As early as 2017, executives at the ride-sharing platform Uber reportedly met with US Securities and Exchange Commission officials about granting company stock to their independent-contractor drivers.

By February 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that, with their initial public offerings approaching, Uber and its competitor Lyft found a way to... See more

In fact, in his best-selling book Blockchain Revolution, Don Tapscott asks the question, ‘Why do you need a $60 billion company called Uber?’ when most of the process centralised by Uber could be automated, reducing the costs for upkeep of the platform and making it easier for drivers to create their own platforms?

Ownership, via employee stock option plans, has been a powerful tool for incentivizing talented people to dedicate their skills to building startups in Silicon Valley. While this model has been extremely successful, it hasn’t been accessible to all, constrained by geography and legacy financial infrastructure, among other factors. One result is... See more