Read Write Own

What will the internet of the future look like?

The internet was once defined by its sense of creativity and unbridled innovation. But in the last decade, it has fallen under the control of a tiny number of monopolistic companies, who limit its democratic potential while seizing the proceeds for themselves.

There is an alternative. Here, tech pioneer Chris Dixon introduces 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 argue that blockchains have the potential to transform how we use the web. He reveals how they will liberate social networks from big tech, transform how we buy and sell online, and create a new age of `collaborative storytelling in the arts. Above all, he argues that they herald an era in which we all have an opportunity not only to read and write what goes on the internet but, for the first time, to own it.