In the realm of creativity and innovation, distinguishing between the components that make up a whole and the whole itself poses a philosophical conundrum. How do the pieces and whole fit together? Not literally, but figuratively. There is clearly something emergent, such that the whole is greater than the parts. The song is more than just a collection of notes. But where does one end and the other begin?

This analogy sheds light on an overlooked aspect of innovation: the balance between providing the tools for creation - the notes - and the fully formed innovation that emerges from it - the song. Incentivizing creation while preserving the tools is a tricky business. It is, in fact, the heart of the world of intellectual property - along with patents, copyright, and trademarks. It amounts to trying to do the impossible and draw a line between the parts and the emergent property constructed from it.

This is the focus of Read Write Own by Chis Dixon regarding the internet and the future of blockchains. What Dixon suggests is that the internet is built around network effects. Essentially, the idea is that as each new person signs up, the value of the network goes up, and by more and more the more people who are added (Dixon discusses Metcalfe’s Law in depth, which is the closest explanation we have as to why and how this works).

If the value of the internet is derived from the network, the network becomes a core tool for building. Other tools emerge from this tool. Get the network, and you have the C note in a song. This is just what Google, Amazon, and Facebook are capitalizing on. As Dixon states - “Come for the tools, stay for the network” - they hook you in with features to control the network. They want the C note and all the profits you can accrue from it.

But this is unjust - we want more songs and buildings to emerge from this tool. We can’t let a company have it. Well, this is what Dixon suggests. But what’s the answer? Well, he suggests a feckless one and a good one.

Non-profits have been trying forever; he details RSS, a failed non-profit that aimed at allowing networks to emerge and let anyone build on top of them. The problem is that for-profit companies will always offer better tools, better gadgets, and methods to suck you in. You’ll come for the tools; by the time you realize it, it will be too late to leave the network.

If you don’t develop some fundamental solution, non-profits will never free the network as a tool. No more songs, the world will go quiet, and as Nietzsche quipped, “Without music, life would be a mistake.”

The solution, Blockchains! In this light, the reason is rather simple. They allow the network to emerge, but they take ownership of the network of the table. Blockchain is a computer that can make commitments. The commitment in this light is quite simple - come for the tools, stay for better tools.

Blockchains build in certain parameters before the network emerges, meaning you always own certain elements. No more Google or Facebook putting you on their server without access to the value you created. And here's the important hook: blockchains will outcompete large corporations by offering a big profit incentive for better tools. That’s the miracle of tokens.

Is he right? Well, time will be the ultimate judge. But I imagine a world where a fundamental building block of innovation is off-limits. The community and the users always own that. It is indeed a nice-sounding song.