Why blockchain will smash hierarchies
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It was as if consensys blockchain capitalism weather knew what was coming. Ethereum, the blockchain platform 18 months in the consensys blockchain capitalism, went live.
Imagine a world where organizations and systems were essentially self-managing: Consensys blockchain capitalism managers, moderators, middlemen, and hierarchies associated with systems and organizations are superfluous in this new world. That world came closer on 30 Consensys blockchain capitalism last year. I witnessed the launch first-hand in the Brooklyn office of Consensus Systems ConsenSysone of the first Ethereum software development companies.
Ethereum is like bitcoin, in that its ether consensys blockchain capitalism a network of peers to validate transactions, secure the network, and achieve consensus about what exists and what actions have occurred.
Its users are its managers and its compliance officers. But, unlike bitcoin, it contains some powerful tools to help developers, and others, create software services ranging from decentralized games to stock consensys blockchain capitalism. Ethereum was conceived in by thenyear-old Russian-Canadian Vitalik Buterin. Buterin had told bitcoin core developers that the platform needed a more robust scripting language for developing applications.
When they rejected his idea, he decided to craft his own platform. ConsenSys was first off the block and launched to create Ethereum-based apps. Fast forward a couple of years, and the analogy is clear: Invent our own street. Like many entrepreneurs, Lubin has a bold mission, not just to build a great company but to solve important problems in the world. It sounds like pretty low-key, techie stuff. But, if implemented, the applications that ConsenSys is building would shake the windows and rattle the walls of a dozen industries.
The story of ConsenSys is not so much about its ambitious blockchain-based products or services. How ConsenSys is structured, how it creates value, and how it manages itself differs, not only from the industrial corporation, but also from the typical dotcom. Joe Lubin is not an ideologue, and certainly not an anarchist or libertarian like some in the cryptocurrency movement. But he does think that we need to change capitalism if we want it to survive, specifically to move away from the command-and-control hierarchies inappropriate for a networked world.
He notes that today, even though vast networks enmesh the world and enable us all to communicate inexpensively, richly, and immediately, hierarchies prevail. Bitcoin is the counterbalance: ConsenSys operates according to a plan that all employees — known as members — developed, modified, voted on, and adopted.
For the most part, members of ConsenSys choose what they work on. We have tons of immediate, open, rich communication. When someone sees a piece of work that needs to get done, he or she jumps in and pushes it a little or a lot farther in a valuable direction, as appropriate for her role. Lubin is not the boss. His main operational role is advisory: Member ownership explicitly incentivizes this behaviour.
Everyone owns a piece of every project directly or indirectly: At some point, it may prove necessary to suggest that a certain thing really needs to get done and, if nobody steps up, to hire someone initially for that role or incentivize internal people to do it. But, overall, everyone is a self-managed adult.
Did I mention that we communicate a lot? Then we all make our own decisions. The watchwords are agility, openness, and consensus: If the code passes the test, then the bounty is automatically released. Dare we coin the neologism blockcom — a company formed and functioning on blockchain technologies? These capabilities blur the boundaries of a company. There are no default settings for incorporation.
Members of the ConsenSys ecosystem can form spokes by reaching consensus on consensys blockchain capitalism, architecture, capital, performance, and governance. They may decide to launch a company that competes within an existing market or provides an infrastructure for a new market. Once it is launched, they can adjust those settings. The blockchain will reduce friction for companies everywhere. Could ConsenSys build some kind of truly decentralized autonomous organization, owned and controlled by its nonhuman value creators, governed through smart contracts rather than human agency?
Is there a risk that radical decentralization and automation removes human agency in decision-making — the risk of rogue algorithms? We will evolve with it, and for a long time it will be in the service of, or an aspect of, Homo sapiens cybernetica. It consensys blockchain capitalism operate at different speeds and different relevant timescales.
In that context, artificial intelligence will not distinguish between humans, a rock, or a geological process. We evolved past lots of species; many of which are doing fine — in their consensys blockchain capitalism forms.
