DAOs
The New Coordination Frontier
Comprehensive Report Curated By
( September 2021 Edition )
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why Study DAOs? Key Takeaways Survey Results 🔥🔥🔥 Takes
3 min read 5 min read 15 min read 15 min read
A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an organization represented by rules encoded as a computer program that is transparent, controlled by the organization members and not influenced by a central government - Wikipedia
WHY STUDY DAOs?
By combining multiple subjective perspectives, we can get closer to conceiving of the objective whole.
WHY STUDY DAOs?
To create situational awareness, allowing us to find the metaphorical “light bulb in the dark room”.
— Andrew Wiles
WHY STUDY DAOs?
To help members of DAOs share context & create common understanding.
How to design a DAO
WHY STUDY DAOs?
To help DAOs better coordinate their long term strategy.
WHY STUDY DAOs?
To explore new frontiers that are fun and rewarding!
How to DAO
KEY TAKEAWAYS
(5 min read)
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. DAOs are here today. DAOs are a worldwide trend & an emerging part of the Ethereum ecosystem. It’s happening! DAOs are already enabling dense p2p networks of value exchange & participation.
(A splice of Vote Delegation Data from the recent GitcoinDAO launch, each node is a voter, each edge is a delegation transaction)
2. The most popular responses by category:
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
DAOs | Bankless | Gitcoin | Index Coop | daosquare | dOrg |
Coordination Tools | Discord | Telegram | Snapshot | ||
Governance Tools | Snapshot | Gnosis Safe | Compound | DAOStack | Aragon |
DAO Type | NFT | Social | Investment | Protocol | Service |
DAO Funding source | Token Sale | NFTs | Investors | Services | Member Dues |
Compensation Tool | Coordinape� | Project-based | Bounties | Other + tipping | Hourly |
Earnings ($/mo) | $1-3k | Upto $1k | $3-5k | $5-7k | $0 |
Countries w. Most DAO participants | China | US | India | Hong Kong | Canada |
Roles | Community Building | Governance | Operations | Marketing | Development |
KEY TAKEAWAYS
3. Crypto is very geographically diverse. A diversity of skillsets was represented in the survey results.
Age + Gender diversity is a big problem. A majority of respondents to our survey were 20-40 year old males.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
4. DAO Fatigue is real, but only for a minority of highly engaged participants.
Most survey respondents were in 1 or 2 DAOs, but for the minority who were in 3-6 DAOs, feeling pulled in many directions was a real problem. Meaningful participation cannot be had beyond two DAOs.
“I have a main DAO that I work 80% of the time on, and about 2-3 other DAOs that I spend a few hours a week in.”
Anon
Intra-DAO Coordination�The coordination of resources within DAOs.
DAO (n)
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Inter-Ecosystem Coordination�The coordination of resources between L1 ecosystems.
Inter-DAO Coordination�The coordination of resources between DAOs.
DAO (n)
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5. There are a few key levels of abstraction in the DAO ecosystem:
It is unknown how/when interoperability will develop at each level of abstraction.
6. As of Sept 2021, many DAOs in the ecosystem have billions of $$ in capital & hundreds of creators working for them.
7. A majority of survey participants believe that DAOs are the future. Conversely, a minority of respondents are skeptical.
8. There is much left to invent/discover in the world of DAOs. Compliance, coordination, benefits, recruiting + retainment of talent, income volatility are all large unsolved problems.�
9. Participants have a feeling of fulfillment, meaning, and purpose not found in traditional organizations. Ownership fuels empowerment. Being able to be at the bleeding edge of tech / culture is a draw for some
KEY TAKEAWAYS
10. We’re early. Focus is on governance, operations, and community building. Systems & Processes = high leverage.
11. DAOs are incredibly easy to spin up with over 200 represented. Contrast this to corporations that require articles of incorporation, legal expertise, and approval.
12. DAOs are not a reliable source of income, despite income stability being a big pain point for creators.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
THE SURVEY��(15 min read)
422 Survey Respondents come from 223 DAOS in 290 cities across the world.
Sample
422 total respondents for Survey part 1
256 total respondents for Survey part 2
Survey
Background & Disclaimer
Top roles included “keeping the lights on” type activities:
The Roles
The survey data represented 223 different DAOs, well-represented ones including:
The DAOs, by name.
Many different types of DAOs were represented in the survey results.
The DAOs, by type.
The DAOs, by size.
Most DAOs were quite small, but a minority of DAOs are surprisingly large.
There was a diverse set of funding sources for these DAOs.
The DAOs, by funding source.
On one hand, somewhat surprising to see so many DAOs coalesce around NFTs (n = 112), but makes sense through the prism of funding source, as NFTs were the third most common source of funding for DAOs (n = 96).
