Internet Native CompanyMaking companies first class citizens of the internet economy
INCs - a canonAn Internet Native Company (INC) is a for-profit organisation that is created, operated and governed onchain.In this canon, we proposed an updated version of the joint stock company with INCs, explained why they matter and how they differ from DAOs. We also discussed how they should be governed and operated as well as the universal labour and capital markets INCs will foster. INCs will become first class citizens of the internet economy. I’ve been thinking about how to bring INC...
Internet Native CompanyUniversal Labour Market
Labour laws haven’t evolved to reflect the way we work — they were originally written for manual and tedious work during the Industrial Revolution. Now that majority of work is digital, location doesn’t matter much beyond time zones — these laws are archaic. Changing them is both complex and paramount for a prosperous and equal world. Companies should have the ability to simply hire talent worldwide. The location of talent and the country of incorporation of a company should not hinder access...
Internet Native CompanyCollaboration at scale
As humanity passed the 8 billion mark last week, I got thinking about the role of collaboration in solving some of our most pressing problems. This is an area of research I’ve been interested in for a while: in college I published a paper trying to answer the question “Can crowdsourcing help us solve wicked problems ?” A few years later, I revisited this question with new lenses: web3 provides us with a new set of tools to tackle civilisation’s most urgent problems.Collaboration & wicked prob...
Internet Native Company (INC): for-profit organisation that is created, operated and governed onchain.
Internet Native CompanyMaking companies first class citizens of the internet economy
INCs - a canonAn Internet Native Company (INC) is a for-profit organisation that is created, operated and governed onchain.In this canon, we proposed an updated version of the joint stock company with INCs, explained why they matter and how they differ from DAOs. We also discussed how they should be governed and operated as well as the universal labour and capital markets INCs will foster. INCs will become first class citizens of the internet economy. I’ve been thinking about how to bring INC...
Internet Native CompanyUniversal Labour Market
Labour laws haven’t evolved to reflect the way we work — they were originally written for manual and tedious work during the Industrial Revolution. Now that majority of work is digital, location doesn’t matter much beyond time zones — these laws are archaic. Changing them is both complex and paramount for a prosperous and equal world. Companies should have the ability to simply hire talent worldwide. The location of talent and the country of incorporation of a company should not hinder access...
Internet Native CompanyCollaboration at scale
As humanity passed the 8 billion mark last week, I got thinking about the role of collaboration in solving some of our most pressing problems. This is an area of research I’ve been interested in for a while: in college I published a paper trying to answer the question “Can crowdsourcing help us solve wicked problems ?” A few years later, I revisited this question with new lenses: web3 provides us with a new set of tools to tackle civilisation’s most urgent problems.Collaboration & wicked prob...
Internet Native Company (INC): for-profit organisation that is created, operated and governed onchain.
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Written by Arthaud & Tom Walpo
DAOs aren’t fit for business.
All stakeholders can vote on everything; should vote on everything.
But businesses move fast and break things. Centralised impulse — fast decisions by just a few people — is what spurs innovation, and beats competition.
As they’re configured today, DAOs will not compete. They’re great for regulating deep infrastructure — whose job is to move slowly, freeze up over time. But they cannot move fast, iterate, and earn a margin.
In this sequence of posts, we explore a framework that will allow smart-contract governance systems to be the new format for incorporation.
A true heir to the joint-stock company, but built for Web3.
We call this the Internet-Native Company.
An INC is a for-profit organisation that is created, operated and governed on-chain.
Before we reinvent the wheel, let’s recall why technology of incorporation was created in the very first place.
Several countries claim prior art on the invention of the company — joint stock corporations were first recorded in China, and they surfaced in fourteenth-century France and Sweden.
Written by Arthaud & Tom Walpo
DAOs aren’t fit for business.
All stakeholders can vote on everything; should vote on everything.
But businesses move fast and break things. Centralised impulse — fast decisions by just a few people — is what spurs innovation, and beats competition.
As they’re configured today, DAOs will not compete. They’re great for regulating deep infrastructure — whose job is to move slowly, freeze up over time. But they cannot move fast, iterate, and earn a margin.
In this sequence of posts, we explore a framework that will allow smart-contract governance systems to be the new format for incorporation.
A true heir to the joint-stock company, but built for Web3.
We call this the Internet-Native Company.
An INC is a for-profit organisation that is created, operated and governed on-chain.