ConsenSys is still a tiny company. Its grand experiment may or may not succeed. But its story provides a glimpse into radical changes in corporate architecture that may help unleash innovation and harness the power of human capital for not just wealth creation, but for prosperity.
Blockchain technology is enabling new forms of economic organization and new portfolios of value. There are distributed models of the firm emerging — ownership, structure, operations, rewards, and governance — that go far beyond enhancing innovation, employee motivation, and collective action.
They may be the long-awaited precondition for a more prosperous and inclusive economy. Business leaders have another opportunity to rethink how they organize value creation. They could negotiate, contract, and enforce their agreements on the blockchain; deal seamlessly with suppliers, customers, employees, contractors, and autonomous agents; and maintain a fleet of these agents for others to use, and these agents could rent out or license any excess capacity in their value chain.
Again and again in the digital age, large corporations have consolidated — created, processed, and owned or acquired — applications on their own large systems.
Centralized companies have begotten centralized computing architectures that have concentrated technological and economic power. With single points of control, companies themselves are vulnerable to catastrophic crashes, fraud, and security breaches. Systems within a company still struggle to communicate with one another, let alone with those outside the firm. Along comes blockchain technology, the vast, global distributed ledger or database running on millions of devices and open to anyone, where not just information but consensys blockchain capitalism of value — money, titles, deeds, music, art, scientific discoveries, intellectual property, and even votes — can be moved, stored, and managed securely and privately.
On blockchain, trust is consensys blockchain capitalism, not by powerful intermediaries like banks, governments and technology companies, but rather through mass collaboration and clever code.
It presents countless opportunities to construct open-networked enterprises that blow centralized models to bits by activating native digital payments, reputation systems, censor-proof publishing, smart contracts, and autonomous agents — the key innovations of the blockchain revolution. Consider seven new business models that can innovate better and create better value at lower cost.
There are thousands of dispersed volunteers who brought you open-source software and Wikipedia. By enabling reputation systems and other incentives, blockchain technology can improve their efficiency and reward them consensys blockchain capitalism the value they create.
Just as IBM embraced Linux, firms can tap into self-organizing networks to co-create or peer-produce value. Many musicians, photographers, artists, designers, scientists, architects, engineers, and authors have not received proper compensation for their intellectual property on the internet.
Consider consensys blockchain capitalism digital registry of artwork, including the certificates of authenticity, condition, and ownership: The trust protocol supercharges cooperatives — autonomous associations formed and controlled by people who collaborate to meet common needs.
Our subscriptions, physical space, and energy sources can now become sources of income. Enterprises create platforms when they open up their products and consensys blockchain capitalism infrastructures to outsiders.
Blockchain technology makes platform building cheaper and manageable. It consensys blockchain capitalism a standard common database and standard common contracts, which increase data transparency and portability.
Users can pursue the best terms and cooperate with the best talent to create their own platforms, rather than using the applications of traditional companies. It can automate, not only the coordination of machines, but the tracking of inputs and outputs. We could, for example, monitor our beef from birth to burger, buying animals that were raised humanely, fed quality ingredients, and butchered under sanitary conditions. Today, commercial collaboration tools like Salesforce Consensys blockchain capitalism are changing knowledge work, but there are clear limitations.
Users often cannot port their ideas from unit to unit, let alone from job to consensys blockchain capitalism, yet vendors consensys blockchain capitalism corporate IT can eavesdrop on collaborations.
Consensys blockchain capitalism attract talent, firms need to respect employee security and privacy. The blockchain enables individuals to establish and decide how, where, and what to contribute to a commercial consensys blockchain capitalism. The end of managers. Long live management ConsenSys operates according to a plan that all employees — known as members — developed, modified, voted on, and adopted.
Decentralizing the enterprise The blockchain will reduce friction for companies everywhere. Seven consensys blockchain capitalism uses for blockchain Again and again in the digital age, large corporations have consolidated — created, processed, and owned or acquired — applications on their own large systems.