With the onset of the Third Industrial Revolution and the Post-Fordism era (2), the world economic system hence a social sphere go through dramatic changes. These changes have a dual nature, that seems to be both: frustrating and potential.
From one side – dreadfully increasing unemployment rate as a result of ongoing deskilling through mechanization and digitalization, that make the ground workforce abandoned.
From the other – the rise of symbolic analysts*1 that takes leader’s positions in a new economy, dictates their rules of a “game”.
The new economy is establishing yet and the adapting mechanics are pivotal practically for every functioning market agent.
KYODO is the complex tool for the personal/collective integration to the new Distributed Economy and Post Labor society.
As a result of the Third Industrial Revolution that coming with new communication technologies we are experiencing a complete transformation of the economic model. The economist Rifkin says that everyone connected can be a potential player, and engage each other directly in social entrepreneurial networks and eliminate many of the middlemen, if you will, and institutions that were the referees in a vertically integrated global economy.
Fordism was neither homogenously implemented from country to country, but there is a relative broad consensus about the crisis of Fordism. This crisis by the end of 1960s and through the oil crisis of 1973 signals the ideal-typical transition to the post-Fordist era and to “flexibilization” of work, to deindustrialization, to informationalism and the knowledge-based economy. Rather the Postfordist model is characterised by forms of flexible accumulation (Harvey 1993) that can integrate and network highly diversified modes, times and places of production.
The Postfordist enterprise is lean, modular, networked, virtual and transnational.
"One of the most important shift is that from the traditional sovereignty model to pluralistic governance. In this frame the state enforces a political flexibility through the deregulation of centralistic institutions and the devolution of social responsibilities. Transitions like decentralization, localisation and communalization of formerly state tasks undermine the sovereignty model of the traditional, central state as described by Max Weber."
Maria Markantonatou / European Research Studies
With the arrival of informational age the society took a reticular structure, a from of a network with the nodes. (Moreno’s Moreno’s work at the New York State Training School for Girls Hudson). Unlike with the Second Industrial Revolution which characterized by strict vertical hierarchy organized from the top, the organizations of the Third Industrial Revolution have a horizontal structure. Rifkin calls it distributed capitalism.
“Distributed and collaborative industrial revolution invariably leads to a more distributed sharing of the wealth generated. in distributed capitalism the low entry costs in lateral networks make it possible for virtually everyone to become a potential entrepreneur and collaborator, creating and sharing information and energy in open commons.”
Developing technologies such as open-source networks and blockchain made possible the effective functioning for different types of self-regulating communities (nodes of a society). Those communities could be rather independent from the government or financial systems, also be whatever type: profitable, non-profitable or mixed.
From the beginning of digital social networking, there was also a spreading realization that the centralization of social relationships carries dangers. Perhaps the first case in point came in 2005, when Orkut was shutdown by the Iranian government, followed shortly by other social networking sites. (Harry Halpin / Yuk Hui )*
Knowledge-based economy is specifically characterised by the fact that the accumulation of knowledge induces new knowledge as the primary source of productivity and social change because of its impact on the productive, cultural and administrative processes as it’s defined by Manuel Castells (1989).
Delino Zanini and Ubaldo Fadini have defined a production today as the ‘production of knowledge by means of knowledge’, determined by continuous productive interactions allowed by information systems in general as much as by the particular communicative and informational nodes that pertain to the productive and social processes in their entirety.
Castells observes that:Social ‘cultural capital’ and the collective ability to process symbols, i.e. the structurally determined ability of labour to elaborate information and generate knowledge are the ‘material source of productivity’. The more information is exchanged the greater the collective power of symbolic manipulation. In other words, ‘information processing’ is the core of all the processes of production, distribution, consumption and management.
The symbolic analyst is the main type of post-laborer.
*“Symbolic analysts Or knowledge workers who manage the new high-tech information economy. The knowledge workers are a diverse group united by their use of state-of-the-art technology to identify, process, and solve problems. They are the creator, manipulators, and purveyors of the stream of information that makes up the postindustrial, postservice global economy.
