If Production is taking natural resources and mixing in one’s labor to create a valuable Good for exchange, then programming (and some other forms of “knowledge work”) is a pure form of this process which operates entirely in the realm of ideas and information (Computers live in the information dimension), with less connection to the world of natural resources.
To exchange these goods, though, requires provable ownership or leasing of some kind. Encryption is one way to protect this intellectual Good and Exchange it safely.