You’ve probably been following the rules of work established generations ago. What no one has told you is that there is a NEW set of rules, and it has been emerging for quite some time.

Many companies are using the new rules and aren’t even aware of it. It’s important to understand that we’re are at a time when every company is a technology company.

Qualifications have changed. University degrees used to be the main doorway for employment. Today employers are looking for critical thinkers and self-starters that are keeping pace with change. So lifelong education will be critical. Google, Facebook, and even the federal government are preferring skills to credentials.

• Go to school, choose a major, get a degree, choose a profession, stay there for years, do what your boss told you.
• We followed those rules because they worked.
• It was the basic structure for our lives

Today, it’s about developing digital AND soft skills — collaborating with teams around the world.

Traditional job search — interviews, employer controlled, classified ads in newspapers. But the process has changed. Online portfolios, crowdsourced platform, download an app, code challenges

Old rules won’t work as well as in the past.

The future of work faces many challenges: There’s an urgent need for us to be adaptive over the long term for future generations.

The sustainability of our resources, the technology we use, how it affects our psychology, and the very world we want to create.

• There will be a changing relationship between employer and employee
• Despite access to a global talent pool and the gig economy — skilled talent remains scarce.
• As workers become more accustomed to working remotely — the relationship between employers/employees will shift — either towards draconian surveillance — or a more results-oriented mindset.
• Changing demographics — There are 10,000 retiring boomers every day. A shift in the millennial worker mindset.
• Increased social responsibility — There’s a growing understanding that we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for. I’d like to urge everyone to not only think differently — but also act differently.
• Social responsibility, not only in lip service but in actions will define how we handle the next inevitable challenge that comes our way. We no longer have the luxury of short-term thinking.

Let’s take a look at Organization 2.0

Google didn’t replace the yellow pages. It made the yellow pages obsolete. Next-generation or “Org 2.0” — won’t replace the existing model; it must make the existing model obsolete.

• For hundreds of years, the dynamics of what trust means and how it is acquired among parties have been based on personal relationships. However, in modern times, things are entirely different.
• The pace of change has quickened, and the culture of trade and commerce is now global.
• It’s not a technology challenge — as much as a cultural challenge.
• It's about people, process, and technology — in that order

Work is adjusting — so are meetings.

Meetings are a source of burn-out for many.

• We don’t have to have meetings after meetings about work — where else it is okay to book a $3,000 meeting?
• At the end of the day, it’s all about alignment

Alignment is important in the age of distributed teams.

• Alignment is a set of agreements about what matters
• Continually checking in each other
  The terms we use and the ideas we share are important. What we think is important. Speaking square and circle
• IMPORTANT to double down on org goals, transparency, transparent on leadership and needs, what needs to accomplish over the next 3–12 mo
• When we don’t see each other in person — it’s a natural thing to lose what others are doing. Orgs need to double down on information architecture — related to alignment, communication, and culture.

Work is now a global collaboration for knowledge workers. Someone from London is working with a project manager in NYC and then sent for review in Singapore.

• A connective tissue is required to do this at scale across organizations. Silos no longer have to exist inter-organizationally or inter-departmentally.
• Workflows could be automated to reduce the work drudgery.
• Incentives would perhaps nudge and reward you should you decide to take on a micro-task — such as reviewing your colleague's work or providing feedback on a proposal.
• Balancing resources — Humans today are by far the biggest cost for many employers. The bench cost for employing highly skilled talent in this future could be shared with other employers (in the same way someone rents out their apartment on Airbnb) — providing valuable knowledge sharing in adjacent industries for cross-collaboration.
• Administration and project assignments would be routed by intelligent agents in the background.

AI Work Protocols

The technology to experiment with new systems of remote governance is available today.

To achieve this goal we’ll need smart work protocols. Work protocols would be modular business processes. Like a lego block containing instructions that plug into your existing business. Need an on-boarding module? What about a process for automating internal reports? These smart protocols could be transferred or even sold in a marketplace to other businesses as well.

A proposal protocol would standardize the sow. There would also be a need for a proof of value to ensure people did what they said they were going to do across distributed teams.

The end game has to be about maximizing human potential. Imagination is a tool that allows us to extend our reach. Technology and skillsets alone — won’t be enough. The magic wand only works if we update our mindset.

We are humans.

Biologically, we are used to patterns. If we are using a skill set over time, and we get good results, we want to keep doing it the same way.

THEN all of a sudden a virus comes along and things just don’t work like they used to. But our tendency is to still keep using our old approaches or returning back to what worked in the past. To be able to solve our current challenges and anticipate continuous change we will need to train leaders, with a new adaptable mindset.

• A mindset Inclusive of all people
• Aiding people to adapt skills for the “new normal” of continuous change to solve the inevitable things that will come.
• AI can help recommend, optimize, and assist.
• But it’s up to humans to maximize our potential.

Perhaps there is no better feeling than to let yourself be carried away. To be on a great adventure. Joseph Campbell talks about the Hero’s journey. To heed the call to adventure — is to allow yourself to be transported.

It is to FACE the renewed mind. You have to get out of your own way. If you’re willing to treat everyone as a teacher — you’ll learn new things about yourself and what truly matters. It’s as much a matter of mindset as it is a skillset.

Push humanity forward.

Old Rules vs New Rules for Work was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Could AI-enabled governance provide a balanced framework for society?

Framing the conversation

Debates over capitalism and socialism are resurging. Should the means of production belong to private industry or the state? How should we manage the distribution of resources? What role do taxes and individual liberties play in our social and financial pecking order?

Many have grown weary of the left vs right narrative. An oversimplified framework that doesn’t raise the quality of the dialog. Usually, the debate is boiled down to “left vs right” platitudes and memes, which is reinforced by the media, social networks, and political pundits as people talk past each other in direct or indirect war games.

Every night across news channels we hear the debates. The 2020 presidential campaign will most likely follow the pattern wrapped in tropes, zingers, myths, metaphors, and psychological warfare tactics going back to the days before WWI. What other metaphors exist by which we can build civil discourse?

In reality, capitalism and socialism are human constructs. There is no “ism” doctrine or set of rules. Capitalism and Socialism are constantly evolving spectrums of values, with extremes at both ends of a complex continuum. The differences are rooted in the separation of labor and capital. They are simply tools which either serve or do not serve societies best interests. The ultimate question then, is what interests are we serving and for whom? Today’s Republicans and Democrats look nothing like the parties of old. They will both look unrecognizable in the upcoming election season.

Each outraged click means more money for the PPC ad machine. The debates go back and forth with the ferocity of sound bites, memes, and click-bait headlines designed to hi-jack the limbic system of tribal minded news-junkies. These debates, often loaded with misdirection, mistaken definitions, terms, and conflated subjects altogether make an already complicated subject that much more impossible to understand and grasp for the average viewer watching at home.

A recent Harvard University Poll reported that only 42% of millennials supported capitalism. 33% wanted socialism.

The key take away?

Capitalism = good guys

Socialism = bad guys

…or vice versa, depending on who’s talking.

