It's a really interesting problem and runs pretty deep, imo. People have these different kinds of machinery in their heads about this stuff. The example I like is that if a friend asks you to help her move, and you do, and then she tries to pay you cash afterward, you will probably feel insulted: you did the labor as part of your "friendship contract" and you were probably even kind of glad to do it; and the "obligation" your friend assumes is to buy you beer and pizza, and to return the favor -- or some comparable favor -- some other day. This is very deep, neurologically, in how social primates work.

But for a whole other class of interaction, and transaction, we have this glorious thing called money, which is just amazing that it can even work as a concept, and it encodes how much we value things, so you give me a pizza and I give you money, and it's amazing. But it taps into a very different vibe.

And so how do those things interact in a community? And esp one like SN? My sense is that even though there's money at the heart of it, it's this real human sociality that is the key, and how can "real" money help that to flourish, and how can they interact?

There's like 5 PhD theses in this project you're building. Maybe more. Makes me think that that's an area of opportunity, to tap into that expertise / labor. Hmmm.