Our desire to order the universe started with language, which drove the division of labor and the idea of work. From there, the concept of time attempted to structure the human experience within the universe. As we move into the Metaverse, the opportunity to reimagine old structures becomes more accessible and feasible. Blockchain and the adjacent technological innovations provide a new sandbox to test some of these ideas.
DAOs & Innovating Traditional Structures
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) could be the most compelling form of innovation in the organization of individuals around a task. For centuries, work was organized in a hierarchical structure with the goal of becoming hyper-efficient and maximizing productivity and profitability. The central concept was that all work required order and oversight. It seemed that this desire for optimization pushed us further from our own humanity.
Alan Watts, a philosopher most known for popularizing Buddhism in the western culture, talked about our desire to make things more efficient by turning the rounded shapes of nature into the hard, square lines of city blocks and skyscrapers. Are these systems more efficient or are they easier to control? Our obsession to control things is driven from a basic need for security and permanence. Could the design of natural systems be applied to organizing individuals around a task?
Consider a mycelium network that permeates an old growth forest floor. Similar to the synapses that make up our brain, tiny threads called hyphae connect the entire ecosystem of a forest enabling communication and interaction between all of its participants. Mycelium networks are not hierarchical. They are interconnected webs of potential aligned around a common goal. DAOs seem to offer a similar quality that resembles natural systems like a mycelium network operating in a more emergent way, rather than a directed approach found in pyramid hierarchies.
Johnathan Cromwell is an Assistant Professor at The University of San Francisco School of Management who focuses his research on collaboration, creativity and innovation within organizations. One of his outputs presents two paths to creativity.
The first is a problem-first approach, which applies convergent thinking to a clearly defined problem. The second is an idea-first approach that uses divergent thinking to generate a number of new ideas that could be solutions to undefined problems. His research offers a model of innovation that is more emergent than directed. Emergent innovation involves less structure, distributed over a group of participants and is something that dynamically evolves. DAOs definitely seem to offer an emergent or serendipitous quality to organize participants around a task.
What is a DAO?
It is a new method to build communities that relies on a protocol enforced on the blockchain to manage the experience. With the goal and stakeholders defined, participants can choose their own adventure based on the governance and incentives used to encourage behaviors beneficial to the DAO and discourage detrimental behaviors.
With the administration automated, participants are rewarded for applying their collective experience and skills to support the mission of the DAO. While some define DAOs simply as a group chat with a bank account, a meaningful instance of a DAO takes careful planning and strategy. The general concept is that people can invest in communities that are meaningful to them through financial contributions or apply their skills and expertise for remuneration. As that community grows, they get to help direct it and participate in the upside.
What are some recent examples of DAOs in the marketplace?
ConstitutionDAO was created for a simple purpose. The organizers wanted to quickly pull together a community and investment to purchase a copy of the US Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction. In less than a week, their community grew to 8,000 members and over $40 million in contributions. Those who contributed received voting rights and fractional ownership in the historic document if they won the auction. ConstitutionDAO did not win the bid and decided to offer two options to its contributors. They could either request a full refund or keep their token to be included in future projects. Either way, it was a compelling example of generating investment and community around an idea quickly.
The Song That Owns Itself (STOI) is a DAO to explore collaborative song ownership where songs are created and captured in smart contracts allowing owners to share in decision-making for monetization and in the income generated by the song. STOI is based on an expanded version of the concept of serving the song. They take it a step further and ask what the song wants, and, according to STOI, songs want to be heard. Fans who share the music with others are rewarded with STOI tokens, which includes financial interest and voting power. This project highlights the trend of fans wanting to be closer to co-creating and co-monetizing art.
CabinDAO is cultivating a community focused on decentralized cities and other Web3 projects. Their first node in their decentralized city is a 28-acre site located in the Texas Hill Country, which accommodates one week stays in their cabins through a transferable passport. Along with their stay, passport holders get access to the CabinDAO guild of resources to support their Web3 projects. Contributors to the project as well as the guild are rewarded with $CABIN tokens. CabinDAO is paving the way for freelancing and co-working in the Metaverse by providing space and resources to incubate Web3 projects.
We’ll review these examples and others in more detail in the coming weeks.
DAOnload is a shared research experiment and curiosity-driven exploration into the world of DAOs. My hope is to offer unique insights to the philosophical frameworks and technological capabilities of these captivating constructs of community building and organization.
Read more cool articles on DAOs >> Here
Want more? Connect with NFT Plazas
Join the Weekly Newsletter
Join our Discord
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT Plazas are from the personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. Individuals are required to fully research any product prior to making any kind of investment.
Metaverse Methodologist, Connector and Creator