Bill Maher says

“Someone needs to explain to the free-market crowd that when it comes to socialism, you’re soaking in it,” Maher said. “So many Americans hate the word ‘socialism’ but love the concept: Medicare, unemployment, disability, farm subsidies…”

Ben Shapiro writes

“ Ocasio-Cortez can rant about capitalism from her iPhone while wearing her Sephora lipstick, but she should realize that she’s a beneficiary of the capitalism she so despises. It’s easy to rip on capitalism’s shortcomings while living amidst its benefits.”

The problem is that these debates come down to the philosophical lens. The problem is that our views become intertwined with our personal narrative and identity. Entrenched outrage in our political positions provides a sense of safety in a mad world. Talking points are adopted from opinion news shows, as our social media feeds inundate us with articles we’re already inclined to believe.

The challenge is in piecing together a complex tapestry across economics, humanities, technology, and security to define and architect a brand new philosophical lens from which we can build a workable model.

It is undeniable that the world is on the verge of technological convergence that is rushing headfirst into 20th-century values and institutions. And this power isn’t only in the hands of governments and corporations. Distributed ledger technology (the blockchain) enables brand new structures of trust management across dispersed geographic areas. The next generation of “low code” and “no code” programming opens the door to citizen developers— no code skills required. Edge computing will unlock cloud and computation at the device level. We’re at the tipping point somewhere between a legacy model of “greed is good” towards a people-centric Star Trek utopia, and no one is certain what lies in-between, or if we’ll even get there.

We’re sitting in the front row as a collective, witnessing the evolution of human civilization and the biggest shift since WWII. What are we rushing towards?

What lies beyond the conventional concepts of capitalism and socialism?

The world faces constant disruption, a shifting international world order, automation, and uncertainty like never before. Looking backward on governance is as helpful to the challenges we face in the 21st century as looking to the model-T to design the next Tesla.

AI-based governance won’t happen overnight. But given the track record of technological shifts, it is all but an inevitability, even if it’s hard to see from the vantage point of 2019. But how will it work? How soon? Most importantly, what will be the ramifications? Looking at what’s happening today in China with its social-credit system, to Netflix’s Black Mirror warning of a dystopian vision for our future — the next decade will be anything but traditional.

AI-enabled governance will be made real for everyday citizens at a local level once cities and municipalities adopt sensors and data flows best practices. The most advanced counties are just beginning to invest in architecture towards their smart city/region vision. The infrastructure and sensor network will generate huge volumes of data, and provide the first step towards integrated services and data pipelines. A far cry from the siloed departments across multiple cities, villages, and townships. This technology will benefit communities and be a helpful advancement. Currently, AI is in a commoditization phase with the top tech giants laying the R&D groundwork for their respective platforms. China has an AI initiative to lead the world by 2030 and the USA just announced an American AI initiative in response.

The blockchain and AI tools, when taken to extremes, provide the means to either enslave or liberate people. More than bits, bytes, and economics, an intelligent ecosystem needs to be people-centric. Made up of next-generation organizations motivated by capitalist ambitions, but also a social impact beyond the constructs of the past. Above all, we need a system that places people at its center. The hard part is to what extent.

Envisioning a new world is never easy, but the timing for the discussion has never been better than now, even if it is uncomfortable.

If you liked the article please take a moment to clap, leave a message, or check out the links below. You can learn more at:

blackboxai.com, blackboxfoundation.org, jasonsosa.com,

Beyond the debate — Capitalism vs. Socialism — what comes next? was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The status quo

In an average human lifespan — ⅓ is spent sleeping, ⅓ working, and ⅓ living — we orient life around unspoken and unconscious mental models for how “work” should be done, for how organizations “should be” structured, and rarely question the systems, incentives, or methods themselves or seek to improve upon them. We operate based on habits without taking into account how much the world has truly changed.

Why reinvent the wheel?

For eight of our best hours, we use our brains and muscles to add value. In the western world, we claim to be a democratic society but the governance for this freedom was never established for the most impactful part of our lives — namely the workplace.

In a traditional organization, profits are extracted, authority and decisions are made from the top, while execution and information are generated throughout the organization bottom. As work becomes more automated, along with an increasingly distributed global workforce — new challenges emerge.

For the first time, the technology to experiment with new systems of governance is possible.

Traditional models have arguably the most efficient means for the creation of goods and services. However, it fails, in one important respect: It does a terrible job of distribution; especially if there’s no profit motive.

New paths require we break the mold of traditional ideas and learn lessons of the past. Melding together what works for today with a plan for a better future that takes advantage of new tools. This goes beyond the traditional arguments of capitalism vs. socialism. We need a brand-new framework for a modern digital age.

Organizations evolved

Part of any movement has to be a plausible plan for a better way to move forward. When ideas for the cooperative enterprise are discussed — the theories of the past get brought up. The classical socialism is not what we’re talking about — the past versions (Russia, China, Venezuela) didn’t work out too well, to put it mildly. The communist/socialist brand as a mental model has also been conflated and intertwined too deeply in the psyche of too many people. It’s a blocked area for multiple reasons. In the end, capitalism is not a religious faith. It’s just a tool. But it’s only a means to an end, not the end in itself. It may or may not be suitable for the end in mind. However, when we apply our virtues of democracy to the workplace we could have a radically different economic system. When this concept is applied with technology as an enabling function, new systems and ways of working are unlocked.

Our vision is simple: Democratize the enterprise.

1. Everyone is part of a community that makes up the workplace
2. Democratize the experience and provide interoperability across inter/intra silos for mutual alignment
3. voting consensus to improve accountability, reduce risk/costs, and create a better outcome than we have today through technology and efficiencies of scale
4. A quality experience for all human beings that give themselves to this activity
5. Produce value in the form of good/services for the benefit of customers
6. Distribute gains in proportion to the value contributed

Why this project matters:

The classic path of “go to school, get a good job equals success” formula has been rattled in the minds of modern workers. New graduates are bogged down with student debt, opaque biases and political bureaucracy. 70% of employees are disengaged at work — switching between multiple jobs, roles, and even careers. Governance today is engineered to disproportionately benefit the few (i.e., board members, execs, and shareholders); The system itself is the root cause of inequality. We all participate in it, share little of the rewards, have virtually no say, and at present, have no other alternatives.

Government and citizens are bitterly divided, demographics are shifting, institutions are entrenched in the status quo, and companies revolve around quarterly profit statements. What we’re really talking about is fear of change and the concept of perceived control in a zero-sum game. Where will any proposed solutions possibly come from? Entrepreneurs and startups aren’t incentivized to work on these types of problems. Despite the evidence to the contrary, impact investing is looked upon as altruistic, philanthropic, with many a “do-gooder” patted on the back and passed on to the next group.

We believe a platform can bring together siloed initiatives, and provide benefits across a network of foundations, non-profit organizations, governments, and corporations as a whole.

A new system would need leverage in the form of credible talent, broad participation, and shared resources. An ethos based on a trust network to do business ethically and to seek those that share those same ideals. While not entirely altruistic, a new system must align human self-interest and provide benefits to today’s market. Over time, transitioned over into a mutually beneficial ecosystem. While incredibly difficult to get the flywheel spinning at first, resiliency and engagement will spur a network effect.

