Read Write Own Summary

What if the internet didn’t just let you read and write, but also own? Chris Dixon’s Read Write Own explores how blockchain could rebuild the web, shifting power from tech giants back to the people.

1. The Birth of the Internet: A Wild West of Freedom

In the early 1990s, the internet was a wide-open space, an ungoverned wilderness where anyone with the right skills could publish, innovate, and create. This era, spanning from roughly 1990 to 2005, is described by Dixon as the “read” era. It was an age defined by open access to information—a novel digital frontier democratizing how people obtained and shared knowledge.

This initial phase offered unprecedented opportunities. No longer did someone need a printing press or a television studio to reach an audience. A simple webpage could connect an individual to millions. The ethos was empowering, and many pioneers hoped it would lead to a new, decentralized society driven by equal participation. But this golden age of openness eventually gave way to domination by corporations.

Gradually, large companies began capitalizing on this chaos, shaping it into their empires. What started as freedom turned into surveillance and heavy centralization. The decentralized dream of the early internet was effectively co-opted. Facebook, Google, and Amazon created walled gardens that promised sharing and innovation but ultimately bred control.

Examples

• Blogs in the early 2000s let individuals share their voices without middlemen.
• Wikipedia disrupted encyclopedia ownership, freely sharing knowledge.
• Napster showed the power of decentralized music sharing—before being regulated into submission.

2. The "Read-Write" Era: Platforms Centralized Creativity

The next wave of the internet, spanning 2006 to 2020, is described as the era of “read-write.” Unlike the earlier phase that prioritized access alone, this period was characterized by widespread publishing tools that enabled anyone to create and share content with others.

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube emerged as leaders of this era. These networks gave users the power to post videos, photos, and status updates. The creativity boom spawned by these tools was enormous. Viral memes, grassroots campaigns, and new professions, such as influencers, became mainstream. However, these platforms functioned under one major condition: centralized ownership. While users supplied the creativity, corporations monetized it.

This was also when tech giants began extracting massive profits. Companies attracted users with free services, only to then monetize their presence through ads and data collection. This trade-off meant users gave up ownership of their content and privacy for access to convenient tools owned by centralized powerhouses.

Examples

• Facebook hosted 4.4 billion photos uploaded each month by 2012 but earned billions by selling targeted ads.
• Artists gained visibility on Instagram but had negligible financial control compared to the parent company, Meta.
• YouTubers with massive views often earned only pennies compared to the platform's billions in ad revenue.

3. Welcome to the Blockchain Era: Ownership Redefined

Chris Dixon argues that we are entering the “read-write-own” era. With blockchain technology, users can finally gain true ownership of their online creations and interactions. Instead of entrusting centralized platforms to manage content or value, blockchain enables users to control their digital assets directly.

Blockchains operate as decentralized networks of computers with no single point of authority. Cryptographic verification ensures secure exchanges of information, value, and ownership over this shared system. Ownership is encoded on a ledger accessible by everyone but manipulable by no one. Tokens, the engine of blockchain, allow creators to represent assets digitally in ways that are transparent and transferable.

This new era flips the “attract and extract” model of old platforms. Blockchain allows users to own their data, monetize their creativity, and govern their communities. It moves power away from corporate coffers and back into the hands of everyday people, potentially reshaping digital economics.

Examples

• Video creators on LBRY can set their prices and receive payments directly from viewers.
• Musicians on Audius earn nearly 100% of revenue from streams through blockchain payments.
• Virtual lands within blockchain-hosted metaverses like Decentraland are owned outright by users as NFTs.

4. Fungible Tokens: The Currency of Collaboration

Blockchain tokens come in two key flavors: fungible and non-fungible. Fungible tokens serve as interchangeable units of value. Bitcoin is the most recognizable example, allowing value to flow directly between individuals without intermediaries, like banks.

Fungible tokens function much like currencies. They extend beyond payment use cases to support decentralized finance, where users can borrow, lend, and trade assets without traditional banks. They also create possibilities for shared access to resources like bandwidth or computational power.

The rise of fungible tokens opens doors for more collaborative platforms where users gain financial stake as contributors. Decentralized financial systems provide economic value that flows among users rather than being siphoned to banks or corporate developers.

Examples

• Ethereum enables peer-to-peer lending at lower fees than banks.
• Gaming tokens like Axie Infinity’s SLP allow players to earn digital economies.
• Services like Filecoin trade fungible tokens for storage and bandwidth access.

