Once people gain a right to property, be it cows or book royalties, they quickly seek out a centralized system to protect their interests. It’s why we want our banks to be centralized. We want control, we want structure, we want reporting when it comes to our money.

The moment you introduce property rights into the equation, everything changes: the starfish organization turns into a spider. If you really want to centralize an organization, hand property rights to the catalyst and tell him to distribute resources as he sees fit. With power over property rights, the catalyst turns into a CEO and circles become competitive.

This is why Wikipedia faces danger if it raises too much money. Ironically, the system works because it’s underfunded and because almost everyone is a volunteer. If coveted paid positiond were introduced, turf battles and a hierarchical system might result. With concentrated power, Wikipedia would become more centralized and begin to lose its collaborative environment.