Despite record stock prices and a booming economy, 62 percent of jobs don’t support middle-class life after accounting for the cost of living, 40M are in poverty in the U.S. making the US the most unequal industrialized developed country. Today’s institutions and overall structure are deconstructing itself due to greed and control. It makes no economic or moral sense to have a system that disproportionately rewards such a few by design. We believe there will eventually be a widespread response as demographics shift and there’s increased appetite for an equitable system.

Next-generation organizations

Technology, like capitalism, is a tool. Artificial intelligence isn’t magic that solves society’s ills. The blockchain isn’t a feature to be bolted on. It is a fundamental shift in understanding trust, how work gets distributed, implemented, rewarded, and managed. The policies and processes for what worked in Corporate America simply don’t translate into the new economy. A new framework has to be created. The purpose of a new system is to align and balance self-interest with governance around a cooperative model, shared by many that are self-sustaining for the whole. Regardless of the economic system, the idea in the end, is for that system to provide the most for the most.

Staying true to principles is hard

With over 50+ active team members, we need funding to kickstart our economy and be sustainable. For this to work it must be backward compatible. After all, people still have to pay bills. But how to do that and stay true to our cornerstone of unified labor and capital?

Herein lies the challenge.

Imagine pitching an open ownership network with no concept of equity, or capital extraction from the top. The idea is radical if not improbable to capitalize with traditional investors. Foundations, organic growth, and partnerships seem to be the most promising avenues for us to explore ahead. We need broad partnerships to help us connect talent to the world.

Why not private investors?

The constraint, is we want to ensure the integrity of the concept from the very beginning. By introducing outside capital it presents different agendas and shifts ownership and incentive structures. We needed our model to stay true to the founding principles. For a cooperative system to emerge as a multi-sided marketplace, we needed to work across various constraints. In the traditional world, preferred shares and common shares are issued with rights, preferences, and a board of directors. Many would say that an investor is rightfully due a disproportionate return for the inherent risk of early-stage investment. But for our unique approach, the rules itself were fundamentally what we wanted to re-engineer.

Cryptocurrency was initially thought to be a mechanism that would allow us to do exactly that using tokens. Unfortunately, the timing of the crypto market conditions concentrates funds to a handful of projects and generally froze crowdfunding across the board for many projects including our own. Ethereum went from the high of $1,200 in Nov 2017 to where it is today, $200 in Nov 2018.

What we’ve done

We’ve assembled an amazing collection of people around the world including the head of PPC/SEM at Beats/Apple, a data scientist with over 40 years experience, an early engineer at Betterment, and a Ph.D. in AI/Deep Learning from Oxford/Cern. We’ve presented keynotes around the world at various events, podcast interviews, and a strong social following helping to translate our materials into over 20 languages. During the early part of 2018, we’ve engaged with over 1,000 interviews with clients, users, and companies. We explored the appropriate governing, legal, operating, compensation, and tax structures. We’ve also taken a guerrilla tactics approach to research extensively in the real world. Next, we’re building the prototype.

Where we go from here

Open platform projects are born and die every day. The ones that stand apart have the courage and resilience to weather the storms. We have not seen another project that addresses the issues we present. So we’re building it. While an ICO didn’t allow us to raise the funds we needed, we’re still moving ahead with our vision and mission — albeit at a different pace, and narrower focus. Our primary efforts will be on the technology, partnerships, and network one step at a time.

I’m incredibly proud of the work we accomplished as a distributed all-volunteer community for over a year. It has allowed us to establish the foundations we have today. Over the last year, we’ve learned a lot. Our ideals haven’t changed since day one, but we will be making some minor tweaks to simplify our story and move forward with a renewed focus.

1. Demonstrate the value proposition and simplify the story
2. Create a product demo, build credibility and grow participation
3. TGE and tokens on the back burner…for now

If you’d like to contact us or learn more visit https://blackboxfoundation.org or email jason@blackboxai.com

Let’s democratize the enterprise! was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It has become common knowledge that artificial intelligence, demographics, automation, globalization, and other forces are changing the landscape of “work.” There are over 162 million “gig economy” workers in the US and EU alone and will grow to over 40% of the working population in the next few years. However, despite having access to a global workforce; companies continue to struggle to find the best talent.

Meanwhile, knowledge workers choose to either work for a corporation, or work for themselves.

Employers hiring these “gig economy knowledge workers” are challenged by:

• Finding qualified talent
• distributed project coordination
• quality control issues
• accountability and transparency
• a widening skill gap

Knowledge workers face a unique set of challenges:

• “Feast or famine” income cycles. Deliverables and communication are siloed and often disconnected from projects and stakeholders.
• Management of quality, reliability and resource management becomes additional cost and distraction.
• Self-employed’ gig work does not come with pensions, sick pay, holiday entitlement or parental leave. You have to be an ‘employee’ to get these basic rights.
• Gig workers get paid per project, not by the hour (at least in part). This means many people are earning less than their “billable rate”, with no financial security.
• Upside? What upside? — it’s non-existent. It’s chancing one gig to the next. Many workers live increasingly ‘on-demand’ — at the beck and call of the client, or on online app — just to make ends meet.

Traditional firms/agencies/collectives manage employees and struggle to scale operations through boom and bust cycles. At best, specialty service agencies and employers have a 50% utilization of their staff, whereas many employees do not have work to do in slow times. With this bench cost expense, they are seeking ways to reduce labor costs and find new business. Operations are not immune from the economic “feast and famine” cycle. Resource utilization, value assessment, lead generation, and planning are some of the major pain points. The Statement of work as it stands today, is a process that is subjective and fails to properly qualify projects, leading to scope creep, lower margins, and loss of revenues.

We’re introducing a third work alternative, based on a new economic model we call “boosted capitalism.”

Blackbox is a decentralized talent ecosystem enabling entrepreneurial-minded contributors to focus on what they do best, so they can monetize core skills from anywhere in the world. Our vision is to transition to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). As a DAO, Blackbox will use blockchain and smart contracts to establish and manage relationships between different entities to form a network of next-generation organizations.

The workforce isn’t restricted to just one geographical area — in fact, the entire planet becomes our available talent pool! Repetitive and tedious tasks are eliminated through workflow automation. Our vision is to transition to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure. DAOs use blockchain and smart contracts to establish and manage relationships between different entities to form organizations. To understand how this might work we need to think about what an organization is. From a structural perspective, an organization is a set of agreements between different actors and entities (e.g., people, other organizations, machine). With the right systems, standards, and training in place, a decentralized workforce allows companies to grow exponentially. Bringing on new people doesn’t require more office space or increased overhead.

Typically a business development or sales team reaches out to clients within a regional marketplace. By leveraging Blackbox OS they can expand their geographic reach without additional cost, and have access to an augmented staff of experts they can trust with their precious client relationships. This enables them to scale when unexpected work comes in — without the long term cash burn of hiring additional employees. Quality is one of the major weak points of centralized talent platforms such as Upwork and others. Workers are rarely aligned with incentives and the client suffers the consequences if they choose a freelancer unwisely.