5. NFTs: The Digital Property Revolution

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) operate differently. Unlike fungible tokens, NFTs are unique and represent specific assets. Think of them as digital ownership certificates linked to items like art, music, or virtual real estate. Once something is minted as an NFT, its ownership and provenance are trackable via blockchain.

NFTs offer creators new ways to monetize. Artists can sell their work directly to consumers, bypassing galleries or platforms. Royalties can be coded into the NFT, ensuring creators share in profits when tokens are resold. Additionally, NFTs provide ownership-based participation, such as unique in-game assets for players.

By introducing scarcity into digital items, NFTs fundamentally alter how we think about ownership of digital goods. The dynamic extends physical-world norms like property rights to a limitless virtual space.

Examples

• Virtual fashion designs bought as NFTs for avatars in online games.
• Musicians code resale royalties into NFTs of limited-edition albums.
• Digital land in blockchain-based metaverses appraises just as physical real estate does.

6. Community Governance: Beyond Gatekeeping

Blockchain isn’t just about money or assets; it empowers users with governance tools. Decentralized platforms allow decision-making to occur via communities rather than corporate boards. Protocols establish transparent rules that users vote on, based on their contributions or holdings.

This shared governance removes oppressive gatekeepers—like app store regulations or social platform algorithms—and allows for rules to reflect actual user needs. Communities can collectively manage platforms, agreeing on innovations, rewards, or rules without interference from top-down organizations.

Shared ownership and decision-making are redefining power dynamics on the web. Leaders are no longer tech executives but everyday participants empowered by blockchain models.

Examples

• Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) govern projects like Ethereum’s upgrades.
• Token holders in Uniswap vote on fee structures for trading.
• Audius shares governance decisions with artists and fans alike.

7. Reducing Take Rates: Giving Back to Creators

Blockchain networks fundamentally disrupt corporate profit extraction models by drastically reducing take rates. Traditional platforms, like Facebook or YouTube, absorb nearly all profits that user-generated content generates. In contrast, blockchain sets up direct creator-audience exchanges.

Creators garner almost all benefits by eliminating middlemen. Platforms don’t profit from user engagement or content but instead charge negligible transaction fees. This decentralization of rewards helps foster more sustainable and equitable ecosystems for creators and consumers.

As blockchain-based networks grow, they have the potential to revolutionize industries where excessive middleman profits currently dominate.

Examples

• Uniswap takes less than 3% of fees compared to traditional trading platforms.
• Ethereum allows artists to collect value directly from their buyers.
• Decentraland’s economic flow supports developers and community members without corporate oversight.

8. The "Attract and Extract" Phase Reversal

Most monopolistic platforms follow an "attract and extract" cycle. Platforms start open and enticing to draw users but eventually tighten control and squeeze their audiences for profit. Blockchain technology flips this model, sustaining openness for long-term trust.

Blockchain ensures that as platforms scale, their rules, value transfer mechanisms, and user benefits remain fixed and transparent. Instead of shifting to profit-centered strategies, blockchain platforms remain aligned due to distributed governance rules.

This reversal allows users to continuously reap benefits as platforms mature, fostering loyalty over coercion.

Examples

• Tokens like Bitcoin align value creation with user mining efforts.
• Audius remains open and artist-focused without data reselling.
• Protocols like Ethereum maintain transparency despite scaling challenges.

9. Building a New Economic Framework

The most significant promise of blockchain lies in its ability to create entirely new forms of internet economies. Users aren’t just participating—they are building, owning, and running the platforms. This architecture shifts the historical concentration of wealth and power.

With tools like NFTs, decentralized finance, and DAOs, blockchain ensures value disperses evenly. Collaborative ecosystems replace extractive hierarchies, democratizing access and innovation while limiting monopolistic power.

A genuine “read-write-own” internet could lead to a fairer distribution of technological and economic opportunities for generations to come.

Examples

• Community funding via decentralized finance projects.
• DAO-run startups eliminating traditional venture capital dependency.
• Tokenized campuses offering shared benefits to communities leading operations.

Takeaways

1. Explore blockchain-based platforms (such as Audius or LBRY) to support independent creators directly.
2. Use blockchain tokens (both fungible and NFTs) to better understand digital ownership and its applications.
3. Advocate for decentralized, community-owned governance in industries you care about by joining DAOs or supporting blockchain experiments.