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R
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The internet is probably the most important invention of the twentieth century.
It transformed the world much as earlier technological revolutions — the
printing press, the steam engine, electricity — did before.

Unlike many other inventions, the internet wasn’t immediately monetized. Its
early architects created the network not as a centralized organization but as an
open platform that anyone — artists, users, developers, companies, and others —
could access equally. At a relatively low cost and without needing approval,
anyone anywhere could create and share code, art, writing, music, games,
websites, startups, or whatever else people could dream up.

And whatever you created, you owned. As long as you obeyed the law, no one could
change the rules on you, extract more money from you, or take away what you
built. The internet was designed to be permissionless and democratically
governed, as were its original networks: email and the web. No participants
would be privileged over others. Anyone could build on top of these networks and
control their creative and economic destinies.

This freedom and sense of ownership led to a golden period of creativity and
innovation that drove the growth of the internet, leading to countless
applications that have transformed our world and the way we live, work, and
play.

Then, everything changed. Starting in the mid-2000s, a small group of companies
wrenched control away. The internet got intermediated. The network went from
permissionless to permissioned.

The good news: Billions of people got access to amazing technologies, many of
which were free to use. The bad news: A centralized internet run by a handful of
mostly ad-based services meant people had fewer software choices, weakened data
privacy, and diminished control over their online lives. It also became much
harder for startups, creators, and other groups to grow their internet presences
without worrying about centralized platforms changing the rules on them and
taking away their audiences, profits, and power.

Even though those platforms deliver significant value to people, they also
control what we see and watch. The most visible example of this is deplatforming
— where services eject people, usually without transparent due process.
Alternatively, people may get silenced and not even know it — a practice called
shadowbanning. Search and social ranking algorithms can change lives, make or
break businesses, and even influence elections.

A subtler and equally troubling point is how these centralized networks restrict
and constrain startups, impose high rents on creators, and disenfranchise users.
The negative effects of their design choices stifle innovation, tax creativity,
and concentrate power and money in the hands of a few.

This is especially dangerous when you consider that the killer app of the
internet is networks.

Most of what people do online involves networks: The web and email are networks.
Social apps are networks. Payment apps are networks. Marketplaces are networks.
Almost every useful online service is a network. Networks — computing networks,
of course; but also developer platforms, marketplaces, financial networks,
social networks, and all variety of communities coming together online — have
always been a powerful part of the promise of the internet. Developers,
entrepreneurs, and everyday internet users have nurtured and nourished tens of
thousands of networks, unleashing an unprecedented wave of creation and
coordination. Yet the networks that have lasted are mostly owned and controlled
by private companies.

The problem stems from permission. Today creators and startups need to ask for
permission from centralized gatekeepers and incumbents to launch and grow new
products. But dominant tech businesses leverage the power of permission to
thwart competition, desolate markets, and extract rents. And those rents are
exorbitant: App stores charge up to 30 percent for payments. That’s more than
ten times the payment industry norm. Such steep take rates are unheard of in
other markets, and they reflect how powerful these companies have become. That’s
what we mean when we say corporate networks tax creativity. The taxation is
literal.

These big, centralized networks are ruthless, anticompetitive, and abuse their
power. They squelch competitors, reducing options for consumers. By cutting off
third parties that were building apps for users on top of their platforms, they
punished many developers — and therefore punished users by offering fewer
products, fewer choices, and less freedom. Today almost no new startup activity
takes place on top of social networks. Developers know better than to lay
foundations on quicksand.

Many people don’t see a problem with the way things are, are happy with the
status quo, or don’t think much about it. They are satisfied with the comforts
afforded by these centralized platforms and networks. We live in an age of
abundance, after all. You can connect to anyone you want (assuming the corporate
owners are okay with it). You can read, watch, and share as much as you like.
There are plenty of “free” services to satiate us — the price of entry being
just our data. (As they say, “If it’s free, then you’re the product.”)

Maybe you think the tradeoff is worth it — or perhaps you see no other viable
alternative for life online. Either way, whatever your stance, one trend is
undeniable: centralizing forces are drawing the internet inward, collecting
power into the center of what was supposed to be a decentralized network.

The inward turn of the internet is stifling innovation, making it less
interesting, less dynamic, and less fair.

To the extent that anyone recognizes a problem, they usually assume the only way
to rein in existing giants is through government regulation. That may be part of
the solution. But regulation often has the unintended side effect of cementing
existing giants’ power. Larger companies can deal with compliance costs and
regulatory complexity that overwhelm smaller upstarts, while red tape restrains
newcomers.

