This article excerpts some brilliant insights from Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z Crypto, in his new book (Read Write Own: Trends and Potentials of Blockchain Networks Opening Up New Chapters for WEB3), compiled from a16z related posts. Here is the translated original text:

Looking for a deeper understanding of the world of technology, business, and startups? Want to learn about the history and future of the internet? Need a concise explanation of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain movement and their significance? We have the answers ready for you.

Here, we have selected the sharpest excerpts and most provocative viewpoints from the (Read Write Own) New York Times bestseller. This book is densely packed with information, deeply analyzing the hidden structures that determine how money and power flow in the internet. The author, Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z Crypto, reveals how the networks that dominate our lives operate and how to restructure these networks so that internet users truly become owners.

The viewpoints discussed in (Read Write Own) provide a new way of thinking about business and life—from nurturing innovation to seizing disruptive opportunities, and boldly betting on non-mainstream directions. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, describes this book as 'a compelling vision of the future of the internet and its pathways to realization.' Whether you are passionate about the crypto industry, just beginning to understand it, or simply curious about the rise of this industry, this book can bring you value.

Here are the most captivating excerpts from the book, each containing important insights:

1. The Nature of 'Permission'

In business, seeking permission is not as simple as getting a 'yes' or 'no' answer from parents or teachers; nor is it as clear-cut as traffic lights. In business industries, permission often becomes a guise for tyranny. Dominant tech companies leverage the power of 'permission' to hinder competition, disrupt markets, and extract benefits.

2. Software as Art

The expressiveness of software is extremely rich; rather than viewing it as a product of the engineering industry, it is more apt to see it as an art form. The plasticity and flexibility of code provide a vast design space, and this breadth of possibility is closer to creative activities like sculpture or novel writing, rather than engineering practices like building bridges. Like other art forms, practitioners in the software industry constantly create new genres and movements, fundamentally expanding the boundaries of possibility.

3. Problems Solved by Blockchain

Blockchain can make strong commitments to its future behavior, a characteristic that makes the creation of entirely new networks possible. Blockchain networks address many of the issues present in early network architectures: they can connect people, build social networks, and empower users rather than allowing corporate interests to dominate; they can support markets and payment networks, facilitating commercial activities while significantly reducing intermediary costs; they can also give rise to new forms of monetizable media, interoperability, and immersive digital worlds, as well as AI products that reward creators instead of exploiting them...

Asking 'What problem does blockchain solve?' is like asking 'What problem does steel solve compared to wood?' You can build buildings or railroads with wood or steel, but steel allowed us to build taller buildings, stronger railroads, and grander public works during the early industrial revolution. Similarly, through blockchain, we can create fairer, more durable, and more resilient networks, with broader prospects than today's network systems.

4. A New Era of the Internet

Our current decisions will determine the future of the internet: who builds, owns, and uses the network; where innovation will occur; and what everyone's user experience will be like. Blockchain and the networks it supports unleash the extraordinary power of software as an art form, with the network becoming the canvas for its creation. This transformative movement has the opportunity to rewrite history, reshape humanity's relationship with the digital world, and redefine possibilities... this is a chance to create an ideal internet rather than passively accept the inherited network.

5. The Supreme Status of the Internet

The design of the internet determines destiny.

The internet is an organizational structure that enables billions of people to interact in an orderly manner. It determines the winners and losers in the world, with its algorithms dictating the flow of funds and attention. The structure of the network not only guides its own development direction but also determines the centers of wealth and power. Given the scale of today's networks, even seemingly trivial software design decisions can have far-reaching ripple effects. When analyzing the power dynamics of the network, 'who controls a network' is the most critical question.

6. Protocols VS Corporations

The difference between protocol networks like email and corporate networks like Twitter is that the network effects of email belong to a community, not a company. No company owns or controls email; anyone can access it through software created by independent developers supporting the underlying protocol. Developers and users can freely decide what to develop and what to use. And the decisions that affect the community are collectively decided by the community itself.

7. The Impact of New Technologies

There are mainly two ways people use new technologies: (1) to do things they already can do, but now can do faster, cheaper, simpler, or with higher quality; (2) to do entirely new things they could not do before. In the early stages of new technology development, the first type of application is usually more popular, but the ones that tend to have a lasting impact on the world are often the second type.

8. Networks Controlled by Corporations

The structure of corporate networks is quite simple: a single company controls the core and provides centralized services for the network. This company has absolute control and can modify terms of service at any time and for any reason, determining who can access the network and how funds flow.

Corporate networks are centralized because ultimately all rules are decided by one person, usually the CEO.

