First time I've heard of this. Gathering groups of at-home experts online to work on projects. Sounds like an interesting option for those not ready to retire at 55. Read more @ http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2014/08/14/not-ready-to-fully-retire-try-crowdsourcing/
Crowdsourcing is fantastic. In the future it will open up greater possibilities for tax evasion. You don't even have to pay people in fiat currency if you don't want - pay them in Bitcoins if you like. The Silk Road was a good experiment (ideal even), but it wasn't really equipped to deal with things like employment. Crowdsourcing has the potential to overcome that limitation. It's also good for the reasons you listed. [hr][/hr] Personally I think the more interesting development is crowdfunding. It has revolutionized the gaming industry. Practically overnight we've been inundated with a steady flow of crowdfunded games - many of them of AAA quality (or close to it). The importance of this is that big corporations with monopolies given to them by government don't do an especially good job of reflecting the preferences of the consumer. In the gaming industry the prime example of this is Electronic Arts, who have been known to split games into 10 or more parts and sell them to you for $40 a piece. Anyway, by going to consumers directly for funding, developers rid themselves of this burden, and have more time to... you know, develop games! [hr][/hr] Naturally, the government hates this: "Advocates of regulation claimed that crowdfunding would open up the flood gates for fraud, called it the "wild west" of fundraising, and compared it to the 1980s days of penny stock "cold-call cowboys." On a side note - who writes all these regulations? Where do they find them? I'm surprised enough closet Fascists in the country exist to write that much regulation :/