I have to come clean: I did go to ETHDenver, but the only stage presentations I saw were the Hester Peirce one I mentioned last week and the much-hyped RFK visit. I fully intended to dutifully study the schedule and attend a variety of talks and panels, but I was quickly swept up in the social aspect. Let’s call it networking! I found it so delightful to be spending face time with longtime friends that I was happy to embrace the mantra I heard often — ‘the talks are recorded so you can watch them later!’
And they were, so I will, and you can too. I’d recommend browsing the ETHDenver YouTube channel to catch a range of interesting presentations from the 2024 event. One in particular caught my eye when preparing this post — The Next Era of The Open Internet with Chris Dixon. You may have seen the buzz about his recent book release: Read Write Own, which (to paraphrase his description) contextualises crypto within the history of the internet and lays out a vision for an open internet enabled by blockchain. He notes in both the book and the ETHDenver talk that the mainstream media focuses too much on the “crypto as casino” narrative, which is a small part of the vision that many of us share:
“... the core thing should be about ownership — enabling [and] empowering users, empowering developers, empowering creators through a new architecture of digital services … that shifts ownership to the edges of the network.”
(The Next Era of The Open Internet, 8:31)
I was lucky enough to be given a copy of Chris Dixon’s book by the fabulous Diego when we met up at ETHDenver. I’ve known Diego for a couple of years via the chippi NFT community and also we both contributed to Good Morning News for some time. Diego has a kind heart and an infectious smile and he generously gave me one of the free copies he had collected by doing quests around the ETHDenver booths.
I’m only a short way into reading the book, but so far I’m enjoying the historical perspective that Chris Dixon provides in the first section, and the way he articulates the problems caused by an overly centralised internet. There’s a helpful explanation of digital networks, why they matter, and the way in which the two ‘types’ so far — protocol and corporate — accrue and distribute value. What he sees as the “third act”, is blockchain networks, through which the users of the network have control over its value:
“When it comes to blockchains, a key simplifying concept is units of ownership called tokens. While people often think of tokens as digital assets or currencies, a more accurate technical definition would describe them as data structures that can track quantities, permissions, and other metadata for users on a blockchain.” (Read Write Own, p. 72).
This concept is what first attracted me to blockchains; in my work as a librarian I already had a strong appreciation for the value of metadata. We often refer to metadata as a love note to the future, so I immediately understood the benefit of storing such information onchain as an immutable record. What I’ve since learned about how this capability empowers the people contributing to the network only inspires me to continue exploring, and I’m so thankful I get to share this exploration with a community of amazing people through DAOpunks and beyond.
PS: A note on the accompanying image: It reminds me of the cover of Read Write Own but also, it’s seriously beautiful!
