BLOCKCHAIN: Why Chris Dixon Still Thinks It Matters
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Feb 8, 2024
In this podcast, Chris Dixon argues that blockchains and web3 enable an open platform for creativity and entrepreneurship, despite the association with scams. The chapters cover ownership, blockchain's impact on the internet's evolution, security, timing, and AI vs. blockchain. It explores the potential future of blockchain technology in various industries and the need to guide its development.
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Chris Dixon's Tech Journey
Chris Dixon's journey with the internet began in the '90s, sparked by Wired Magazine and the dot-com bubble.
Inspired by the decentralized nature of the web, he transitioned from philosophy to technology.
insights INSIGHT
Faustian Bargain of the Internet
The internet's democratization came at the cost of consolidating power within large tech companies.
These companies, like tollkeepers, exert significant control and extract high take rates.
insights INSIGHT
Tech Market Pendulum
Technology markets often swing between over-enthusiasm and over-pessimism.
Look beyond the surface hype to understand the core potential of a technology, like blockchains.
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Seventy-two billion dollars. That, according to the Grifter Counter™, is the amount of money that's been swallowed up by crypto and blockchain scams and crashes. It's an enormous sum — but one that may not surprise you if you've kept up with the news. Bitcoin lost more than 60% of its value in 2022. FTX, once the world's third-largest crypto exchange, collapsed, and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was later found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. And it's not just crypto that has seen dark days. Remember NFTs? They were once touted as a revolutionary new form of digital ownership made possible by the blockchain. Today, however, 95% of them have lost all of their value. That's right. All of it.
So it would seem like a suboptimal time to publish a book arguing that "blockchains and the software movement around them — typically called crypto or web3 — provide the only plausible path to sustaining the original vision of the internet as an open platform that incentivizes creativity and entrepreneurship." But that's precisely what Chris Dixon, founder of a16z crypto, has done with "Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet." Chris, who spoke with Rufus in a live taping of this show last week, says that while blockchains have been "maligned and associated with grift, casino culture, and fraud," they are tools that can be used for good. Today on the show, he makes that case.
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