Scarcity Status versus Abundance Status (Gift Culture Part 3)

With information effortlessly transferable at zero marginal cost and social platforms that blast content to the top of everyone’s feed, it’s difficult to for an ethics based on scarcity to sustain itself.

Greg Isenberg called this “skill-locked commerce,” the idea of gating purchases based on abilities or some status achieved through merit — and the belief that the earned privilege to buy something will increase desire and activate purchases. What if we needed to solve a riddle or prove something to gain access to a particular good or service? What ... See more