A majority of respondents were 20-40 year old males. Most entered the industry in 2017-2018 and subsequent years.
The Demographics
The survey data represented dozens of countries across the world, with a majority of respondents from China.
The Geographic Breakdown
The survey data represented 290 cities across the world, with Hong Kong being best-represented.
The Geographic Breakdown
COMPENSATION
For roughly half of our respondents, DAOs were not their primary source of income
(n = 189).
Of respondents that do rely on DAOs, many had multiple sources of income (n = 104).
85 people were fully reliant on DAOs as their sole source of income.
The Source of Primary Income
The Size of Earnings
Compensation varied widely among respondents.
Most people were not relying on DAOs as their primary (n = 189) or sole source of income (n = 104), because for most making up to 3,000 USD / month, DAOs represent supplementary income.
However, this could change.
A sizable number of respondents report making anywhere from
5,000 - 10,000 usd/month which is comparable to a traditional salary.
The Coordination of Earnings
The primary sources of compensation are through crypto-native mechanisms:
DAOs represent a revolutionary way of determining compensation with many respondents (n = 159) reporting community-based schemes via Coordinape. We also see a mixture of more familiar project-based compensation (n = 158) and bounties (n = 104), akin to freelance or gig economies.
A substantial number of respondents (n = 55) report tipping, a more organic form of community-based reward and recognition, signalling the emergence of internal economies within DAOs - another feature not found in traditional work settings.
The Tokens Used
A majority of respondents were paid in a majority stablecoins/ETH as opposed to DAO Tokens.
This could change as DAOs mature.
The Size of Earnings
The majority of respondents have at least of 12 months of savings...
The Size of Earnings
...but may be vulnerable to a market downturn.
The Benefits: Savings
Although survey responders lean young (males, age: 20 - 40), the majority are saving for retirement
(n = 220).
The Benefits: Health Insurance
There are other factors outside of salary for why most people are holding onto their day jobs (i.e., 189 respondents were not reliant on DAOs as a primary income source)
Most people are getting their health insurance outside of DAOs, through current employers or a family member’s plan.
While more respondents prioritize income stability, many recognized that there is much room for growth with DAOs and were willing to delay the need for stability.
This is consistent with the younger demographic make-up of survey respondents.
(i.e., most ages 20 - 40).
The Income Stability
It's very much a priority, sole provider for family of three. So far so good, I am taking a leap of faith because I have insanely high conviction that DAOs (and adjacent structures) are the future of work. Scary but worth it. And the supposed security from working a normie job (they can rug/downsize you anytime) isn't worth the freedom and juice I get working with other like minded folks in DAOworld.
�
Yes and no. Since jumping into DAOs new opportunities are opening up for me really rapidly so my income will likely be doubling or more very soon. Then, it will meet my needs of a stable income.
�
Income stability isn't a huge issue as long as it averages out to being above basic living expenses. My income has been fairly stable.
Is your income stability a priority for you?
How do you handle local taxation/compliance requirements for workers?
We leave it up to the individuals.
I found a renegade accountant who deals with all the pain in this regard.
As carefully as possible.
I have a sole proprietorship setup which makes dealing with miscellaneous income easy.
Opolis does this for me via an LLC.
I have my own limited liability company where I am the only owner and only employee.
I class myself as self employed as declare DAO income as income.
With lots of suffering because it is a nightmare.
DAO_X is great about giving us the proper 1099 forms for our work.
�Singapore doesn't tax crypto I think. Probably the safest and nicest place for crypto to flourish!
COORDINATION
The Communication Tools
Discord, Twitter, and Telegram were the most commonly used communication tools.
As much as the industry talks about web3, DAO communication still favors web2 channels.
Discord has emerged as the number one tool for DAOs to communicate, bringing credible challenge to Twitter, particularly as the space continues to grow.
The Governance Architecture
Snapshot, Gnosis Safe, and Compound were the top governance frameworks used.
The Web3 Wallets
Metamask, TrustWallet, and WalletConnect were the top wallets used.
Metamask continues to be the industry lead, but there is fierce competition in the wallet space.
The Blockchains
Ethereum was the most used blockchain, but BSC, Bitcoin, Solana, and Polkadot were not far behind.
The Scaling Solutions
Polygon, xDAI, and ZKSync were the top 3 Ethereum Scaling solutions used.
The Top 20 dApps
Uniswap was the top dApp by far.
The Web3 Tools
POAP, Snapshot, Gitcoin, Rabbithole were the most commonly used web3 tools.
Snapshot is the leading tool for DAOs to coordinate resources and is considered a fundamental building block for DAOs. Interestingly, focused tools like Snapshot, POAPs, gnosis safe got more adoption than all-in-one tooling like DAOStack, Aragon, Moloch or Colony.
