As the hottest track this year, what are the advantages of Web3?
Recently, a16z star investor Marc Andreessen was "rejected" for failing to answer the specific advantages of Web3 for certain industries, and related videos were widely circulated in the industry. The institution is one of the most influential funds in the global crypto venture capital field, and is also known as the "evangelist" of the industry due to its strong investment style and fast staking in the Web3 field.
The video shows economist and blogger Tyler Cowen in a podcast show, "The specific advantages of Web3 for podcasting", "Why doing it through Web3 makes a better podcast", "Doing podcasting the traditional way" I had an in-depth exchange with Andreessen on questions such as "what is the most critical difference between podcasting in the Web3 way". Faced with these very specific questions, the answer given by the venture capitalist is a grand vision, which is obviously not the original intention of the questioner.
Coincidentally, as a Web3 expert, Packy McCormick encountered a similar situation not long ago. During a live broadcast, he was asked to discuss the blockchainAn overview of the future of mortgage lending. The cutting-edge expert, who has invested in more than 10 DeFi (decentralized finance) projects, reluctantly said: "I don't know" after a series of questions. The scene was once very embarrassing.
In fact, although Web3 has become very popular this year, and a lot of capital and talents are pouring in, but in many specific issues, such as what is the interface with the real world, how to implement applications, etc., Web3 still stays at a very In the early stage, there were a lot of debates in both academic circles and investment circles. The previous two top investors were "fucked up", which also deepened our further thinking on related issues.
Web3 "Evangelists" Are Asked
Recently, a video of a conversation between Andreessen, a top investor in the Web3 field, and blogger Cowen has been widely circulated in the industry.
a16z is regarded by the investment circle as an investment myth in the Web3 field. This institution, which was established in 2009, invested in a large number of star companies during the Web2 period, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Airbnb, etc., and made a lot of money. After the launch of Web3, a16z resolutely entered the field and became famous with its successful bet on Coinbase. According to relevant media reports, a16z has made a net profit of more than 7 billion US dollars on the investment of Coinbase alone, and the company has also invested in a number of blockchain head projects including OpenSea, Dapper Labs, and Uniswap .
A Google executive commented on a16z: "It's like a madman, putting a domineering kick in every transaction." It can be seen that this upstart in the investment world has domineering and strength in the Web3 field.
It is precisely because of this that every public appearance of Andreessen has attracted the attention of the industry and even the public concerned about the Web3 field. It is no exaggeration to say that this conversation is a roadshow about Web3. But Andreessen's performance this time obviously did not meet expectations.
In this clipped video conversation, Cowen asks Andreessen a series of questions, such as: What are the specific advantages of Web3 for podcasting? Why is doing it through Web3 a better podcast?
In his answer, Andreessen maintained his usual confidence and rapidity. But to Cowen's very specific question after question, his answers are often made up of grand and vague terms. For example, he said "I hope that in five years, there will be these thriving Web3 podcasting environments that will be open... [Web3] will do so in a completely different way, by creating unique digital assets to sell and trade. monetization ".
For such a grand narrative, Cowen did not accept the trick, but tried to choose some directly perceptible and even sharp entry points to ask: "The most critical difference between making podcasts in the traditional way and doing podcasts in the Web3 way is that Is it easier to make micropayments? For example, is it easier to sell with the NFT model than with a signed T-shirt? To me, the market doesn’t sound like a big one, and it’s a very small percentage of GDP .”
To this, Andreessen's answer is not very smooth: "But ... the GDP of newspapers, magazines, podcasts themselves is also very small, and these small incomes are important." He avoided Cowen's question, and did not list A convincing case.
The Controversial Web3: Broad World VS Empty Abstraction?
McCormick was in a similar situation with Andreessen.
Who is Packy McCormick? According to public information, he is a consultant of a16z Web3 Fund and an investor of Not Boring Capital, leading investment in more than 10 leading blockchain companies .
Such an expert was left speechless when he discussed "blockchain-based real estate transactions" with the questioner Weinberg in another recent conversation. According to the video, the latter repeatedly asked McCormick: what makes this blockchain version of the product better than the current Web2 solution, and what is the role of smart contracts?
Surprisingly, after several rounds of discussions, McCormick reluctantly admits that he was asked down the line on the mortgage example because "it hadn't occurred to me before".
Open critics of Web3 say this happened because the interviewers left both McCormick and Andreessen's arguments with nowhere to hide. "The interviewer asked very simple, rational questions that the interviewee couldn't answer without abstract language, which is a testament to the emptiness and abstraction of Web3."
In fact, although Web3 is one of the few investment hotspots this year, related discussions and disputes have never stopped. In the communication with every reporter, many investors also expressed that the implementation of Web3 needs to be closely related to cloud computing., artificial intelligenceOnly the combination of other tracks can produce applications that truly meet the core needs of mass users.
Tim OReilly, who once defined web2, has written that cryptocurrencies are likely to be the future of finance, but given so much smoke now, it’s hard to see what’s really working right now. Crypto backer a16z at the game, decentralized finance, NFTs, and decentralized social networks have made a series of investments. None of these cases focus on the utility of what is created, but only on the possibility of making their investors and creators rich.
"In web3, there is no understanding of how to connect with existing legal and commercial mechanisms, which is in stark contrast to previous generations of networks... If Web3 is to become a universal financial system, or a decentralized trust It needs to develop strong interfaces to the real world, its legal systems and the economics of operations.”
Of course, this is not to say that there is no real opportunity for Web3 other than financial speculation. We can also see that a large number of start-ups are actively making various attempts around related tracks, including the Polium One recently known as "the world's first NFT game console". On a fast-growing road, we are optimistic about and Bad things usually go hand in hand, and whatever the outcome, it's bound to leave us with something.
As OReilly said, Web3 still has too many things waiting for us to create. We should pay more attention to the part of the vision that has nothing to do with instant wealth, and focus on solving the problems of trust, identity and decentralized finance. At the same time, the most important thing is, Focus on the interface between cryptocurrencies and the real world in which people live.