The ranks include research scientist, design, engineers, civil engineers, software analysts, biotechnology researchers, public relations specialists, lawyers, investment bankers, management consultants, financial and tax consultants, architects, strategic planner, marketing specialists, film producers and editors, art directors, publishers, writers and journalists.”*
Rifkin / End of work
The labour force of the ‘widened knowledge cycle’ (the new ‘digital’ professions) where ‘adopting the mind-set of life long learning is no longer an option but a survival need’. Training is neither just the transmission of knowledge, nor merely preparation geared to a specific activity; ‘it aims to lead individuals towards a certain form of life, and this includes a coherent set of cognitive abilities, behaviours, tastes, values, relations, inclinations and habits’ Adelino Zanini and Ubaldo Fadini
With a changing the essence of a labor itself the alienated labor problem also got a completely different roots.
“Simondon considers alienation to originate from a more fundamental level than Marx’s economic analysis: no in the ownership of the means of production but in the misunderstanding and ignorance of technology itself” Yuk Hui
The individuation is the keypoint of the evolution in Simondon's philosophy. The ability of individuation of the personality itself depends on the functional support of the cultural milieu within which it is situated. The development for the individual occurs with and through the collective in a process of orientation within its milieu via signification.
Collective individuation is the process that brings the individual into a state of constant transformation.
“Collective individuation proposes that another social network is not only possible but necessary for an economy that is far more than marketing, click rate, number of users, and the like. A collective social networking is possible, and is one based on the reveal- ing of ourselves and our being-in-the-world-with-others, the ‘group’ based around a common project or calling. A project is also a projection, that is, the anticipation of a common future of the collective individuation of groups.” Harry Halpin / Yuk Hui
Cooperatives are not a marginal phenomenon:
At least 12% of people on earth is a cooperator of any of the 3 million cooperatives on earth. Cooperatives provide jobs or work opportunities to 10% of the employed population, and the three hundred top cooperatives or cooperative groups generate 2.1 trillion USD in turnover while providing the services and infrastructure society needs to thrive (GLOBAL 300). International Co-operative alliance
- Does not have a rigidly finalistic structure, i.e. it is not guided by a predefined and univocal goal’ (Adelino Zanini and Ubaldo Fadini)
- Flexibility, continuous training, the spread of precariousness and uncertainty characterise a mobile social model (Bauman 1999).
- As an Abstract labor that is defined by Marx as as a particular activity that has a specific useful effect, not a concrete labor as a valuable work time that could be counted in hours.
- Decentralized hence the need of truth content and trusted global networks
- New form of alienation that could be overcome through collective individuation networks and education in the fields of technologies and digital sphere.
HARRY HALPIN Research Scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↩
The DAO Decent.Fund is building a framework to solve issues that faces a post-labor society. KYODO is the collective individuation platform that could be, also used as a tool for integration into new distributed economy.
KYODO is about:
- network effect;
- self-motivation and self-responsibility;
- hyper-flexibility to handle high liquidity of members and tasks;
- trusted governance;
- stable currency to reward contributors;
- effective fund management;
- good UX to eliminate the entry barrier for newcomers;
- ability to scale.
- Create a working DAO group. KYODO provides a clear interface for manage processes, gives a constructor to build a customized version of a DAO for the wide range of spheres.
- Ability to mint your own token or use existing mintable one. We use Colony to own and manage it.
- Instant tipping tool - instant payment for a contribution in crypto via different working chats. DF balance is reflected on the KYODO interface, and kept on Ethereum blockchain.
- Token economy with inflation as an incentive system.
- Democratic voting on the blockchain.
- Multi-signature wallet holding fund treasury.
- Task management interface.
- Network effect incorporated.
The KYODO framework uses Blockchain, tokenization and collective intelligence to lower the costs of coordination DAOs and allow it to scale larger.
