Ethereum instead of Bitcoin, says Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen – founder of tech-focused VC giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) – is now more bullish on Ethereum and Web 3 than he is on Bitcoin, contrary to his view in 2014.
During an interview with ReasonTV published Wednesday, the venture capitalist discussed the future of crypto adoption and regulation, along with the role of Bitcoin as money.
Crypto, not Bitcoin
According to Andreessen, crypto and Web3 represent “the other half of the internet”, containing all the features people wanted the internet to have until now. This includes the ability to do business worldwide on a financial layer of trust, in the form of blockchain technology.
Using this layer of trust, a variety of financial assets can be represented: money, ownership claims, house titles, car titles, insurance contracts, loans, internet art, and more.
“You can build on top of the insecure internet all the features you need to have a full economy,” Andreessen explained. “It’s a gigantic idea – the potential there is extraordinarily high.”
Such ideas are not entirely new, and come from the entrepreneur. In a Washington Post article published in 2014, he said predicted a new generation internet with extensive applications that are formed on a platform of “distributed trust.” At the time, he believed that the specific platform would be Bitcoin – but now believes that the premiere network has “stopped” and “stopped developing.”
“If I wrote that thing today, I’d either say Ethereum instead of Bitcoin, or I’d just say crypto or Web3 instead of Bitcoin,” he said.
While Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum currently has the most active fee marketplace, stemming from its active DeFi and NFT economy. It also has more active developers than Bitcoin, such as BitMEX Research credits to its more flexible programming language and welcoming culture for use cases beyond just money.
In a16z’s 2022 State of Crypto Report, the firm outlined how certain web 3 platforms do a better job of rewarding their creators than older web 2 giants like Facebook. Notably, the document contained no mention of the word “Bitcoin.”
Although he is not impressed with Bitcoin’s number of functions, Andreessen believes that Bitcoin can help increase economic freedom worldwide as a form of money. Unlike some criticshe recognizes that money can take various forms, as long as it is a tool used for trade.
Banning Bitcoin, he added, is probably impossible. “The source code for it is available for free,” he said. “For a government to ban Bitcoin, they’re literally putting themselves in a position where they’re banning math.”
Critics of the A16z
In late 2021, Twitter co-founder and Bitcoin believer Jack Dorsey made an enemy of Andreessen, who blocked Dorsey on Twitter after being criticized for secretly owning the Web3 ecosystem. Dorsey even has ridiculed Web3 and its related VCs by launching their own decentralized identity application on Bitcoin, called “Web 5.”
A16z is one of the largest venture capital firms in crypto, pouring billions into token purchases – like Solana – and other forms of Web3 technology. Earlier this week, the crypto community expressed concern after the VC giant – which owns 4% of Uniswap’s governance token, UNI – exercised its power to single-handedly block a new proposal for governance.