Additionally, they can put their underutilized talent resources to work in the network with adjacent service providers that overlap specialties, reducing their overall bench cost.

A DAO will not be entirely machine managed. Although machines and autonomous entities play a key role, humans will still manage many of their interactions and be responsible for many tasks. However, growing AI automation, even in highly-skilled occupations (e.g., programming, finance, data analysis), would increasingly be given over to machines.

We are adopting a co-op consortium blockchain approach where consensus/trust is controlled by pre-selected nodes driven by Proof of Value, reputation, and stake. The advantage of this consortium approach over a fully private blockchain is that we can still be partly decentralized as we grow towards our eventual goal of becoming a DAO.

The culture of core committed contributors requires more than just bits. We understand that human connections underlie transactions and that this evolutionary advantage will assist us to bootstrap the ecosystem in order to place the guard rails, and define the methodology ahead of broader adoption.

We’re building the blueprint to re-imagine what an organization is at its core. We’re moving us all forward towards a better way to work and add value. An ecosystem and protocol to propose, contribute and measure that value.

Influence is earned through a reputation system by consensus review (voting) and consistently demonstrating execution skills (PoV).

The Deliverable Values Points (DVP), or the estimated value of a “Deliverable,” is determined during the proposal stage, and discussed by experts until they reach consensus/buy in.

Once a proposal is accepted, participants can “bid” on owning deliverables (based on skills/reputation/availability). Upon owning a deliverable, the actual payout is the value of the owned deliverable, multiplied with the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and the Quality Factor determined through a Proof of Value (PoV).

Vote delegation, or “liquid democracy” eligibility is based upon reputation (what have you done?), skill (what do you know?), and stake (why should you care?).

Votes delegation is controlled by the participants and provides the following:

1. a level of efficiency and informed allocation of limited knowledge resources
2. A reputation system based on agreed upon values and transparency ensures all parties are above board and without corrupt intentions.

Read White Paper for additional details

As an entrepreneurial-minded network, we aren’t for everyone. We compete for hard-to-find talent such as data scientists, machine learning engineers, solution architects, founders, and most of all — we compete against the status quo.

To learn more visit Blackboxfoundation.org

Join Us

Working for the man? Working for yourself? The third work alternative. was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Understanding Structures of Trust

For thousands of years, the dynamics of what “trust” means and how it is acquired has been based on limited resources, with harsh consequences for welcoming outsiders into the tribe. In small communities around the world your religion, your last name, the clothes you wear, and especially where you’re from mattered.

However, in modern times, things are entirely different. We live in a mass-production and digital information era. In this age of abundance we don’t necessarily need a car, because an Uber will be waiting curbside at the press of a button. In modern cities, there’s a different sort of bubble. The trust dynamics are based on who you know, how eloquently you speak, your background, how clearly and confidently you convey ideas, and what previous accomplishments you claim. The pace has quickened, and the culture of trade and commerce is now a global and diverse community.

This contrast and cultural divide of trust still exists in much of the world today. Understanding the historical structure is critical to building the safeguards. The culture of core contributors and stewards requires more than just bits. We understand that human connections and rituals underlie transactions and that this evolutionary advantage will assist us to bootstrap an ecosystem to place the guard rails, and define the methodology ahead of broader adoption for a truly distributed organization.

The challenge today is that the world of work is dispersed, yet relies on technology silos. Trust in this new blockchain environment changes the game and helps to level the playing field. With many talented workers being scattered around geographic regions due to birthplace, family, or romance, having a sustainable tribe connecting to others you can trust is hard to come by.

Technology continuously changes the way we work. Each “revolution” brings about massive disruption — from farming machines to subway trains, digital medical records to cell phones.

Technology presses forward, and the ways we conduct business, communicate with co-workers and develop products and services have to go along for the ride. Among the buzzword salad that is hyped of late is “artificial intelligence + blockchain.” This time combining two transformative technologies as a set of tools to build new structures of trust, without middlemen, without centralized oversight, in an automated way is known as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).

Talent Acquisition Decentralized

With the internet, teams of people can remain connected across vast distances. With increasingly available WiFi, 5G on the horizon, more powerful devices, and mixed reality, the latest revolution is leaning more and more toward decentralization. Connectivity enables a new way to work and live that is not tied to a physical location or central building. This advancement in work reallocation provides a new work alternative that simply wasn’t possible just five years ago.

Call it the “gig economy,” or look at the number of companies people are working for over their careers (compared to previous generations)… Look at the ways casual communication takes place… Even friendships and romantic relationships can be developed with a cell phone and an internet connection.

It only makes sense, then, that the future of work will continue this way, as workers won’t need to (or want to) share offices (or even cities) to be a capable team.

Benefits of a Decentralized Workforce

How do both individuals and businesses stand to gain from a remote staff, flat organizational structures, and digital communication?

The most significant challenges facing organizations looking at the combination of “AI+blockchain” in the future will be unlearning the constraints of the previous business models that had worked for them in the past. Bridging the world from dead trees to smart contracts requires that we create a new set of standards around trust and how business is conducted.

Rewarding Initiative

A decentralized workforce is less hierarchical by its very nature. Transitioning from an employee/employer paternalistic mindset may be the most challenging part of the process as we transition into this future of work. There may still be project owners, creatives, operators, and so on, but each contributor has to be self-motivated for a broad self-managing system to function.

With this new decentralized model, workers are rewarded for initiative and ingenuity through more contracts, higher earnings, more autonomy and responsibility, and so on. By decentralizing, the team becomes more of a meritocracy — where the best work and best ideas are the driving forces of success.

There is no room for favoritism, nepotism, “stepping on toes”, or “squeaky wheels” in this approach to work because it’s painfully obvious when a team member isn’t holding up their end of the bargain. In turn, this empowers the individual to take pride in their work, knowing that quality will be recognized for better or for worse. It also reinforces the ideals of self-motivation, self-reliance, and personal responsibility. Trust is established through the work you do, the way others interact with you, the reliability of your commitments, and so on.

Blackbox has a foundation that acts as the steward overseeing the transition to a DAO structure. Organized for over a year as a flatarchy structure is very dynamic in nature and can be thought of a bit more like an amoeba with a shifting yet stable structure. However, even this flatarchy is temporary, while the dependencies for automation are being built for what will allow us to transition to a world of humans working without middle management. A company run entirely on code.

Flexibility and Speed

Without the overhead that comes with in-house staff, companies can be more agile. Meeting staffing needs becomes a matter of reaching out to trusted team members who can hit the ground running — instead of a long process of onboarding, training, finding physical space, etc.

This means being able to expand to meet demand with ease and adjust for lean times just as quickly. Cooperative enterprises that are united through a shared common bond have the greatest resiliency advantage in the next economic downturn. Work that automates not just the distribution of work, but also the allocation of surplus will see the greatest loyalty from the best and brightest talent, as new global trust networks emerge as distributed applications.

