This is why you want stock/equity instead. Everything else is just toilet paper until it becomes stock/equity.
Usually countries have lots of laws and regulations protecting small shareholders, but not really anything to protect people who might become shareholders one day.
I wish companies had easy ways to give out real stock instead of options... it's up to regulators to make this smoother, easier, cheaper.
The problem is that the employee would have to pay taxes on the value of the stack at the time it was issued. Given how high valuations can be and still never pan out, giving employees stock directly would cost them significant amounts of money in most cases.
Usually countries have lots of laws and regulations protecting small shareholders, but not really anything to protect people who might become shareholders one day.
I wish companies had easy ways to give out real stock instead of options... it's up to regulators to make this smoother, easier, cheaper.