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Beyond Digital Nomadism: Will Crypto Networks Re-invent the Future of Work Altogether?
The transformation of economic coordination systems, from corporations to distributed gig networks to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)
The rise of corporations as coordination mechanisms
Back in the 1800s, if you had told people that they’d be working for large multi-national corporations, they’d have called you crazy. Throughout (and even after) the industrialization in the US, most folks worked day-long jobs in local factories, textile mills, steel plants, oil derries, coal mines, etc. And it was often brutal, backbreaking, and mind numbing. As is typical of regulations, laws on worker safety, child labor, and employee rights lagged.
Though the earliest forms of corporations date as far back as the 1790s (some would argue even 1600s given founding of the Dutch East India Trading Co.), large-scale corporations with national or global operations didn’t really take off until the second industrial revolution. Barons, tycoons, and titans like Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, and John Pierpont Morgan didn’t “pop onto the scene” until the mid-to-late 19th century (Gilded Age). Excepting some industries, such as…