If you need a specialized expert, a decentralized company allows for bringing that individual on as needed, instead of paying to keep them on staff. If there needs to be a big push in one particular area of business, staff can be expanded as needed. Reputation systems and automated onboarding will reduce or altogether eliminate the issues behind trust and organizational friction of working is a distributed way.

For the workers themselves, all of this means having multiple, concurrent opportunities for work. They aren’t beholden to a job, desk, or a 9-to-5 when there isn’t work to be done, and each individual has the ability to determine their own capacity for taking on projects.

Even in an emergency, when company leaders are otherwise occupied or a central office loses power, a decentralized workforce keeps plugging away! What’s more, is that with a global workforce you increase productivity working 24 hours a day.

Decision Making

If projects and daily operations are decentralized and reliant on self-motivated, knowledgeable staff, everyone involved is empowered to make decisions. Instead of a single decision working its way up through a chain of command, each individual can make decisions and stand by them. Trust is earned through the feedback you provide others, consistency in your efforts, and by openly demonstrating your skills.

Team leaders (we prefer to call them stewards) can make choices about how to delegate work based on their own experience and best fit. People can decide when and where they want to work (as long as it meets deadlines, of course) and use their expertise to inform the way the work itself is carried out. The next-generation worker is trusted to get their work done. They are trusted to master their craft, empowered to ask the right questions to follow intrinsic motivations towards mastery.

With less micromanaging and more autonomy, each participant has a more personal connection and ownership to the work they do — which translates directly to more pride, better work, and fewer excuses. Through “artificial intelligence + blockchain” an automated digital nervous system can emerge which empowers workers to contribute from anywhere, with whom they want, whenever they want in a truly meritocratic way.

Growth

With the right systems, standards, and training in place, a decentralized workforce allows companies to grow exponentially. Bringing on new people doesn’t require more office space or increased overhead. The workforce isn’t restricted to just one geographical area — in fact, the entire planet becomes your available talent pool! Repetitive and tedious tasks are eliminated through workflow automation.

Even if you are using physical storefronts or collaborative workspaces, a decentralized model allows you to open these “new branches” with ease, based on where you already have a team in place. Such team members will also be more familiar with a specific region and will be best prepared to identify what products or services will appeal to the people of that region. Systems of trust are transferable across multiple areas of influence and participation ensuring that everyone is aligned towards the shared common good.

With people in multiple cities and countries, a company also gains access to each person’s professional network, meaning that the workforce can be easily expanded through trusted referrals — and an almost automatic vetting process.

Redundancy and Security

Decentralizing allows for multiple iterations of documentation, versions of projects, and independently managed materials. There is no central server to hack or even a single location that can fall victim to natural disaster. If a computer crashes, someone else has the files…

While cloud storage and blockchain technology also help to resolve these potential problems, having a physically decentralized business also keeps intellectual property more protected.

So, decentralizing doesn’t just follow with technological trends. It actually stands to improve the way people work, the way people earn trust, and thereby, improve the way they live. The most considerable advantages here are psychological — that people feel autonomous, take pride and personal ownership in their work, and that they are afforded more freedom to follow their intrinsic motivations to do what works best for them. In all instances, empowered, fulfilled workers produce better, more profitable work as well!

Decentralizing is becoming more and more possible because of technology, but the models prove to be working because of how they affect people. With all of the modern ways to communicate and collaborate, people, are discovering that working on their own terms improves their quality of life AND the overall success of the organizations they work for.

A Business Operating System

We saw that the current corporate and capital structures limited an individual’s potential to create value. Titles, departments, hours, offices, outdated processes like performance management systems and siloed thinking perpetually minimized human potential, as we seek to be better we need a radical change. As traditional organizations shift from antiquated business models, they’ll require an interface between current paper and electronic contracts and smart contracts. Blackbox OS bridges the gap between the decentralized world and allows organizations to unleash the power of distributed technology and Artificial Intelligence.

Modules are designed to conquer widespread, specific business problems related to to decentralized collaboration. Modules contribute a blend of protocols, additional code, IP and AI with the goal of being easily integrated into existing collectives or groups to provide quick wins.

We’re building the blueprint to reimagine what an organization is at its core. We’re moving us all forward towards a better way to work and add value. An ecosystem and protocol to propose, contribute and measure that value. Influence is earned through a reputation system by consensus review (voting) and consistently demonstrating execution skills (PoV).

Deliverable Values Points (DVP), or the estimated value of a “Deliverable,” is determined during the proposal stage, and discussed by experts until they reach consensus.

Once a proposal is accepted, participants can “bid” on owning deliverables (based on skills/reputation/availability). Upon owning a deliverable, the actual payout is the value of the owned deliverable, multiplied with the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and the Quality Factor determined through a Proof of Value (PoV).

The Blackbox Token powers a business operating system for distributed organizations and individuals. Basically we’re unifying independent practitioners, agencies, collectives, and knowledge work as a whole. The token, network, operating system, business model, and underlying philosophy address the root challenges of hierarchical and centralized inefficiencies. You can learn more by reading our Manifesto and white paper.

This new way to work and organizational model is designed around the entrepreneurial mindset and provides a hybrid approach towards shared benefits and managed risk in a way that provides greater benefits for the whole. We are on the cusp of a transformation, in how business is conducted, as well as for human productivity and creativity. Join us.

The Decentralized Business of Tomorrow — Starts Today was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

No matter where you look lately, one thing is consistent: Things are changing. Of course, change is always happening, but the change to which I’m referring are the significant business paradigm shifts, disrupting existing status quos. Things like the rise of social enterprises, conscious economics and a focus on the future of work are front and center. All is in part being fueled in part by a disengaged workforce, who are looking for greater purpose and meaning in their work and an opportunity to retire the lack of personal flexibility and creativity that has plagued them in traditional corporate work environments.

Conscious Economics on the Rise

A new collective consciousness is actively fueling commerce. One doesn’t need to look far to see that the Seventh Generations, Swells and Plum Organics of the world have captured hearts and wallets. Driven by an empowered consumer who believes, “what’s good for the world is what’s good for me.” Social enterprises and benefit corporations continue to drive growth and innovation across a wide range of industry verticals.

Mainstream brands have also taken notice and made significant investments in companies that practice conscious economics. Just take a look at Unilever, Campbell’s or BlackRock’s stunning letter it sent to CEOs earlier this year — advocating for a new model of corporate governance centered around social purpose. Why? Because the companies who are aligning to a higher purpose and raising the consciousness of humanity are also the ones winning markets. They have a purpose beyond profit and provide an opportunity for employees to live their life’s purpose at work.

The Future of Work

It’s hard to talk about making business more socially conscious without discussing new models for the future of work. Current work structures and organizations are under attack and for good reason. From income inequality to overwhelmed employees, outdated organizational models combined with the rise of automation, means jobs as we’ve historically known them are going away. We no longer look to one company to take care of us. And, the need for greater flexibility and things like the gig economy continue to grow.

As with the rise of conscious economics, this shift also seems to be driven by an evolving human consciousness that no longer wants to spend time engaged in meaningless, repetitive activity. Even though the global workforce has for centuries. While humans have always searched for purpose and meaning the change we’re seeing now is that they want this elevated purpose to come from their work. They no longer want to spend a third of their lives engaged in a job that doesn’t provide real, authentic fulfillment and an opportunity for them to connect their life goals to what they do every day.

Underlying Variable: A Societal Shift to Purpose

People are demanding greater purpose at work and they’re also voting for purpose brands at the shelf. At the same time automation is set to replace much of what has historically been “human purpose.” Look anywhere across society — business and government — and you’ll see conversations with tentacles tied to purpose. In short, the change we’re undergoing, collectively as a society, is a massive one.

There are no easy answers and conversation is required. Important for business to consider is the role they want to play in this societal shift to purpose. How are they going to provide their employees with greater purpose and meaning, while automation also grows? All businesses, no matter how big or small, have a responsibility to their workers but also to larger society. Now is the time to be considering these questions and taking important steps to set up what role your company will play in history, at this evolutionary time.

Steps Businesses Can Take Now

The changes we’re seeing are fast-changing and immense, revolutionizing established roles and existing intersections among business, people and government. While there is not a one-size fits all approach for business when considering the steps they should be taking now, as they consider the future of work and the societal shift to purpose, below are several suggestions and best practices.

• Employ An ROI Driven Approach to Purpose. If you yet to initiate a corporate move to purpose, it’s time to get started. Purpose isn’t a trend, it’s a business paradigm shift that’s here to stay. To see the reward of purpose, it should not be treated as a marketing initiative but rather, a culture and people initiative. Purpose drives ROI, when each part of the value chain has been effectively connected to your purpose.
• Consider Your Future of Work Vision. What is your company’s vision, mission and plan when it comes to the future of work and automation? The time for consideration is now. How will your company play in this historic societal shift and how will it serve to elevate humanity and business? It’s not an easy task, but a conversation that needs to be active in your organization if it’s not already.
• Re-examine Your Core Values. Examine not only how your values connect to your purpose but how they reflect your roadmap for the future of work. Are they an accurate indicator of why you exist and what you’re looking to achieve in the world? Do they impact everything you do, from your decision-making, employee roadmap and culture? Values are no longer a poster on a wall. They must be interwoven into everything you do.
• Authentic Intention is Your North Star. Once you’ve interwoven your purpose you’re your stance on the future of work, be transparent (as possible) about what your plan is. When you encounter roadblocks and challenges, going back to your intention is your answer. When in doubt, rely on the authentic intention behind your purpose and objectives that surround it to guide you.
• Be honest about progress. Implementation of any major changes across your entire value chain isn’t easy but necessary for real, lasting impact. The good news is that it doesn’t need to be done overnight, as long as you are honest about your progress with key stakeholders and customers. Using widely accepted metrics as benchmarks about your progress

Final Thought

It’s important that conversations across business, technology and the rising consumer consciousness come together as one conversation. As it’s only through deeper collaboration and sharing that we’re going to solve the major challenges we’re currently facing as a society.

How Purpose is Fueling the Future of Work was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From all of us at Blackbox we want to thank everyone for the tremendous support and interest! We’re off to a phenomenal start! If you haven’t already registered, visit the Blackbox official token page and sign up.

Disclaimer: The Blackbox token sale is only available to persons outside the US and China.

Marketing Campaign

In just the past few weeks we’ve gone from zero awareness to a record breaking airdrops campaign, resulting in a community of 20,921 Telegram, 15,823 Twitter, 9,962 Facebook, 2,374 newsletter subscribers, and thousands of views on our website. Our documents have been translated into a number of languages including Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and more. We had so much demand on the bounty campaign we had to close it early.

Crypto Press/Events:

Since we announced our intention to focus on the decentralized future of work, we’ve refined the MVP process, began speaking around the world, gave interviews on our ideas, blogged, made videos, and more.

….and we’re already making a name for ourselves in the crypto space!

ICOCrowd, UNCHAIN, CodeN, IcoBench, IcoDrops, MonoIco, CryptoNext just to name a few.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to be showing off the MVP and how it works within our organization and what we learned. We’re also going to be taking things on the road! Our roadshow includes the following locations. We’d love to see you in person!

• Malta Blockchain Summit — Malta
• Blockchain Virtual Summit Conference
• Crypto Expo Asia — Singapore
• Blockchain & ICO Investment Speed Networking — NYC
• Discon — Boulder

Stay tuned for more conference dates and announcements on Telegram!

MVP

The Blackbox team has been working for over a year to refine this methodology and we’re beginning to start the MVP process internally. The pieces are finally coming together. This means we plan to share our progress with you as we have more updates.

Deliverable Value Points (DVP) and Proof of Value (PoV) are a central focus of our MVP. DVP is essentially a Statement of Work used to define the scope of a project. We’re standardizing a critical business flow through Blackbox OS, making the process seamless between distributed people, projects, and organizations around the world.

To learn more about our protocol and how we created a standard measurement of value, please read our white paper and manifesto.

The Blackbox Team

Our team has been a bootstrapped passionate group of people working diligently. To ensure the integrity of what we’re doing isn’t corrupted by outside interests, we’ve completely self-funded the project for the last year. Every week we have multiple meetings working remotely. Many of us have been working full-time on Blackbox since Oct 2017.

We’re growing! Meet the new members of the team!

Joseph Olewitz- Sales | Neil Holzman- Sales| Tiffany Sosa- Marketing| Justin Thach- Video| Evan Luza- Design

Blackbox Referral Program

We’re also giving our supporters something to celebrate with a 5% bonus referral program starting today and going until the end of the ICO sale period. Sign up and tell your friends and we’ll reward you with tokens worth 5% of any successful referrals that list you as a referral name.

KYC Update

The KYC verification process is ongoing with 700+ people already registered. Many are going through the process now to get their documents verified. Please make sure you have uploaded all your KYC and accreditation documents so we can finalize your spot on the white list. Furthermore, we’ve assembled a dedicated team within Blackbox to help assist with the KYC process. To begin KYC process register on our token registration page.

Production Update

A major development is on the horizon as we begin the development of the Blackbox OS. Blackbox is working on information architecture to design the digital environment that will become BBOS. Over the next few weeks we’ll be releasing videos explaining what we’re building towards, along with video sneak peaks of the MVP. We’ll begin updating our github as well in the coming weeks.

Commercial Progress

More than just marketing, we’re signing partnership agreements, working on revenue generating projects via our commercial operating unit Blackbox AI. In order to build the future of work we needed more than just a white paper and a slick website, we needed a real life working model. Blackbox AI is our “proof of business model,” working with customers, validating ideas, and proving in a battle tested real world environment. We need a system to effectively transition between the traditional world of “dead trees” to the new world of smart contracts. We’re here to bridge the gap.

Our alliance network has grown! We’re in the process of kicking off a number of projects. We’re excited to update our growing list of partners which already includes Spin Dance, TwisThink, LongerDays, The Understanding Group, Seamless IoT, Nomos Legal, Dracaena Legal, The Refinery, Consciousness Economy, YetiCGI, Chameleon Collective, and Venture Spring, as part of our ecosystem. More to come!

