DeepSummary
The podcast episode features a conversation between Steven Johnson, a prolific author on technology and innovation, and Chris Dixon, the author of the book 'Read Write Own' and founding partner of a16z crypto. They discuss the history of the internet, exploring the evolution from the early open protocol networks to the current dominance of corporate-owned platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Dixon explains his motivation for writing the book, which aims to provide context on how the internet has changed over time and the shift in power dynamics. He argues that blockchains offer a new way to build decentralized networks owned by communities, enabling a more equitable distribution of value and control.
The conversation covers various topics, including the emergent properties of decentralized networks, the role of tokens in incentivizing participation, and the potential impact of AI on content creation and monetization. Dixon and Johnson also touch on regulatory challenges and the need for a balanced approach that fosters innovation while addressing potential risks.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The internet has evolved from open protocol networks to corporate-owned platforms, leading to a centralization of power and control.
- Blockchains offer a new way to build decentralized networks owned by communities, enabling more equitable distribution of value and control.
- Tokens play a crucial role in incentivizing participation and enabling community ownership in blockchain-based networks.
- The proof-of-stake consensus mechanism is seen as superior to proof-of-work in terms of energy efficiency, security, and other factors.
- Strong and idealistic communities like Ethereum are driving innovation and infrastructure development in the blockchain space.
- Parallels can be drawn between the dynamics of decentralized networks and the principles of urban planning, as outlined by Jane Jacobs.
- The impact of AI on content creation and monetization models raises questions about the future relationship between content and distribution.
- A balanced regulatory approach is needed to foster innovation while addressing potential risks and concerns surrounding blockchain technology.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “And so you need that background knowledge because blockchains, my argument is blockchains are a new way to build networks. And if you don't have that context, of that historical context, you would sort of say, well, why does that matter.“ by Chris Dixon
- “I think there's a lot of great communities. I think the Ethereum community, for example, is a very strong, generally very positive community, very tech forward. If you go to the forums and other things like people talking about technology, they're generally positive and idealistic. They've done a lot of really good work around the core infrastructure.“ by Chris Dixon
- “I think of a blockchain. The key thing that we do with blockchains. What is bitcoin? Real bitcoin. You can look at it as a financial service, you can look at digital gold. But I look at it as a network. It's a network. It's a financial network, right? A network in the sense of like, there are bitcoins, there are people that could have the bitcoins. It connects them all through this network. And it's a network that has no company behind it. There's no intermediary, it's a community owned financial service.“ by Chris Dixon
Entities
Company
Person
Book
Publication
Website
Episode Information
web3 with a16z crypto
a16z crypto, Sonal Chokshi, Chris Dixon
2/11/24
with @stevenbjohnson @cdixon @rhhackett
Welcome to the web3 with a16z crypto podcast. Today's episode features a conversation between Steven Johnson, a prolific author of books about technology and innovation who is also, as editorial director at Google Labs, helping to develop AI writing tools such as NotebookLM, and Chris Dixon, founding partner of a16z crypto and author of the new book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet. The two discuss the history of their shared interests, they explore the emergent properties of decentralized networks, and they dig into the past, present, and future of the internet.
Resources for references in this episode:
- Author page for Steven Johnson
- Google Labs's personalized AI writing tool NotebookLM
- "Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble" by Steven Johnson (New York Times Magazine, January 2018)
- How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson (Riverhead Books: 2015)
- Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, And History's First Global Manhunt by Steven Johnson (Riverhead Books: 2021)
- Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson (Sribner: 2002)
- Chris Dixon's blog at cdixon.org
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (Random House: 1961)
- The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro (Vintage: 1975)
- The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual (Basic Books: 2000)
- "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" by John Perry Barlow
- "1000 True Fans" by Kevin Kelly
- Index, a History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age by Dennis Duncan (W.W. Norton: 2022)
- ReadWriteWeb blog (ca. 2003)
- "Airbnb Proposes Giving Hosts a Stake in the Company" by Aisha Al-Muslim and Maureen Farrell (Wall Street Journal, September 2018)
- "Lyft Unlikely to Get SEC Pushback on Plan for Two Share Classes" by Nabila Ahmed and Ben Bain (Bloomberg, March 2019)
- "OpenAI Says New York Times Lawsuit Against It Is Without Merit" by Cade Metz (New York Times, January 2024)