A Twist on Property Rights through the BuyNothing Lens

I remember Professor Julia Mahoney's Property class during my first year of law school, like it was yesterday. It was early enough that I was still locked in, like my enthusiasm was going to somehow help me unearth some novel insight from the centuries-old case law. I've never been short on earnest enthusiasm. A bit cringe in hindsight.

A particular idea that's managed to cling to my consciousness all these years, is the notion of property rights as a bundle of sticks, with each stick representing a feature, or benefit, of ownership. In the plainest terms, it's the theory that owning any given piece of property comes with the natural right to subdivide the benefits of ownership into discrete and separate elements, with complete dominion over how, where, and by whom each benefit stream is enjoyed.

For example, consider this basic set of ownership right features as a sample of the expansive universe of ownership rights available: the right to possess during the day, the right to possess over night, the right to derive income from the use of, the right to move or relocate, the right to modify, the right to use as collateral, just to name a few. Keep in mind that some of these rights as discrete rights are practically worthless on their own. It's mixing and matching them, a la carte, that creates the colorful spectrum of economic possibilities. Accepting this theory of property rights early on, has profoundly shaped the way I see business, and more specifically, peer-to-peer marketplace economics.

So many of our most iconic sharing economy products and companies have operationalized this 'bundle of sticks' property law concept to underpin their product strategies and business models. AirBnB, for instance, sells the right to possess parts of a home for a defined period of time, subject to certain conduct-related parameters, while Lime markets the right to possess and operate electronic bikes and scooters within a certain geographic area for a fee tied to the time spent operating said vehicle.

The property right division mechanics are fairly straightforward in the case of B2C sharing economy products and services. The puzzle and opportunity space turns multidimensional when you contend with the same 'bundle of sticks' property right theory in the context of a peer-to-peer marketplace, operating without firm limits on the property allowed to be marketed, or the collection of property rights permitted to be offered up for sharing or transfer. Enter the Buy Nothing Project gift economy experiment. This is one of the reasons I have spent the past half 5.5 years obsessed with the movement, and what more is possible through it. Since I began working on building the BuyNothing app with the founders of the movement, I've personally conceived of the BuyNothing community platform as "Napster for the physical world." In other words, a centralized database of ownership rights currently on offer, for the full universe of property a person could possibly own, anywhere in the world. It's a breathtaking concept to me. It's especially interesting to consider how one turns that type of highly-efficient ordering engine, into a non-exploitative and self-sustaining product and business, while preserving an organic experience that people find genuinely fun and appropriately serendipitous.

That was, and remains, the BuyNothing app challenge in my view. I think it's a solvable one. I look forward to the beautiful universe of gift and sharing economy tools and services that will continue to flow from a robust and broadly-accessible BuyNothing product platform.