This will be a large topic and won’t be easy to discuss in a systematic way. I will write down some thoughts in bullet points and revisit later.
- The idea has occurred to me several times. Essentially, government is an organization and so does a company. Although organizations have different scopes, different formats of running, there must be some similarities.
- We usually say companies are to maximize shareholders’ value (short-run and long-run). But when the long-run is long enough, we shall see something interesting: the companies are paying extreme attention to building an ecosystem, to maintaining a healthy community/marketplace, to maximizing users’ satisfaction, etc.
- Tech companies very much rely on users’ opinion. They listen to users. Users have the option to walk away just like immigration. Tech companies need users’ inputs/choices to build apps they use, to maintain the virtual world they live. The self-governance is impressive, especially in blockchain-based applications that users can decide/vote.
- Tech companies are responsible to protect users from malware or harmful contents/users. They can block an IP address or a user account just like putting someone into prison. They can reject his/her entrance into the community.
- Tech companies have their own rules or bottom lines that act as laws/judges, with the help of self-governance.
- There are many free services as long as you are one of its users (or citizens)
- They provide infrastructures and ways to interact (emails, postal services, freeways)
- Users pay taxes such as data. In other cases, users share what they earned through tech companies (e.g. marketplace organizers by them)