to set the agenda for the future.
As for a16z, investment links remained in hand Ben Horowitz, who, while not specifically mentioning the web3 case, posted a thread listing some of the reasons why the company decided to contribute to the Twitter purchase. “We invest because we believe in Ev’s vision [Evan Williams] and Jack to connect the world, and we believe in the genius of Elon Musk to finally make it what it should have been.”
However, it’s impossible not to imagine that Andreessen Horowitz plans to abandon his interest in web3 once the deal is complete. After all, a venture firm is not afraid to show that was thrown head first towards a decentralized internet initiative. Your site is a vivid confirmation of this.
One of the challenges Elon Musk will face will be the balance between financial contributions and third party interests and his own perceptions of Twitter. In the specific case of web3, the South African mogul has already made it clear that he is not a fan of the initiative; but the mere fact that its two main investors are actually interested in it should be reason enough, at least for listen to what they have to say about it. From there to what happens is a different story, of course.
Source: Hiper Textual
