# Networks Owned By Their Participants

Source: https://paragraph.xyz/@ccarella/network-owned-by-their-participants
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Networks-Owned-By-Their-Participants?index=0x679b66a2ba0c29dc0448f4bf9e6f58953fffea9e50e4986392c710a8117455713ac05ed8
Submitted by ccarella.eth on 2025-01-30 UTC, 6 upvotes, 1 comment

## Summary

The author argues that crypto's most important promise is giving a network's participants ownership of it, and that this matters more than memecoin-style ownership. Ownership is said to be meaningful only with governance, so the text calls for new internet-native forms of coordination, which it says is why DAOs are important. The article contrasts this with centralized ownership of wallets, token launchers and consumer apps, which it says would put the future in trouble, and it names Ethereum, ENS, Uniswap and Aerodrome as examples of the infrastructure it has in mind.

## Article

One of the promises of crypto is in providing ownership of the Network to the Network's participants. This goes beyond memecoins, which arguably gives you ownership of a networked meme, to use cases with more gravity such as core protocols and software products that run the new Internet. This includes Ethereum itself and key infrastructure like ENS, Uniswap, and Aerodrome, the Wallets, identity software, games, nft platforms, token launchers, lending apps, etc etc.

If crypto is only about networked meme ownership, which is no doubt part of it, then the future is in trouble.

If crypto is about centralized ownership of the networks and software, like many wallets, token launchers, and consumer experiences, then the future is in trouble.

The best future has the ownership of the Network by the Network's participants, with a larger stake of ownership going to the most valuable participants.

Once we have decentralized ownership of a network by its participants we require some form of governance or "ownership" is meaningless. This does not mean we need everyone to vote on everything, it means we need new forms of internet-native organization, coordination and governance. This is why DAOs are important.

## Comments

**tudorizer.eth**: sadly, very few examples of this vision in practice. The tipping point might happen soon though.