Noting the Appearance of Chris Dixon's Book "Read, Write, Own": Am I Still Allowed to Believe in Web3?
Or will I only be putting yet another “kick me” sign on my back when I once again express hope & enthusiasm for web3 technologies…
I am of the Web3 Old Guard.
I think platforms picking up the memory of our likes and interactions and then appropriating them to lock us in so that they can manipulate and rent our attention is a substantial evil.
I believe in the one and eternal RSS protocol. Google Reader died for our sins. I think that we should own the tracks we leave on the internet. Wehould be able to change, scrub, and tune them. I believe that we should control access to our tracks, and let others have access only to the extent that we see them as good stewards of our attention, and when we give them the keys.
Thus I am predisposed to be a huge fan of Chris Dixon’s brand-new Read, Write, Own<https://cdixon.org/2023/06/22/read-write-own>, which carries this torch forward. And if he is an inadequate missionary? And if his book is an inadequate gospel? I am strongly predisposed to resort to that declaration of the most Whiggish of Whig historians, C.V. Wedgwood <https://archive.org/details/williamsilent0000cvwe>: “When a torch is all but extinguished, it is poor policy to complain because its flame is smoky and smells of pitch…”
But…
My view: If Dixon wants to be taken seriously as more than talking his book for new rounds of crypto pump-and-dump, he needs to tax his partners at a16z to establish a real lavishly financed Web3 foundation to get the software infrastructure done and build genuine scalable Web3 use cases. Revert to being long-term investors in exploring technological capabilities rather than carnival bubble hawkers shouting “BITCOIN!” at the top of their lungs.
If not, I am going to start questioning whether this is even a torch at all…