diff --git a/src/OrbitDB.js b/src/OrbitDB.js
index bfc8d44..16bdf96 100644
--- a/src/OrbitDB.js
+++ b/src/OrbitDB.js
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ class OrbitDB {
     //   accessController.add('admin', this.key.getPublic('hex'))
     // }
     // Add keys that can write to the database
-    if (options && options.write) {
+    if (options && options.write && options.write.length > 0) {
       options.write.forEach(e => accessController.add('write', e))
     } else {
       // Default is to add ourselves as the admin of the database
diff --git a/test/create-open.test.js b/test/create-open.test.js
index b4f7906..1054441 100644
--- a/test/create-open.test.js
+++ b/test/create-open.test.js
@@ -218,6 +218,12 @@ describe('orbit-db - Create & Open', function() {
       assert.equal(db.address.toString().indexOf('abc'), 56)
     })
 
+    it('opens a database and adds the creator as the only writer', async () => {
+      db = await orbitdb.open('abc', { create: true, type: 'feed', overwrite: true, write: [] })
+      assert.equal(db.access.write.length, 1)
+      assert.equal(db.access.write[0], db.key.getPublic('hex'))
+    })
+
     it('doesn\'t open a database if we don\'t have it locally', async () => {
       const address = new OrbitDBAddress(db.address.root.slice(0, -1) + 'A', 'non-existent')
       return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {