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Li Jin

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14 Oct, 10 tweets, 2 min read

@kplikethebird

Legitimacy is the scarcest resource--and that's especially true in the creator economy. But where does it come from, and how is it lost?

New post on the unfolding legitimacy crisis in the creator economy by me and @kplikethebird

every.to/means-of-creat…

Like feudalism and divine right monarchy before it, the creator economy is experiencing a legitimacy crisis.

Creators are questioning the terms that govern their relationship with the platforms they utilize—and the right of the platforms to set those terms in the first place.

How the ecosystem responds—what alternatives are proposed, who builds them, and how—will shape the next phase of the Creator Economy.

German sociologist Max Weber theorized three basic sources of legitimacy:

- Traditional legitimacy—essentially, rule by status quo
- Charismatic legitimacy—in other words, rule by cult of personality
- Rational-legal legitimacy— in other words, rule by rationality

Platforms have historically had all three sources: traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal.

But legitimacy crises happen when trust is eroded—when the governed no longer believe that those in power are exercising that power with the collective good in mind.

Examples of recent cracks in the social contract between creators and platforms include demonetization of high-profile creators on YouTube, lawsuits around the Apple App Store, Twitch streamers' recent day off in protest, and OnlyFans' changing content rules.

One way to view all of the recent billion-dollar creator funds & new creator monetization features is as an attempt to re-establish platform legitimacy, via better aligning the values and incentives between people and the nexus of power.

There's an alternate resolution to the legitimacy crisis in the platform economy: emergence of challengers that offer more democratic, decentralized alternatives.

These include cryptonetworks & DAOs that enable creators to participate from a place of freedom rather than lock-in.

Throughout history, legitimacy crises have often resolved into new, more representative forms of governance. That is the opportunity I see in the platform economy today.

That's not a guaranteed outcome by any means: like all change, we have to push for this course of history.

But if the next generation of networks can optimize for creator ownership and autonomy and more representative decision-making, we will be that much closer to realizing the promise of a truly liberated future of work.

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More from @ljin18

Li Jin

@ljin18

1 Oct

@AtelierVentures

I want to share the story of how the first analyst I ever hired @AtelierVentures was someone I never expected—an 18-year-old recent high school graduate: @LilaShroff

@peytonkleinpgh

Last fall, I was still in the thick of fundraising, but looking for help with community building, content, and research for my first fund.

Lila had been connected through @peytonkleinpgh, another recent high school graduate whom I had recently chatted with.

After meeting Lila, I was immediately struck by two things: her age and the fact that her resume, just after graduating high school, was somehow more impressive than mine had been when I was 25.

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Li Jin

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24 Sep

@skominers

The labor movement has given us many of our current rights, including paid sick leave & protection against job discrimination.

But as work shifts to platforms, what becomes of participants' ability to effect change?

New essay w/ @skominers & @LilaShroff

hbr.org/2021/09/a-labo…

Gig workers and content creators are now reckoning with the fact that their livelihoods depend on the actions of platforms that they have little ability to sway, and to which are locked in given lack of data ownership and portability.

As a result, a new form of labor activism is appearing in the platform economy, which we call decentralized collective action or DCA.

DCA aims to achieve many of the same goals as historical labor movements: better pay and working environments, protection from harassment, etc.

Read 29 tweets

Li Jin

@ljin18

21 Sep

Today, it seems inconceivable that for much of human history, people accepted the 'divine right' of monarchs as a legitimate source of power.

Years from now, we may look back on this era and wonder why we were accepting of autocratic companies led by 'enlightened dictators.'

For much of human history, people lived under authoritarian/monarchical forms of government.

In the late 17th century, republican forms of government arose, inspired by conceptions of natural rights developed during the Enlightenment. >50% of the world now lives in a democracy.

The American and French Revolutions were major contributors to the growth of representative governments.

The Springtime of Nations in 1848 was a revolutionary wave affecting 50 countries in Europe, wherein people demanded more participation in government, economic rights, etc.

Read 7 tweets

Li Jin

@ljin18

11 Sep

Universal Basic Capital > Universal Basic Income

Income inequality in the US is the highest of all the G7 nations. The wealth gap between the richest and poorer families more than doubled from 1989 to 2016.

How do we change the fundamental dynamic driving wealth inequality?

In a world in which returns to capital outpace returns to labor, we need to give everyone access to owning capital assets that appreciate in value, not just short-term income.

(i.e., those who earn from work can never catch up to those who grow their wealth from investments)

A oft-cited stat is that 55% of US households own stock.

What is lesser-known is that that ownership is very concentrated: the top 10% wealthiest American households own 84% of all stocks. The top 1% of households own 50% of all stocks.

Read 8 tweets

Li Jin

@ljin18

10 Aug

The creator economy is starting to resemble the gig economy, with commoditization of workers and economic precarity masqueraded as entrepreneurship.

New post about the perils of the creator economy and how we move forward from here:

li.mirror.xyz/Rgk2La8izmn5La…

The gig economy--though home to many valuable companies--has had a controversial impact on labor, eroding a century's worth of worker rights & creating widespread precarity.

The creator economy is now experiencing the same.

If we're not thoughtful about building platforms, we can easily recreate the problems of the real-world economy in the online world.

Even though the creator economy is often framed as an improvement upon the gig economy, parallels problems and risks are emerging for workers.

Read 13 tweets

Li Jin

@ljin18

16 Jul

@YieldGuild

Announcing the Leaping Corgi Scholarship for players to start earning in the metaverse with @YieldGuild!

Play-to-earn is a new category of games where players earn in-game assets & tokens that can be turned into IRL income.

(read on for how to support!)
li.mirror.xyz/Dd7gY8Ip1tRcpz…

@AxieInfinity

During the pandemic, as local jobs dried up, play-to-earn game @AxieInfinity helped people around the world put food on the table, pay rent, and pay off debt.

Players are earning between $500-1000 per month playing the game—which is often higher than local minimum wage jobs.

For all of the game’s promise, there are barriers to entry: to play Axie Infinity, a player must first purchase a team of three Axies, which are themselves NFTs.

That's prohibitively expensive for many: a starter team of Axies can easily cost upwards of $500.

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