Imagine a taxi company on the web where drivers are co-owners: a company that automatically distributes its growing profits to its drivers. Or imagine a home delivery platform that pays its couriers with higher wages as it becomes more popular.
Unfortunately, the driving forces behind the growing gig economy, companies like Uber and DoorDash, do exactly the opposite. The growth of the gig economy is a major concern for governments and politicians around the world.
Technological innovation is a crucial part of any modern economy, but the companies that created the new gig economy constantly exploit the rights of their workers and users. Examples are numerous: Uber drivers have to work 60 hours a week to earn the minimum wage, startups don't contribute to retirement and the list goes on.
Blockchain-based cooperatives can help governments create an inclusion economy and rewrite the social contract for the 21st century
There is a solution to this problem and it does not lie in stricter regulation. Traditional regulatory approaches for old-fashioned businesses don't work well for borderless digital platforms.
The point lies in creating a regulatory framework for a viable alternative: digital cooperatives. Cooperatives are generally associated with agriculture or banks, but the digital platforms of the Internet economy - social networks, takeaway delivery, vacation rentals and taxi platforms - are actually the embodiment of cooperative work.
The cooperative efforts of the collaborators and customers of these platforms create true value: the platforms coordinate only the efforts. The technology that would allow the creation of digital cooperatives is blockchain.
Bitcoin, the digital currency, has become the most important example of blockchain technology. But there are many other possible uses. The key word is tokenization. Tokenization is the creation of a new digital currency - or token - that acts as an exclusive payment mechanism for these digital cooperatives.
Digital cooperatives with tokens will encourage people to collaborate because everyone involved will benefit from it. Grouping resources, sharing equipment or new types of pension and insurance schemes is a possibility. All transactions will be entered into a blockchain and therefore can be verified.
A clear regulatory framework is needed
The way in which these digital cooperatives and their tokens can be created must be enshrined in law. Expanding existing cooperative law to include digital cooperatives and token creation could be a good way to go.
Regulators have been wary of the dark sides of bitcoin, which has slowed the innovation of token-based business models. Token-based digital cooperatives offer Investors the possibility of supporting startups with capital in exchange for a certain amount of tokens created.
In this way they will become part of the inclusive economy and will no longer need to earn wealth at the expense of customers or workers.
