Opolis
= "technological and legal framework for the self-sovereign worker. Decentralized Employment Organizations will allow for sustainable mutuality between employer (service consumer) and employee (service provider)".
URL = https://www.opolis.co White Paper on Drive
"Opolis: The word “Opolis” was created from the combination of the word opportunity, which represents the service consumer, with the Greek root -polis, meaning city, or in our case, community."
Description
0.
"Opolis is a next-generation Employment Cooperative offering high-quality, affordable employment benefits and shared services to independent contractors, freelancers, digital nomads, solopreneurs and sole-practitioners. Experience the freedom and flexibility that comes with being independent, while maintaining the security of a traditional corporate job."
1.
"Opolis is a new employment framework which better aligns the incentives of ecosystem players in a sustainable, user driven, network-based public utility infrastructure. Opolis employs a for-profit model which shares value creation and encourages contributors to collaborate for the long-game. Based on principles proposed by Elinor Ostrom in Governing the Commons, we call the totality of this Opolis ecosystem, The Employment Commons.
Opolis was founded on the belief that the future of work is increasingly dynamic and that existing HR tech systems and infrastructures are ill-equipped to prosper in this new reality. This reality offers opportunity for individuals and organizations to not only survive, but thrive in a decentralized paradigm. Opolis is building the technological and legal framework for the self-sovereign worker. Decentralized Employment Organizations (DEOs) will allow for sustainable mutuality between employer (service consumer) and employee (service provider)."
2.
"Opolis is a technological and legal framework offering a public utility infrastructure for employment; The Employment Commons. There are three components to Opolis which are required for the entirety of the ecosystem to function properly: open source Decentralized Employment Organization (DEO) frameworks, Native Trustee Technology and Markets/API Technology & Services.
The full realization of Opolis will be built through evolution, not revolution. While many projects in the blockchain technology and Web3 sector are promoting highly futuristic products and ecosystems, most of these projects, in Opolis’ view, will have difficulty achieving user adoption due to User Experience Design (UX) problems and the impracticality of “full decentralization” in complex industries. Current UX systems in place are very complicated for the average user, requiring them to become familiar with entirely new processes and unfamiliar requirements.
Opolis has chosen to take a more pragmatic, evolutionary approach to the decentralization of employment. Opolis’ strategy is to build a bridge to the future, not attempt to build a fully decentralized solution from the beginning. In the world of employment, it would be unrealistic, if not impossible to accomplish, given the compliance requirements and complexity of the systems required to incorporate an all-in strategy."
Characteristics
DEOs as Employment Cooperatives
"Traditionally, centralized corporations have been positioned to maximize shareholder value of those who are most often not users/customers of their products, platforms or services. This archetype does not align with the goals of a sustainable member-owned, decentralized organization/network. Thus, decentralized organizations must be designed to be resistant to power asymmetries with individual members or groups exercising undue control over its governance. For this reason, Opolis has elected to utilize a cooperative organization (co-op), which, by virtue of its definition, is an autonomous association of persons voluntarily united to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise."
Structural & Technological Benevolence
"As a public utility infrastructure for employment, maintaining structural and technological benevolence is a keystone goal for the long-term. The Opolis Trustee will exist in a legal governance framework which allows Opolis’ benevolence to be legally protected over time and avoid the “tragedy of the boardroom.” When networks scale, an increasing divergence of incentives alignment is observed, which shows the tendency for the network to lose benevolence toward users and collaborators when there is a centralized, exclusively shareholder-focused entity as the market maker.
In order to thwart these risks, the Opolis Trustee must not:
1) compete directly with contributing native technology
2) focus on profit maximization (although profits for sustainability and investor returns are acceptable)
3) become anything other than an end-to-end base layer of employment for members."
Contributors
A selection from the list at the end of the White Paper:
Contributors
1. John Paller (Executive Steward) - [email protected] 2. Hannah Oreskovich (Steward, Communications) - [email protected] 7. Dana Look-Arimoto (Future of Work Advisor) - [email protected] 11. Derek Razo (Economics & Governance Advisor) - [email protected] 12. Nathan Schneider (Co-ops & Governance Advisor) - [email protected]
More information
- Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI): The concept of individuals or organizations having sole ownership of their digital and analog identities, and control over how their personal data is shared and used. This adds a layer of security and flexibility allowing the identity holder to only reveal the necessary data for any given transaction or interaction. Since identity is such a central part of society, it is necessary to ensure that user control will be the primary foundation SSI will be built upon.
- Self-Sovereign Worker (SSW): Based on the concept of SSI (Self-Sovereign Identity), the SSW not only has sole ownership of their digital and analog identities and control over how their personal data is shared and used, the individual also has ownership over their employment and how their employment data is shared and used.