WIP & Pipeline Highlights:

• Working alongside alliance partner with a $450M industrial equipment manufacturer.
• Workshop with a $800M consumer product manufacturer in Q3.
• Joint presentation with alliance partner at regional conference in Q3.
• Project to solve a multi-county issue for state government Q3–4.
• Workshops with multiple Health related companies in Q3 and Q4.
• AI+Blockchain Symposium with alliance partner in Q4.
• Early stage work with $300M automotive manufacturer (supply chain/cost of quality/safety) in Q1.
• Early stage work to solve “chain of custody” issue using blockchain in a $12B industry in Q1.

Timeline Update

Due to the overwhelming response and feedback we have decided to extend the pre-ICO token sale period until Sept 27, 2018th at 12pm EDT.

We have consulted with our advisors and other market experts and have decided to extend the pre-sale window allowing more opportunity to grow our ecosystem and allow for a broader participation. A broader ecosystem makes a better ecosystem. We want to build a healthy economy balancing both the needs of early believes/token purchasers, but also designing for long term success and sustainability.

Bonuses: 5+ ETH contributions qualify for bonus.

1. 50% bonus for the first $3m or until we reach token limit of 37,500,000
2. 25% bonus for the next $7m or until we reach token limit of 58,333,333

One of Blackbox’s underlying core values is transparency. To provide an update to everyone on our progress is only truly meaningful if we can share some of the lessons learned along the way as well. It hasn’t been all roses and sunshine.

• Regulatory Factors. The regulatory climate continues to lag against the speed of technology innovation. As such, we have spent countless hours consulting with legal professionals to maintain compliance as a top priority.
• Economic Factors. Crypto assets have faced economic volatility in the preceding months and holders have had to face negative positions, which has led to more bearish behavior in the market generally. This week we’re seeing a climb in cryptomarkets. Let’s see if that trend continues.
• Technology Factors. We have been incredibly diligent in thwarting spam/BOT infiltration attempts to our KYC process in order to cultivate a healthy and lively community. This has taken more time than we originally thought. We’ll continue to release updates, new content, and technology progress on a regular basis.

We recognize that professions embody our sense of identity and should be more than a vehicle for day-to-day sustenance. We believe companies have an ethical and moral responsibility for the foods we ingest, the items we produce, and the world in which we live.

We’re building the blueprint to move us all forward, toward a better way to work and add value. Thank you for your loyalty to Blackbox! Let’s build the decentralized future of work together!

Our Telegram channel is always open for discussion at https://t.me/blackboxtoken

Join us.

https://blackboxfoundation.org

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Blackbox Pre-ICO Progress Update was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Work is one of the things we spend a lifetime doing, and only a moment truly contemplating.

Financial decisions play a significant part in choices about family, love, and death. Growing up, we were told things about how this system works, but the truth is much more complicated.

We’re all chasing dollars. We get up for our jobs, and few question why we’re indoctrinated to run around the maze of work for basic survival. People spend their first 20 years getting an education to get good jobs so they can make money. When they get the job, they enter into an agreement to accept less money than they’re worth. The profits of the employer are separated to cover costs.

This happens in three parts:

1. Material costs
2. Labor Costs
3. Surplus

The surplus is the fruit of the labor + materials, with only a few people at the top (board members) deciding what to do with those profits. Executives have a myopic view of “fiduciary responsibility,” siding with capital and defining “shareholder” to mean those that provide the capital. The reality is that a community, municipality, tax payers, environmental, and economic impact should all be taken into account.

The root of the problem

The idea behind Blackbox is get to the root of the problem, which is the system itself. It is beyond repair. Incremental improvements won’t solve these systemic issues that are no longer working for a vast majority of people: boom and bust cycles every 7–10 years, manipulation by sophisticated players, piles of student debt, inequality, technology automation, corrupt politicians… Clearly, this is not sustainable.

Has anyone stopped to ask what’s the point? What are we running toward? The rapid advancement of technology is speeding up, and will only continue to do so. NOW is the time to evaluate the few years we have on this planet and guide a better future — based on core principles — for everyone and everything.

Blackbox believes that decentralization is a game changer. We now have a means to unite as a mesh network of workers, solving difficult problems through a merit-based system. Think of Blackbox more as a global “guild” that will enable anyone, regardless of what they look like, where they’re from, or socioeconomic status, to participate in a token economy based on reimagined system of governance and economic policy for surplus distribution through a standard measurement of value.

Women in the middle east have recently been granted the ability to drive, opening up opportunity for Uber and others to empower financial independence in that region. Similarly, Blackbox enables knowledge workers from around the world to be mentored, participate in, and contribute to real problem solving by focusing on intrinsic motivation.

Our model is unique. Unlike Upwork, Gigster, TopTalent, or others (blockchain equivalents on the crypto side) that match freelance workers to a marketplace of clients seeking deliverables, Blackbox looks at things very differently.

Blackbox is a managed service of knowledge that ensures quality. More than just a revenue engine, Blackbox is a self-actualization engine for entrepreneurs. We’re workers in an interconnected network of alliances: independent entrepreneurs, agencies, industry partners, and collectives distributed all around the world. We’ve reinvented the statement of work (SOW) into a DVP protocol. We’re building an economic policy that ensures quality alignment throughout the project, which is also used as a feedback mechanism to train our internal system as we begin to automate routine tasks.

Entering into the Blackbox Operating System follows this predictable path:

1. How will you add value?
2. Feedback and vote from qualified experts
3. Approval and work begins
4. Deliverable presented
5. Proof of value
6. Feedback and score
7. Distribution

The Blackbox economic policy combines the benefits of large corporations and being a solo entrepreneur. In a sense, Blackbox is a mobius strip made up from the spectrum of both liberal and conservative economic polarities. The Blackbox Manifesto goes into this philosophy in greater detail…

Our mantras:

1. Unification of Labor and Capital
2. One token. One vision.
3. Blackbox Token is driving the decentralized future of work.
4. Surplus (or “fruits of labor”) returns back to the worker in proportion to value
5. We are not your parents.
6. This expectation is built into the system to encourage self sufficiency from all participants.

What does this mean in practice?

Blackbox invests in core members with something called a “Living Advance,” which provides compensation to ambitious entrepreneurs based on their future value, along with resources to do the best work of their lives.

If you’re thinking that this sounds like a crazy, ambitious, and unreasonably radical idea, then we want to hear from you. We’re looking for other unreasonable people to join the 60+ PhDs, executives, and technologists working to make it happen.

Find out more at Blackboxfoundation.org

Join Us.

Blackbox Economic Model was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The primary goal of Blackbox Foundation is to reimagine what an organization is at its core, empower distributed communities, and thus to enable the Future of Work. One of the most difficult tasks is to correctly assess the quality of work performed, which is of paramount importance to incentivize people to produce quality work. Today, in most organizations, the total value of an individual’s contributions are very subjective and based on opinions, biases, benchmarks, and shifting scales. Our PoV protocol establishes a more efficient, meaningful, motivating, and thus meritocratic process that is performed upon deliverable completion.

