The concepts of the metaverse and Web3 are among the most discussed in 2021. However, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, does not share the hype. In his opinion, both ideas are simply well promoted.
Portrait of Elon Musk, generated by a neural network
Musk shared these thoughts during an interview with The Babylon Bee.
According to the billionaire, people talk a lot about metaverses, but so far he has not seen a single convincing scenario. According to him, now metaverses often mean VR worlds. But Musk is not sure that people will wear VR headsets all day long.
“Of course, you can put the TV on your nose. But it won’t move you to the metaverse,” Musk mocked the idea. “I haven’t seen anyone put a screen on their nose and spend the whole day like that. It seems to me that it is inconvenient to walk around with this thing on your head all the time. […] I think we are far from dissolving into the metaverse. So far, it only sounds like a buzzword.”
As for Web3, the concept of the Internet based on decentralization and blockchain, Musk also considers it only a fashionable idea. “This is more marketing than reality,” he said.
By the way, Musk published almost the same words on his Twitter account a couple of days before the interview.
I’m not suggesting web3 is real – seems more marketing buzzword than reality right now – just wondering what the future will be like in 10, 20 or 30 years. 2051 sounds crazy futuristic!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2021
At the same time, Musk indicated that perhaps he is simply “too old” for these concepts. He compared himself to people who criticized the Internet in 1995 and did not want to believe that the future was behind it.
However, Musk is not the only critic of the concept. The day before yesterday, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, wrote that in reality Web3 does not democratize anything, but belongs to venture investors such as Andreessen Horowitz. Musk also commented on his tweets.