The companies register in most countries is centrally kept and not very accessible or flexible.
The entire institution is an archaic remnant of when companies were mostly physical bodies fixed in a certain location. Companies that live mostly on the web or are virtual in other areas don't fit well into this brick and mortar paradigm.
We already have a very adequate register for virtual entities called the WHOIS database and DNS. I propose distributing the companies register and building it on top of the current internet domain name system. This aligns the properties of virtual organizations nicely with the strengths of the internet and also points out parts of the protocol that need to be hardened.
When the register has been distributed across the internet we can think of automated information requests and as a next step a companies API to automate as many operations and transactions on (virtual) corporate entities as possible.
Legislation will need to change to accommodate this, and it will take a long time so we had better get this started. The result will be a more future proof and more efficient corporate structure.
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