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What will the internet of the future look like?

The internet of today is a far cry from its early promise of a democratic network of unbridled innovation. In the last decade, it has fallen under the control of a small number of monopolistic companies like Apple, Google and Facebook; companies that limit the creative potential of the internet while seizing its proceeds for themselves.

There is an alternative. Tech pioneer Chris Dixon has long advocated for a technology that can revive the dream of an open, entrepreneurial internet: blockchain networks. Often dismissed, sometimes vilified, these networks have until recently been dominated by amoral speculators and get-rich-quick schemes. But, more quietly, a group of visionaries have been using them to build the future.

In Read Write Own, Dixon draws on 25 years at the vanguard of tech innovation to explore how blockchains will change the internet. He starts by introducing the three eras of the web. First came the ‘read’ era, in which the earliest networks democratized information – creating an anarchic playground for bloggers, coders and artists. Next came the ‘read-write’ era, in which sprawling corporations democratized publishing – turning us all into small-time content creators but offering us few of the rewards.

We are now entering the ‘read-write-own’ era, sometimes called web3, in which blockchain networks have begun to democratize ownership – returning power and economic benefit to all who use the internet. And it is an internet we can all help create. Lucid and practical, Read Write Own offers both a vision of a better internet and a playbook for how to realise it.

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