We need a level playing field. And in service of that, we need thoughtful
regulation that respects this fundamental truth: startups and technologies offer
a more effective way to check incumbents’ power. Moreover, knee-jerk regulatory
responses ignore what sets the internet apart from other technologies. Many of
the usual calls for regulation assume that the internet is similar to past
communications networks, like telephone and cable TV networks. But these older,
hardware-based networks are different from the internet, a software-based
network. The internet depends, of course, on physical infrastructure owned by
telecom providers. But it is the code running at the network edges — on PCs,
phones, and servers — that drives the behavior of internet services. This code
can be upgraded. With the right set of features and incentives, new software can
propagate across the internet.

Thanks to its malleable nature, the internet can be reshaped through innovation
and market forces. Software is special because it has a nearly unbounded range
of expressiveness. Almost anything you can imagine can be encoded in software;
software is the encoding of human thought, just like writing or painting or cave
drawings. Computers take those encoded thoughts and run them at lightning
speeds.

This is why Steve Jobs once described the computer as “a bicycle for the mind.”
It accelerates our abilities.

Software is so expressive that it is better thought of not as engineering, but
as an art form. The plasticity and flexibility of code offer an immensely rich
design space, far closer in the breadth of possibilities to creative activities
like sculpting and fiction writing than engineering activities like bridge
building. As with other art forms, practitioners regularly develop new genres
and movements that fundamentally shift what’s possible.

That’s what’s happening today. Just as the internet seemed to be consolidating
beyond repair, a new software movement emerged that can reimagine the internet.
The movement has the potential to bring back the spirit of the early internet;
secure property rights for creators; reclaim user ownership and control; and
break the stranglehold big, centralized companies have on our lives.

There’s a better way, and these are still the early days. The internet can still
fulfill the promise of its original vision. Entrepreneurs, technologists,
creators, and users can make it happen. The dream of an open network that
fosters creativity and entrepreneurship doesn’t have to die.

This is the beginning, not the end, of internet innovation. There’s an urgency
to that conviction, though: the United States is already losing its lead in this
new movement.

Read Write Own: A new movement

To understand how we got here, it helps to be familiar with the broad strokes of
internet history: The first thing to know is that power on the internet derives
from how networks are designed. Network design — the way nodes connect,
interact, and form an overarching structure — might seem like an arcane
technical topic, but it is the single most relevant factor in determining how
rights and money are distributed across the internet. Even small initial design
decisions can have profound downstream consequences on the control and economics
of internet services.

Simply put, network design determines outcomes.

Until recently, networks came in two competing types:

 1. “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 grow around them.
 2. “Corporate networks” are networks that companies, instead of communities,
    own and control. These are like walled gardens with one groundskeeper;
    they’re theme parks controlled by a single megacorp. Corporate networks run
    centralized, permissioned services that allow them to quickly develop
    advanced features, attract investment, and accrue profits to reinvest in
    growth. In these systems, money and power flow to the network center, to
    companies that own the networks, and away from users and developers at the
    network edges.

I see the history of the internet as unfolding in three acts, each marked by a
predominating network architecture:

 * In the first act, the “read era” (circa 1990-2005), early internet protocol
   networks democratized information. Anyone could type a few words into a web
   browser and read about almost any topic through websites.
 * In the second act, the “read-write era” (roughly 2006-2020), corporate
   networks democratized publishing. Anyone could write and publish to mass
   audiences through posts on social networks and other services.
 * Now a new type of architecture is enabling the internet’s third act. This
   architecture represents a natural synthesis of the two prior types, and it is
   democratizing ownership. In the dawning “read-write-own era,” anyone can
   become a network stakeholder — gaining power and economic upside previously
   enjoyed by only a small number of corporate affiliates, like stockholders and
   employees.

This new era promises to counteract big company consolidation and return the
internet to its dynamic roots.

People can read and write on the internet, but they can also now own.

“Blockchains” and “blockchain networks” are the technologies driving the
movement. This new movement goes by a few names. Some people call it “crypto,”
since the foundation of its technology is cryptography. Others call it “web3,”
implying that it is leading to a third era of the internet. Whichever name you
prefer, the core technology of blockchains presents unique advantages.
Blockchain networks are the most credible and civic-minded force to
counterbalance internet consolidation.

You may still be wondering, but so what? What problems do blockchains solve?

Some people will tell you that blockchains are a new type of database, one that
multiple parties can edit, share, and trust. A better description is that
blockchains are a new class of computer, but one you can’t put in your pocket or
on your desk, as you might with a smartphone or laptop. They do store
information, and run rules encoded in software that can manipulate that
information.

