Read Write Own

Read Write Own (2024) shows how blockchain can revive the democratic promise of the early internet. It examines the internet across three eras: the early democratic but read-only age of the web, the “read-write” age, centralized under corporate control, and now the "read-write-own" movement, occasionally termed web3, whereby blockchain networks empower user communities, not just big tech firms. With lucid prose and tech industry expertise, it provides historical context and an inspirational guidebook for a more open, equitable digital future.

Chris Dixon is general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and an early investor in companies like Oculus, Coinbase, Kickstarter, Pinterest, Stack Overflow, and Stripe. He also founded and leads a16z crypto, Andreessen Horowitz's division dedicated to crypto and web3 technologies, which has grown from $300 million to over $7 billion since 2018. Dixon has an MA in philosophy from Columbia and an MBA from Harvard Business School.