The advent of decentralised autonomous business networks in the disembodied economy: a discussion on why the governance regimes of corporations and partnerships are unsuitable to them

Abstract

Novel technologies, including the Internet of Things, blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence are enabling innovative value creation in manners that promise to upstage traditional methods, and thus established models of business arrangements, including the corporate model, are confronted with displacement. Most importantly, these innovations are facilitating 'the crowd economy' whereby people can, in decentralised order, combine to create, transmit, manage, exploit and consume value. However, it is ineluctable that the new business models ushered in by these innovations generate legal and institutional concerns. This paper discusses the nature of these new business models and the major legal issues likely to arise from them, particularly the question of the appropriate regime of governance most suitable for them, and makes a case for a regime akin to that which applies to unincorporated associations, and thus treat these novel business networks as a web of interlinked contracts between participating nodes.