But the significance of blockchains lies in the unique way that they — and the
networks built on top of them — are controlled.

With traditional computers, the hardware controls the software. Hardware exists
in the physical world, where an individual or organization owns and controls it.
That means that, ultimately, a person or group of people is in charge of both
the hardware and the software. People can change their minds, and therefore the
software they control, at any time. Blockchains invert the hardware-software
power relationship, like the internet before them. With blockchains, the
software governs a network of hardware devices. The software — in all its
expressive glory — is in charge.

Why does this all matter? Because blockchains are computers that can, for the
first time ever, establish inviolable rules in software. This allows blockchains
to make strong, software-enforced commitments to users. A pivotal commitment
involves digital ownership, which places economic and governance power in the
hands of users. The ability for blockchains to make strong commitments about how
they will behave in the future allows new networks to be created.

Blockchain networks therefore solve problems that earlier network architectures
can’t solve:

 * They can connect people in social networks while empowering users over
   corporate interests.
 * They can underpin marketplaces and payment networks that facilitate commerce,
   but with persistently lower take rates.
 * They can enable new forms of monetizable media, and interoperable and
   immersive digital worlds.
 * They allow artificial intelligence products to compensate — rather than
   cannibalize — creators.

So yes, blockchains create networks, but unlike other network architectures —
and here’s the key point — they have more desirable outcomes: Blockchain
networks combine the societal benefits of protocol networks with the competitive
advantages of corporate networks. Software developers get open access, creators
get direct relationships with their audiences, fees are guaranteed to stay low,
and users get valuable economic and governance rights. At the same time,
blockchain networks have the technical and financial capabilities to compete
with corporate networks. Blockchains therefore can:

 * incentivize innovation
 * reduce taxes on creators
 * let network contributors share in decision making and upside

Asking “What problems do blockchains solve?” is like asking “What problems does
steel solve over, say, wood?” Blockchain networks are a new construction
material for building a better internet.

The ‘casino vs. the computer’

New technologies are often controversial, and blockchains are no exception. Many
people associate blockchains with scams and get-rich-quick schemes. There is
some truth to these claims, as there was truth to similar claims about
tech-driven financial manias of the past — from the railroad boom of the 1830s
to the dot-com bubble of the 1990s. The public discussion mostly focused on IPOs
and stock prices, but there were also entrepreneurs and technologists who looked
beyond the ups and downs, rolled up their sleeves, and built products and
services that eventually delivered on the hype.

There were speculators, but there were also builders.

Today, the same cultural divide exists around blockchains:

 * One group — “the casino” — is often the much louder of the two, and it is
   primarily interested in trading and speculation. At its worst, this culture
   of gambling has led to catastrophes like the bankruptcy of the crypto
   exchange FTX. This group gets most of the media attention, which influences
   the public image for the entire category.
 * The other group — “the computer” — is the far more serious of the two, and it
   is motivated by a long-term vision. This group’s practitioners understand
   that the financial aspects of blockchains are only a means to an end, a way
   to align incentives toward a larger goal. They realize the real potential in
   using blockchains is to build better networks, and therefore a better
   internet. These people are quieter and don’t get as much attention, but they
   are the ones who will have lasting effects.

This isn’t to say the computer culture isn’t interested in making money. We’re a
venture capital firm. Most of the tech industry is profit-driven. The difference
is that real innovation takes time to generate financial returns. That’s why
most venture capital funds (ours included) are structured with purposefully long
hold periods. Producing valuable new technologies can take up to a decade and
sometimes longer.

Computer culture is long term. Casino culture is not.

So, it’s the computer versus the casino battling it out to define the narrative
for this software movement.

Of course, optimism and cynicism can both be taken too far. The dot-com bubble,
followed by bust, reminded many people of that. The way to see the truth is to
separate the essence of a technology from specific uses and misuses of it. A
hammer can build a home, or it can demolish one. All technologies have the
capacity to help or harm; blockchains are no different. The question is, how can
we maximize the good while minimizing the bad?

The decisions we make now will determine the internet’s future: who builds,
owns, and uses it; where innovation happens; and what the experience will be for
everyone. Blockchains, and the networks they enable, unlock the extraordinary
power of software as an art form — with the internet as its canvas.

The movement has an opportunity to change the course of history, to remake
humanity’s relationship to the digital, to reimagine what’s possible. Anyone can
participate — whether you’re a developer, creator, entrepreneur, or user. This
is a chance to create the internet we want, not the internet we inherited.

Learn more


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