Before we reinvent the wheel, let’s recall why technology of incorporation was created in the very first place.
Several countries claim prior art on the invention of the company — joint stock corporations were first recorded in China, and they surfaced in fourteenth-century France and Sweden.
The instinct to form a collective is a natural one — let people specialise, heighten focus on one process, but coordinate as a unit. Productivity per capita emerges out of thin air.
Granted legal personalities, these ‘super human’ organisations could, just like other ‘people’:
barter
make contracts
own assets
raise capital
be accountable
Work has been gradually uploaded to the cloud over two decades.
It’s been the cause and the effect of a root-and-branch reorganisation of the world economy. Supply chains were stretched ever further, business was won more and more across borders. Assets are digital and teams are scattered around the world.
The move to full-remote was always coming, but has been quickened by Covid.
With employees sprinkled across the planet, companies truly live in hyperspace. Jurisdiction should be irrelevant — our organisations live more and more in the ether.
And yet — articles, shareholder agreements, the doctrines of long-form legalese — impelled by courts ruled by judges in wigs and gowns.
Put simply — this ancient, creaking business format hasn’t evolved — companies bank locally, form legal entities in every jurisdiction where they have employees and face local financial, tax and labor laws.
There are trade-offs to moving wholly on-chain.
Universal Labor Markets: INCs can hire anyone, anywhere (noting potential conflict with IR-35 and equivalent laws)
Universal Capital Markets: INCs will borrow and capitalise along universal primitives — no more two-speed markets, e.g. Italian debt is more expensive than American debt
Financial Control: Money streaming and smart contracts make money flow programmatically — fewer bullet payments, fewer opportunities for fraud
Infinite Money Apps: A boundless store of smart contract services to manage the INC’s treasury
On-chain organisations have shortcomings — currently they:
can’t hold IP
can’t hold ‘real’ assets
can’t sue and be sued
can’t punish stewards of their assets
can’t do business with offchain actors
In time, the ‘cons’ won’t matter — no more than the absence of Yellow Pages did from the early internet.
The assets that will matter will be born digital. IP will be defended by encryption, executives will be disciplined and punished on-chain, and arbitration rules will be enforced there too.
There are millions of unborn companies starved of access to capital and labor.
But a new business cartridge coming — like the joint-stock LLC before it, the INC will power a new era of collaboration, innovation and progress.
The instinct to form a collective is a natural one — let people specialise, heighten focus on one process, but coordinate as a unit. Productivity per capita emerges out of thin air.
Granted legal personalities, these ‘super human’ organisations could, just like other ‘people’:
barter
make contracts
own assets
raise capital
be accountable
Work has been gradually uploaded to the cloud over two decades.
It’s been the cause and the effect of a root-and-branch reorganisation of the world economy. Supply chains were stretched ever further, business was won more and more across borders. Assets are digital and teams are scattered around the world.
The move to full-remote was always coming, but has been quickened by Covid.
With employees sprinkled across the planet, companies truly live in hyperspace. Jurisdiction should be irrelevant — our organisations live more and more in the ether.
And yet — articles, shareholder agreements, the doctrines of long-form legalese — impelled by courts ruled by judges in wigs and gowns.
Put simply — this ancient, creaking business format hasn’t evolved — companies bank locally, form legal entities in every jurisdiction where they have employees and face local financial, tax and labor laws.
There are trade-offs to moving wholly on-chain.
Universal Labor Markets: INCs can hire anyone, anywhere (noting potential conflict with IR-35 and equivalent laws)
Universal Capital Markets: INCs will borrow and capitalise along universal primitives — no more two-speed markets, e.g. Italian debt is more expensive than American debt
Financial Control: Money streaming and smart contracts make money flow programmatically — fewer bullet payments, fewer opportunities for fraud
Infinite Money Apps: A boundless store of smart contract services to manage the INC’s treasury
On-chain organisations have shortcomings — currently they:
can’t hold IP
can’t hold ‘real’ assets
can’t sue and be sued
can’t punish stewards of their assets
can’t do business with offchain actors
In time, the ‘cons’ won’t matter — no more than the absence of Yellow Pages did from the early internet.
The assets that will matter will be born digital. IP will be defended by encryption, executives will be disciplined and punished on-chain, and arbitration rules will be enforced there too.
There are millions of unborn companies starved of access to capital and labor.
But a new business cartridge coming — like the joint-stock LLC before it, the INC will power a new era of collaboration, innovation and progress.
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