9. Blockchain as a Non-Consensual Bet

Blockchain is different. It is a non-consensual bet. Although many people (myself included) recognize its potential, mainstream institutions often overlook it. In fact, the prevailing view in the tech industry is that only those technological advancements that existing giants are already paying attention to are important, such as larger databases, faster processors, more extensive neural networks, and smaller devices. This viewpoint is overly shortsighted.

10. How Hobbies Drive Future Industries

Unlike mainstream technologies, 'exogenous' technologies often emerge from peripheral industries. They are driven by amateurs, tech enthusiasts, open-source developers, and startup founders, gestating outside of the mainstream. These efforts often involve less capital and formal training, leveling the competitive landscape to some extent with insiders. However, the lower barriers also mean that insiders often overlook these technologies and their proponents.

Hobbies are catalysts for future industries. Hobbies are often the energies that the smartest people invest when they are not constrained by short-term economic goals. I like to say that what the smartest people do on weekends will become the daily routine of others ten years later.

11. The Simplicity of Tokens

The question of what tokens 'are' is far less important than what they 'can do'.

Tokens can represent ownership of any digital asset, including money, artworks, photos, music, text, code, game items, voting rights, access permissions, and even anything people might come up with in the future. With some additional building blocks, they can also represent real-world items, such as physical goods, real estate, or dollars in a bank account. Anything that can be represented in code can be wrapped in a token for purchasing, selling, using, storing, embedding, transferring, or for any other purpose.

If these sound too simple or even trivial, that is precisely the intent of token design—simplicity is a virtue.

12. Owners vs. Users

The concept of ownership is so deeply embedded in our lives that it is hard to imagine what the world would be like without it.

Imagine if the clothes you buy can only be worn at the occasions when they were purchased; if you cannot resell or reinvest in your house and car; or if you had to change your name every time you went somewhere? This is the digital world built by today's corporate networks.

13. Blockchain as a City

The functionality of blockchain has astonishing similarities to urban planning.

Launching a blockchain network is like building a new city on undeveloped land. City designers build some initial structures and then design a system of land allocation and tax incentives to attract residents and developers. Ownership—i.e., property rights—plays a crucial role, providing property owners with a strong promise: they will always own their property and can invest in it with confidence. As the city develops, the tax base expands. Taxes are reinvested into public projects like streets and parks, more land is allocated, and the city continues to grow.

14. Restoring Communities through Tokens

Blockchain networks embed community ownership deeply into their core design, which has almost become part of their DNA.

Although 'meme coins' like Dogecoin may seem like a joke, they showcase how users seek community through various tokens (whether whimsical or serious) to fill their sense of belonging and connection in the digital world.

These tokens are not just technical tools; they have become a way for people to unite communities. By holding these tokens, users become participants and owners of the community, rather than just consumers. This design empowers users, breaking the control that centralized companies have in traditional platform economies, and creating possibilities for more decentralized, goal-oriented communities.

15. Blockchain as the Constitution of the Internet

Network designers can use blockchain to create formally enforced rules by code. These rules act like the constitution of the network. The content of the constitution can be subjects of debate, discussion, and experimentation, but their existence itself, and the ability to embed rules in immutable software, is an unprecedented advancement. This was unachievable in previous network designs.

16. Two Cultures of Cryptocurrency

There exist two distinct cultures interested in blockchain.

The first culture sees blockchain as a way to build new types of networks... I call this culture 'the computer', because its core idea is that blockchain drives a whole new computing revolution.

Another culture is primarily interested in speculation and profit. People with this mindset view blockchain merely as a tool to create new tokens for trading. I call this culture 'the casino', because its core essence is simply gambling.

But 'the casino' should not drag down 'the computer'.

Supplementary Part: The Good Old Days

Blockchain stands at the forefront of computing development, just like personal computers in the 1980s, the internet in the 1990s, and mobile phones in the 2010s.

Today, people look back at classic moments in computer history, imagining the scenes of the time—Noisy and Moore, Jobs and Wozniak, Page and Brin. Those amateurs explored, debated, and propelled technological advancement, those creators who buried themselves in 'coding' at night and on weekends.

It may seem late, but it is actually early. Now is the best time to reimagine what the internet can be and what it can do. Software is an unparalleled playground for innovation. You do not have to accept the status quo of the internet you discover; you can create something better... as builders, creators, and most importantly, as owners.

You are right here. This is 'the good old days.'

[Disclaimer] The market has risks, and investments should be made cautiously. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article align with their specific situations. Invest at your own risk.

  • This article is reprinted with permission from: (Foresight News)

  • Original author: a16z

'Revealing the Future of Blockchain! 16 Perspectives from a16z Crypto: Casinos Should Not Drag Down True Innovation' This article was first published in 'Crypto City'