The possibility of businesses, understood as business units, continuing to operate after the life of their founder(s) was one of several reasons for the emergence of mercantile societies (Public Limited Companies, Limited Liability Companies, LLCs, Corporations). They are governed by a set of laws, contracts, and practices that enable the company to operate in a specific market.
However, there is an unresolved need in the legal realm: the creation of mercantile societies to operate in the current hyper-globalization of business and technology. For this reason, there are already people addressing this need by conducting business more efficiently through flexible alternative structures that, despite lacking standard regulation, provide tailor-made solutions. We refer to solutions created by technology, ranging from DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) to proprietary ecosystems that are regulated by the free market of digital assets.
DAOs have become a topic of discussion due to the popularization of cryptocurrencies and related projects. Many investors see this concept as a true "society." Some define DAOs as a "Telegram group" with a bank account. This statement is not entirely untrue unless this "group" is organized through a legal framework. Thus, in some states in the United States, DAO type corporations have emerged, which are a general partnership agreement without offering the commercial or corporate advantages of a traditional mercantile society.
A mercantile society is usually limited to a territory, nationality, domicile, and certain economic-cultural roots that restrict easy interaction with the rest of the world.
The law, therefore, must improve mechanisms for the creation and management of mercantile societies. This improvement depends on technology, which provides tools that better guarantee the registration of UBOs (Ultimate Beneficial Owners) of a business, as well as the records of all the operations it performs.
A legal revolution driven by technology: the use of "blockchain" as a mechanism for creating and registering a society, as well as NFTs as proof of ownership of tangible and intangible assets, and all the operations performed on them, and, of course, digital currencies in their wide variety. In all these cases, the possibility of geolocating operations must be established to manage the legal implications at a specific moment and place.
The advancement of technology and the commercial needs of humanity drive innovation in the creation of globalized business vehicles capable of operating in the physical and digital world. It is not a simple task, but the benefits are immeasurable for individuals, companies, and states, as they will all be able to instantly have real certainty about their operations.
This format would reduce the gap between the formal and informal economy, fostering inclusion in the commercial system for those individuals overlooked in economic statistics and excluded from growth opportunities or the generation of business synergies.
Without control, this is already happening and fuels the informality of business models that take advantage of the inability of the state to regulate them and, in many cases, even understand them. Digital identity represents more transactional economic volume than any traditional commercial registry in history.
The challenge for the law is to create, through technology, corporate entities with limited liability that allow entrepreneurs or business owners to move quickly in a global market, interconnected with the worldwide financial system, and enable partners to make agile, 100% documented, deliberate, and immutable decisions.