Chris Dixon+

The long game for crypto

It’s fashionable right now to declare that “non-financial use cases of crypto are dead." The messy years are what make the obvious years possible.

One year later, and what's new

Read Write Own was released in the U.S.

Read Write Own around the world

Read Write Own is now coming out in more languages.

Resources for explaining blockchains

I wrote Read Write Own to help more people appreciate the potential of blockchains for building a better internet.

My new book is here

Read Write Own published this week in the U.S. and the U.K. (international options here; more editions in other languages coming soon).

What people are saying about Read Write Own

I sent out advance copies of my book Read Write Own a few months ago, and was excited by the positive feedback.

Table of contents, signed copies, and special event invite for my new book (out soon)

I always like to scan through the table of contents of nonfiction books to see what, if anything, interests me — so I thought people considering the book might want to do the same. I hope everyone will find sections that are new and interesting to them.

I wrote a book: Read Write Own

I believe 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.

I wrote a book: Read Write Own

I wrote a book: Read Write Own I believe blockchains and the software movement around them – typically called crypto or web3 – provide the only plausible path to sustaining ...

NFTs and A Thousand True Fans

In his classic 2008 essay “1000 True Fans,” Kevin Kelly predicted that the internet would transform the economics of creative activities: To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. ...

Doing old things better vs doing brand new things

New technologies enable activities that fall into one of two categories: 1) doing things you could already do but can now do better because they are faster, cheaper, easier, higher ...

Computers that can make commitments

Blockchains are computers that can make commitments. Traditional computers are ultimately controlled by people, either directly in the case of personal computers or indirectly through organizations. Blockchains invert this power ...

Inside-out vs. outside-in: the adoption of new technologies

There are broadly two adoption paths for new computing technologies: inside-out and outside-in. Inside-out technologies are pioneered by established institutions and later proliferate outward to the mainstream. Apple (followed by ...

Strong and weak technologies

During a media tour in 2007 in which Steve Jobs showed the device to reporters, there was one instance in which a journalist criticized the iPhone’s touch-screen keyboard. “It doesn’t ...

Who will control the software that powers the Internet?

Originally published by Wired. As the internet has evolved over its 35-year lifespan, control over its most important services has gradually shifted from open source protocols maintained by non-profit communities ...

Why Decentralization Matters

We’ve forgotten there’s a better way to build internet services Continue reading on OneZero »

Why decentralization matters

The first two eras of the internet During the first era of the internet — from the 1980s through the early 2000s — internet services were built on open protocols ...

Crypto token roundup

Crypto Tokens: A Breakthrough in Open Network Design

Tokens: A Breakthrough in Open Network Design

It is a wonderful accident of history that the internet and web were created as open platforms that anyone — users, developers, organizations — could access equally. Among other things, ...

How Aristotle Created the Computer

The philosophers he influenced set the stage for the technological revolution that remade our world. Originally published by The Atlantic. The history of computers is often told as a history ...

Gadgets and Computers

Gadgets and Computers

From Benedict Evans’ Cars as Feature Phones: This is a common theme in many classes of device: you start with a product that has a few electronic functions added, and ...

As [Edwin] Land ultimately recognized, the adoption of his [polarized headlight] system was fatally…

As [Edwin] Land ultimately recognized, the adoption of his [polarized headlight] system was fatally…

As [Edwin] Land ultimately recognized, the adoption of his [polarized headlight] system was fatally hampered by the fact that there was no competitive advantage for any car company in using ...

Eleven Reasons To Be Excited About The Future of Technology

Eleven Reasons To Be Excited About The Future of Technology

“The strongest force propelling human progress has been the swift advance and wide diffusion of technology.” — The Economist In the year 1820, a person could expect to live less ...

“Ether is a necessary element — a fuel — for operating the distributed application platform…

“Steve Jobs supposedly said, returning to Apple, that his plan was to stay alive and grab onto the…

“Steve Jobs supposedly said, returning to Apple, that his plan was to stay alive and grab onto the…

“Steve Jobs supposedly said, returning to Apple, that his plan was to stay alive and grab onto the next big thing — to listen for the footsteps. He tried video, ...

“Ether is a necessary element — a fuel — for operating the distributed application platform…

“Ether is a necessary element — a fuel — for operating the distributed application platform Ethereum. It is a form of payment made by the clients of the platform to ...

“If you asked people in 1989 what they needed to make their life better, it was unlikely that they…

“If you asked people in 1989 what they needed to make their life better, it was unlikely that they…

“If you asked people in 1989 what they needed to make their life better, it was unlikely that they would have said a decentralized network of information nodes that are ...

“The typical path of how people respond to life-changing inventions:

“The typical path of how people respond to life-changing inventions

I’ve never heard of it. I’ve heard of it but don’t understand it. I understand it, but I don’t see how it’s useful. I see how it could be fun ...

Comma.ai

I wrote a blog post last month highlighting some of the exciting trends in the computing industry. One trend I discussed is the rapid progress in a branch of artificial ...

The Internet Economy

We are living in an era of bundling. The big five consumer tech companies — Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft — have moved far beyond their original product lines ...

What’s Next in Computing?

The computing industry progresses in two mostly independent cycles: financial and product cycles. There has been a lot of handwringing lately about where we are in the financial cycle. Financial ...