A Distributed Alternative to Basic Income
By now, we are all familiar with the concept of Basic Income. The need for a basic income is borne out of an inability to imagine a future that is dramatically different from the one we are in today. In today’s world we have one full-time job (or perhaps 2 part-time ones) that become our main source of income. We earn our money and then we can spend it. How do we earn money if we don’t have a job?
Basic income asserts to solve the coming crisis of automation driven unemployment, by having the government pay more money to us instead of employers. Generally this is presented as a modified income tax scheme or a modified welfare program.
However, I have been developing a new model of our economic future. One that re-thinks our relationships to businesses and asserts the value of our attention.
To begin understanding this idea I want to re-examine the addage:
“If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”
This presents a binary option, you are either the customer or the product. There is room for another option — partner. A partner is someone who gets a piece of of any deal that is made.
Platforms such as Etsy, Patreon, and Fivr are examples of this concept. Partners earn the money and give the platforms a cut for facilitating everything. These people are straddling the line between customer and product and create win-win scenarios where everyone’s incentives are aligned.
The problem is that these are still focused on the B2C model. Businesses will continue to suck up money from consumers, and without employment there is no economic cycle that puts the money back in the hands of new consumers. We need a C2B marketplace.
What can us consumers sell to businesses? What do we have that they want? Attention, Reviews, Information and Referrals.
Until recently we haven’t been able to accurately measure attention. Now we can tell who is viewing emails, clicking links, or seeing banner ads on the internet. With Bitcoin we finally have a single global currency for the exchange of value. Together we have a way to credit billions of internet users for the time and attention they spend looking at advertisements.
In this distributed future platforms like Facebook could turn into funnels that allow 1000’s of businesses buying ads to deliver a portion of the ad spend to the user looking at the ad. Google and Amazon could reward users for every search they make or review they write.
We could be earning money from 1000’s of businesses all around the world every day instead of our one job. driving money from businesses back down to consumers without going through a government basic income program. Could this be the answer to help circulate money through the economy, increase the velocity of money and boost GDP?
Perhaps, but it asks all of us to demand compensation for our attention.
It’s just an idea, but maybe one who’s time is finally here.
