Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1
Part I: Economic Institutions
2 Reciprocity: The Golden Rule in Cyberspace 15
3 From Reputation to Regulation: The Birth of a Giant 35
4 The Privacy Dilemma: Maintaining Order in a Masquerade 53
5 Death of Distance, Resurrection of Borders: Labor Markets in Cyberspace 71
6 Centrally Planned Free Markets: Programming a Soviet Union 2.0? 91
Part II: Political Institutions
7 Network Effect: From Digital Revolutionary to Everything Emperor 113
8 Cryptocracy: The Quest to Replace Politics with Technology 131
9 Collective Action I: Workers of the Internet, Unite? 155
10 Collective Action II: Rise of a Digital Middle Class 173

About the Author

Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. A former software developer, he is the coauthor of Virtual Economies- Design and Analysis (MIT Press).

Reviews

"Cloud Empires is a terrific book . . . A strong recommend."
– The Enlightened Economist