Before the Proof of Value, the following steps take place, which will not be discussed here in detail:

1. A draft DVP Proposal, which functions as a statement of work, has been created and submitted
2. Expert feedback on individual deliverables making up the proposal is received, and consensus is reached
3. Proposal is voted on, accepted, and for external projects, client accepts proposal
4. Participants bid on, and win deliverables
5. Work is performed as per deliverable outlined in a smart contract backed DVP Proposal.

Note: the arrows indicate that the Proposal is an output of the chevron to the left, and an input to the chevron on the right.

Performing PoV

Our Proof of Value (PoV) protocol is a bottoms up algorithm that outputs the total realized value contributed based on reasonably objective factors. By reducing biases and opinions, PoV creates an evolving, scalable way to automate deliverable-based compensation and ensures fair rewards based on contribution.

COLA is the actual Cost of Living Adjustment Factor based on the Contributor who took on the deliverable. The main outcome of the PoV is to determine the Quality Factor Q, which depends on different factors based on the nature of the deliverable:

The PoV protocol outlines the following steps:

1. After deliverable completion, Blackbox OS will show it in the list of items requiring PoV to all participants’ dashboards
2. Experts with appropriate skills and project team members (where applicable) can provide feedback. Those experts who originally estimated the deliverable will be specifically notified. Clients can also provide feedback where applicable
3. Feedback will update reputation and will also be used to determine the quality factor — see criteria list below
4. If desired, the deliverable owner and experts can dispute feedback

As a result of this, the quality factor is determined, and tokens will be paid out to the deliverable owner within 14 calendar days. Below is an outline for how the quality factor is calculated:

Conclusion

PoV is a powerful tool that incentivizes participants to produce high-quality work. In the following table, the main advantages are summarized and compared to more traditional ways of providing performance feedback.

If you would like to read more about the Future of work, please take a look at our White Paper!

Proof of Value (PoV) was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At Blackbox, our vision is to transform the world by solving problems central to the human condition, primarily the idea of “work” and our place in it. To enable the Future of Work, our Blackbox Operating System must support the efficient creation and costing of work proposals to replace outdated, more subjective, traditional methods. The scope of a proposal can be documented as a Work Breakdown Structure containing one or more deliverables. For complex proposals, we typically determine the total cost using bottom up estimates.

We have invented the Deliverable Value Points (DVPs), which we use as our bottom up estimates. They will be explained here in detail. Our name for a work proposal is DVP Proposal, as it is based on those DVP estimates.

We use DVP Proposals in the following scenarios:

• Internal-facing vs. external (client) work
• Time and Material (T&M) vs. Fixed Price work
• Ongoing work, living wage, retainer-based work
• Summary Proposal (a proposal for the work to create a proposal)
• Key Business Decision and the associated work to evaluate and determine the best solution

In other words, DVP Proposals represent a Statement of Work (SOW) for internal and external projects, or Key Business Decisions.

This process is optimized for a decentralized environment.

DVP explained

The DVP is a way to accurately value a deliverable, independent of who performs the work. It considers the fair market rate for a required skill type and skill level excluding the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), the amount of work (Effort), and a Tuning Factor allowing to adjust for things like deliverable attractiveness, and urgency.

DVP does not account for the final actual quality outcome and actual Cost of Living, however takes into consideration the weighted, expected outcome (COLA_E and Q_E) so that it can be used as a component to calculate the total expected cost of a proposal.

At Blackbox, deliverables represent significant work outcomes such as managing a project, making a Key Business Decision, implementing code, or designing a set of graphics. Deliverables can also represent ongoing work over a period of time, such as time spent by Operations resources to onboard new individuals. They should be defined at a level where they can be owned by a single individual. Despite that, the Blackbox OS allows subcontracting a part of a deliverable to someone else.

To illustrate the Skill Multiplier S find the below illustration:

Skill Levels 1 through 4 roughly translate to Novice, Intermediate, Expert, Guru.

For example, the DVP for a task requiring the “Consulting-AI Skill” at expert level 3 for a total of 50 hours would be: 50 * 1.70 = 85 DVP. As a side note, 85 DVP will translate into FIAT currency based on the Quality and COLA factors. For example, if someone did the work with a COLA Factor of 1.3 (San Francisco, CA, USA) and a Quality Factor (determined through Proof of Value) of 1.0, the FIAT currency amount would be (85 * $US100 * 1.3)
$US 11,050 . Assuming a BBOS Token price of $US 0.16, the associated amount of BBOS Tokens paid out would be BBOS 69,063.

From Proposal to Vote

To illustrate the process, let us assume we are making a proposal for a client project. The following steps are performed to determine the DVPs associated with each deliverable:

1. The Sales Lead and Sales Engineer, with help from others as needed, put together the initial SOW including a list of all required deliverables describing the full scope of work. They might or might not estimate deliverables.
2. Experts review deliverables that match their expertise, as illustrated in the graphic below as entries with the Type “estimate”. At a minimum, two experts will independently review each deliverable for a token reward. They will figure out the difficulty, novelty, required skill type and level, risk, and effort of each deliverable. When an expert believes that the proposal is missing information or unclear, they ask for changes to the SOW until it is unambiguous, or reject the proposal. The combined input of all experts is also used to assess the overall risk and viability of a proposal.
3. Once the SOW is finalized and all experts have submitted estimates, one of the following occurs for each deliverable:
    — If all expert estimates are within an acceptable range, a weighted average (based on reputation) of the estimates are calculated and the proposal automatically moves to the Vote stage
    — If estimates differ significantly, experts have a time-synchronized discussion to determine the root cause of the differences, and to resolve them.
4. Once experts have consensus on all deliverables, the proposal is ready for a vote. At this point, any Blackbox Participant, internal or external, can vote. However, certain topic stewards (e.g. Legal, HR, Technology) are required to vote depending on the nature of the proposal.

To be efficient, DVP Proposals can be “canned”, i.e. they can have pre-approved content. For example, the process of creating a DVP Proposal to perform an AI Workshop might take less than 30 minutes of combined total effort.

Conclusion

Deliverable Value Point Proposals represent a powerful tool to independently estimate and validate a proposal, centered on expert consensus and transparency. It clearly sets expectations ensuring both proposers and contributors are aligned from project creation to completion. The simple act of aligning intention and value ahead of time reduces errors from duplicate work and mismatched objectives, both within and across organizations, and leads to more desirable financial outcomes. As it is optimized for a decentralized environment, it allows reaching all of the most relevant experts to provide feedback, which is difficult or impossible in traditional environments. A DVP based proposal enables diverse groups to agree on the intended result, facilitated by expert consensus on the definition of value and expectations for the participants involved. An approved proposal establishes an objective agreement for participants and voters to refer to during the Proof of Value (PoV) stage, which will be covered in another posting.

The following table shows some of the advantages of the DVP Proposal compared to typical traditional methods:

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DVP Proposal Process was originally published in Blackbox AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.