The Token Society

Every act of kindness will become an act of commerce. Is this a nightmare or a dream society?

The web in its current state is like a city without public spaces. People can only interact in places owned by someone else, and a small group of landlords captures an oversized share of all economic activity.

Airbnb systematized and commoditized trust, turning it from a unique personal quality into an impersonal feature that could be “attached” to anyone.

The above brings to mind shareholders in a public company, but there are some key differences. The vast majority of Apple or Facebook users are not shareholders in those companies. And customers of these companies are not required to own shares to use an iPhone or post something on Facebook. In Blockchain-based apps, it is often impossible to be a ... See more

Enabling users to transact without compromising their personal information or entrusting it to powerful corporate intermediaries; and

By reducing the cost of monitoring and enforcement, royalties and micro-payments can be applied to many other products and industries, no just to songs by famous artists. Suddenly, we can compensate people for their specific contribution to other types of tasks and projects.

Facebook and even Mark Zuckerberg himself have the power to ban specific users and groups on Facebook. 2.85 billion users are at the whim of a single individual or company.

Online platforms can monetize our online interactions with people we trust. But what’s really impressive is the ability of such platforms to monetize interactions with people we don’t trust, offline.

Empowering users to impact how platforms are government and participate in value creation; and

In contrast, a blockchain-based social network would be operated based on pre-programmed rules that enable anyone who abides by these rules to participate. Any change to these rules requires the consent of multiple stakeholders, the process of enacting this change is transparent.