The Token Society
Metadata
Highlights
- Airbnb systematized and commoditized trust, turning it from a unique personal quality into an impersonal feature that could be “attached” to anyone.
- The evolution of the web rhymes with the evolution of industrial cities. Both brought together large groups of people, lowered transaction costs, and enabled better matching of supply and demand. Both enabled people to make money in new ways, changed the distribution of economic rewards, and promoted the conversion of human interactions into commercial transactions. The web in its current state is like a city without public spaces. People can only interact in places owned by someone else, and a small group of landlords captures an oversized share of all economic activity.