-
Costs of blockchain transactions: KYODO records to Ethereum blockchain the token allocation. To reduce the transaction cost of this operation. KYODO doesn't record every tip that each member receives, but collect the data of it on backend application with Mongo database cache layer. KYODO records the data to the Ethereum blockchain one time in the end of period paying ETH for Gas. Period* - conditional time interval while tips are collecting before being recalculated into tokens and sent to a members.
-
Bargaining costs: They are the costs related to coming to an agreement that is agreeable to the parties involved and drawing up the contract. Aragon voting permissionless system
-
Policing and enforcement costs: They are the costs associated with making sure that the parties in the contract keep their word and do not default on the terms of the contract.
-
Search and information costs: They are the costs associated with looking for relevant information and meeting with agents with whom the transaction will take place. KYODO motivates to share result to be rewarded.
-
Opportunistic behavior: KYODO impression based reward model
KYODO implements continuous token model.
Purpose: Cryptocurrency.
The DF token serves as payment for tasks and as the medium of exchange. The DF token is tied to the fund of the community.
DF token price = Total cap / Circulating supply
DF token also is a Network token that gives:
- Ability to fund task
- Ability to valuate member contribution
- Ability to initiate a dispute
Underlying value: The value generated by the Decent.Fund increases the DF token value and wealth of every member in a community.
Utility: DF token is the hybrid token that has traits of both Usage and Work tokens:
- Grants access to system functionalities
- Allows holder to contribute to the system
- Legal status: Utility token, closely tied to functionality. Grants holders ability to contribute to the system vs. passive investor role.
Tech layer: Ethereum ERC20 Mintable token.
How to obtain DF token: buy in the FUND domain or on a decentralized exchange, and earn by completing tasks in domains of Decent.Fund.
Incentives involve both monetary and non-monetary rewards and punishments, including the pay-for-performance reward systems (Impression revenue model) and Inflation:
Impression revenue model — DF tokens received for appreciated contribution to the community; Holder value —DF token value increases throughout time due to increase of assets holding by the fund; Inactivity punishment — Passive members’ share is decreasing due to inflation.
Now that the commodity value of human labor is becoming increasingly tangential in an even more automated world, new ways of defining human worth and the social relationship will need to be explored
-- Jeremy Rifkin "End of work"
KYODO explores new ways to reward and incentivize community members. KYODO is the new tool for liquid labor because the "Pay per hour" rewarding model is now better fitted for machines than humans.
A horizontal organization is free from the management layer leaving its stakeholders in full self-responsibility for the outcome. However, any rational participant is interested in further development and flourish of the organization. Thus, novel management model should be aimed to unite and guide productive members to collective benefit.
In an organization run by KYODO, stakeholders are bounded by the token which represents ownership of all common assets and rights for future revenue distribution. The model suggests simple mechanics as an incentive for members to stay active and productive contributors: minting new tokens through activity.
At the start of a period (usually not less than a month), every member of DAO receives a stack of points based on their native token holdings. Those points are used to reward other members of DAO who make valuable contributions (Impression based model). After period ends, new native tokens are minted and distributed among members pro rata to earned points.
The quantity of newly minted tokens(inflation) is derived from the overall level of activity in DAO by the following principle: the lower the activity, the higher the inflation would be and vice versa. Activity is determined through simple relation: Ps/Pt, where Ps - total points spent by all members during a period; Pt - total points at the start of a period. Inflation rate and activity relation graph
Such interrelation provides a strong incentive to contribute right at the start of a period as initial contributions will have huge weight (for some time at least). As a period goes by, less active members will try to spend all their points lowering inflation or try to earn points by themselves. Totally passive members will eventually feel the pressure of inflation and either leave the DAO or start to deliver useful contributions.
As we can see, inflation could serve both as a reward for active contributors and as soft non-human moderator for inactive members. However, there are concerns and opened questions around this model. For instance, how early contributor currently inactive will behave? Is quitting a good option for such member or it will be more beneficial to have their stake cut by inflation, but stay in DAO until stable revenue develops? How "fair" those rewards would be from the rewarded member point of view? How initial capital will be formed? How DAOs will regulate entry and exit of new members?