thanks for the info. interesting, I didn't know gmaxwell's storJ proposal. The thread is here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=53855.0

In some ways these concepts could have only evolved after BTC.   I assume bitshares were the first attempt at constructing these, although storJ refers to something quite different.

I think a lot will be gained by understanding that cooperations are legal constructs. The article above explicitly refers to the problem of multi-jurisdictions. agency granted by law (sometimes even called artificial people), implies rights and responsibilities. Is AAPL a US company? it operates globally so it is a multi-national. but there is no entity granting rights to multi-national cooperations, besides nation to nation agreements.