Read Write Own
Building the Next Era of the Internet
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3.6 • 20 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A potent exploration of the power of blockchains to reshape the future of the internet—and how that affects us all—from influential technology entrepreneur and startup investor Chris Dixon
“A must for anyone who wants to better understand the real potential of blockchains and web3.”—Robert Iger, CEO, Disney
“A compelling vision of where the internet should go and how to get there.”—Sam Altman, co-founder, OpenAI
The internet of today is a far cry from its early promise of a decentralized, democratic network of innovation, connection, and freedom. In the past decade, it has fallen almost entirely under the control of a very small group of companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook. In Read Write Own, tech visionary Chris Dixon argues that the dream of an open network for fostering creativity and entrepreneurship doesn’t have to die and can, in fact, be saved with blockchain networks. He separates this movement, which aims to provide a solid foundation for everything from social networks to artificial intelligence to virtual worlds, from cryptocurrency speculation—a distinction he calls “the computer vs. the casino.”
With lucid and compelling prose—drawing from a twenty-five-year career in the software industry—Dixon shows how the internet has undergone three distinct eras, bringing us to the critical moment we’re in today. The first was the “read” era, in which early networks democratized information. In the “read-write” era, corporate networks democratized publishing. We are now in the midst of the “read-write-own” era, sometimes called web3, in which blockchain networks are granting power and economic benefits to communities of users, not just corporations.
Read Write Own is a must-read for anyone—internet users, business leaders, creators, entrepreneurs—who wants to understand where we’ve been and where we’re going. It provides a vision for a better internet and a playbook to navigate and build the future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The illuminating if technical debut from Dixon, general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, sings the praise of blockchain networks, which he likens to "computers that can, for the first time ever, establish inviolable rules in software" so that, for instance, app stores couldn't arbitrarily raise their cut from app sales. Blockchain has the potential to dilute the monopolistic power of Silicon Valley behemoths, according to Dixon, who posits that, among other benefits, the open-access nature of the technology facilitates greater interoperability. That means data could more easily be shared between programs or platforms, making impossible such maneuvers as Mark Zuckerberg's 2013 decision to deny the now-defunct video app Vine access to Facebook's application programming interface, which made it difficult to share Vine content on the social network and hastened the app's demise. Dixon's detailed discussions add nuance to the oversimplified metaphors often used to describe blockchain ("Any developer in the world can write and run apps, ranging from marketplaces to metaverses, on blockchains.... This is why it's wrong to think of blockchains as mere ledgers for tabulating numbers"), though his complicated explanations of the roles played by "state transitions" and "validators" can be difficult to follow. Still, it's a stimulating overview of blockchain's potential.
