Vermont OKs the Creation of Virtual Corporations (opens in new tab)

(gigaom.com)

53 pointsKB18y ago10 comments

10 comments

9 comments · 4 top-level

admoin18y ago· 3 in thread

Less significant than it sounds (and certainly the title of the blog post is sort of linkbaity), but an encouraging sign nonetheless.

bprater18y ago

Not needing a physical presence is pretty cool. More of us are working out of our homes with teams that work all over the world. This could be really useful.

ph0rque18y ago

I'm curious how much you have to pay for it (initially, yearly, and based on revenues/profits).

tstegart18y ago

I think most states have a yearly fee to be incorporated. They don't base it on revenues or profit because thats what taxes are for :)

olefoo18y ago· 2 in thread

I wonder what new forms of white collar crime this might make possible...

If you write software that creates virtual corporations that cause harm that profits some other business entity you control can you be held liable?

colinplamondon18y ago

Check out the book "Accelerando" by Charles Stross, he has a great section about sentient corporations. Free to download, even:

http://www.accelerando.org

On topic, this is really great news, the current regulations for this stuff is really archaic in an age where time zone matters more than country. Can't wait to find out some more, especially about upkeep fees.

edit: Scratch it, this is an amendment to the current LLC/corporation law, not an addition of a new class of company. Even cooler.

http://dotank.nyls.edu/june18virtualcorp.html

delackner18y ago

Accelerando had a lot of great ideas, including this one taken to its logical extreme -- companies owned by companies whose directors are themselves python scripts. Didn't much like the story, but the ideas are lovely.

Near the end of the second link you provided, Johnson says that the new amendment prohibits transfer of interest, even say, to your next of kin. I suppose this will lead these firms to setup themselves to distribute nearly all of their revenue to their partners, rather than maintaining large excess capital beyond that needed for, say, foreseeable upkeep.

1 more reply

pierrefar18y ago

Why "start filing virtual incorporation papers" instead of, oh I don't know, email filing or online filing? Seems odd to stick to paper.

Unless it's a figure of speech...

thomasswift18y ago

So some of the lawyers I talked to said were leery of LLC's because they weren't proven in court as corporations are. So what are they going to think of virtual corps? This is really interesting stuff though.

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