Who Will Own the Internet? a16z’s Chris Dixon on AI and Crypto

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Feb 21, 2025

Chris Dixon, a founding partner at a16z crypto and author of "Read, Write, Own," dives into how AI and crypto can revolutionize the internet. He discusses the potential of decentralized systems to support creators, reshaping economic models and enabling new business opportunities. Dixon also reflects on the fading of the internet's original economic covenant, where creators traded free access for visibility. He emphasizes the necessity of balancing power away from central players, envisioning a future where innovation thrives on an open ecosystem.

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INSIGHT

Tech Waves

Tech evolves in waves, like mobile, social, and cloud.
These waves intersect and reinforce each other, shaping the internet.

INSIGHT

Decentralized AI

Crypto and AI can interact in various ways, including building decentralized AI systems.
This allows for broader community control over AI, rather than centralized corporate control.

ANECDOTE

Jensen Project

Jensen is a crowdsourced compute layer project.
Startups can submit jobs beyond their compute, utilizing a network of available resources.

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Technology doesn’t grow in isolation—it evolves in waves. Just as mobile, cloud, and social shaped the internet of the past 20 years, so too could crypto, AI, and new hardware usher in an era of the internet that’s pro-innovation, pro-startup, and pro-creator.

Speaking with a16z Growth General Partner David George, a16z crypto Founder and Managing Partner Chris Dixon breaks down his vision for a new internet, from using crypto to decentralize AI infrastructure and kickstart network effects, to why AI will be this era’s native form of media just as film was in the 1930s. He also explores why the internet’s original covenant—where content creators traded free access for search traffic—is breaking today, and how a better internet could introduce entirely new business models for creators.

Right now, we have a choice to make: will the next era of the internet be shaped by a handful of centralized players, or transformed into an open ecosystem where power and control flow to creators across the globe?

Read more, including a full transcript, here: https://a16z.com/ai-crypto-internet-chris-dixon/

[00:00:30] How technology evolves

[00:02:54] How crypto and AI interact

[00:08:39] Breaking the economic pact of the internet

[00:12:57] From mobile, social, and cloud to crypto, AI, and hardware

[00:14:49] Using crypto to bootstrap network effects

[00:16:33] Is AI frosting or sugar?

[00:19:57] Come for the tool, stay for the network

[00:20:39] Skeuomorphic vs. native technologies

[00:26:07] AI as the creative substrate of our era

[00:30:11] Balancing supply and demand in AI

[00:35:03] What decides consumer adoption of AI?

[00:36:05] What is the ideal future state of the internet?

In our conversation series AI Revolution, we ask industry leaders how they’re harnessing the power of generative AI and steering their companies through the next platform shift. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.

Chris Dixon’s book is now available in paperback at readwriteown.com.