Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
A better description is that blockchains are a new class of computer, one you can’t put in your pocket or on your desk, as you might with a smartphone or laptop. Nevertheless, blockchains fit the classic definition of computers. They store information and run rules encoded in software that can manipulate that information.
Chris Dixon • Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
The first, “protocol networks,” like email and the web, are open systems controlled by communities of software developers and other network stakeholders. These networks are egalitarian, democratic, and permissionless: open to anyone and free to access. In these systems, money and power tend to flow to the network edges, incentivizing systems to gro
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Blogs and social networks bolted on commenting apps like Disqus and showcased third-party photos from sites like Flickr. They did this all for free; no one asked for permission.
Chris Dixon • Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
Blockchains are multiplayer.
Chris Dixon • Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
How did open source take the world by storm? One of the main reasons the movement has been so successful is a feature of software known as composability.
Chris Dixon • Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
They are most useful when they are not just multiplayer but massively multiplayer—in broad use across the internet.
Chris Dixon • Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
Permissionless access removes gatekeepers and broadens who can contribute to the writing process.
Chris Dixon • Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
Collaborative storytelling combines the lessons of Wikipedia with the power of credibly neutral, low take-rate blockchain networks that reward fans with ownership over their creations. The way this works most commonly in practice is that users receive tokens in proportion to their contribution to the narrative corpus. The resulting intellectual pro
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Tech industry players responded by “moving up the stack,” focusing on services instead of software. A new buzzword—“software as a service,” or SaaS—soon took root.