Platform Cooperativism

Biological Parallel

Platform cooperativism: user-owned platforms instead of corporate extraction. Biology's version: mutualistic symbiosis where both parties own the relationship infrastructure. Mycorrhizal networks are platform co-ops—fungi and plants collectively own the nutrient exchange network, neither can exclude the other or extract rents unilaterally. Contrast with parasitism (platform extraction). The stability condition: both parties must benefit more from cooperation than from defection. Eusocial insects are worker-owned cooperatives—the colony infrastructure belongs to all workers, not just the queen. True mutualism is cooperative ownership.