Bookmarking your life with NFTs issued by events you attend. | DAO management platform helping their members frictionlessly participate in their governance | Treasury Management and one-click mass payouts for DAOs | |||
Fundamental tool for resource coordination in DAOs | Tools to reward contributors, incentivize participation and manage resources in DAOs | DAO framework for ownership, structure, authority, and financial management. | |||
Build and Fund the Open Web Together | No code platform for launching DAOs and coordinating with existing ones | Tool to help crypto communities manage their treasury, categorize income and expenses, and access a real-time treasury dashboard. | |||
Earn an on-chain credential which shows your mastery of new technologies in web3 | User-friendly, tokenized, community-management system for DAOs with concierge bots, etc. | Decentralized code collaboration network built on open protocols | |||
New market mechanisms for decentralized finance to securely create, trade, and hold digital assets on Ethereum. | Voting dashboard for DAOs that aggregates data from defi protocols’ governance | | |
The Web3 Tools
Tasks on a voluntary basis, paid using coordinape.
Task assignment is done at the worker's free-will. There is typically emergent leadership that is present on a project, based on who is the most involved / qualified / knowledgeable. This leader will help others find useful things to do, if they do not already have something in mind.
General consensus during weekly meetings. Coordinape is used a lot.
Tasks are assigned in a voluntary basis at the moment or by bounties. When I started in the DAO I just started doing things that I thought needed doing like organising the Treasury Guild and start doing the financial reporting.
How does your DAO decide what you’re doing & how much to pay you?
Based on weekly discussion and milestones tasks are delegated to most active contributors. They pay people via bounties on Coinvise or Gitcoin.
We try to be a ‘teal’ organization where all members choose what they work on. We have some great teammates who help keep us on track with our design and development cycles, we use linear.app for that. Currently core members are paid a fixed salary that I chose myself, but when I first started all payment was through Coordinape gift circles.
Currently DAO_X has the program called impression mining. If you write articles regarding Index coop or tweet and you get impression, you can apply rewards.
Nope.
No I don't have any.
No. But interesting idea. Maybe it's possible to pull this info straight from my eth address!
NO. I do have a reputation that perhaps doesn't necessitate having one.
I'd say my degen score but it's embarrassingly bad. I need to get one though! Recommendations?
Do you have a DAO-version of a resume?
Not yet. Still so nascent it feels like everyone is 2 degrees of separation so word of mouth is king.
Combination of POAPs + coordinape + degenscore.
Nope, don't need a resume. We are in too much demand to need one.
The Poaps and signatures in my wallet.
MetaGame has the closest thing I've seen.
Better timezone management.
There are needed improvements to the way DAOs reward consistent contributors, as proposals/grants do not take care of that aspect of day-to-day operations properly. Some tools like coordinate are doing a good job to help but there is still a long way to go to getting a system where someone can feel a sense of job security working with DAOs and be able to take on responsibilities like home/car ownership and a family.
We need to push past the Coin based voting system in passing proposals and decision making Opportunities are still emerging in this field and we are just getting started.
Community work can be quite hard to coordinate. You're not certain what everyone is working on and you don't know who is actually going to finish their project/improvement. It is really easy to say I'm going to fix x or build x and some can build/fix it but then it can be a question of can they implement it. You need the knowledge, execution, and votes to be productive in community governance.
Let the people who really participate in the project get the benefits, not those who exploit the loopholes
The biggest pain point are people who want to help but need to be helped to be able to help :) So, for now only very assertive people find something to do.
�DAO governance is currently very shallow and has a long way to go. Decentralization and regulatory issues persist.�
Random international people in all different timezones inherently makes coordinating things difficult, but we've got a decent structure so things are cohesive
How could coordination be improved?
Understand that you're working for the community and when applicable, share your work product with the community. I also made an effort to get to know a lot of the active community members and would recommend someone working at a DAO to do the same
Don't invest more than you can afford to lose, earn your way through by spending time in the community, be helpful, be genuine and show good character, make yourself useful��Join Opolis if you want to work for DAOs full time, be ready for a lot of self-direction
Figure it out on your own. It's nothing but test and learn from how to interact with folks, how to propose ideas, how to collaborate, and how to get work done. If you don't want to explore and be a self starter you're not gonna have fun in a DAO.
No one is telling you what to do. This is freedom and responsibility. Go and do what you like.
Also, get in learning mode all the time. The value is at the fringes.
What advice would you have while recommending working for a DAOs to a friend?
GENERAL
I build cool stuff on my own terms with rad people .
I wake up when i feel like waking up, work on stuff when i have the chance, give async updates, jump on a call if there's one, go to bed late at night.
Code code code.
What is your DAY to DAY like?
Review pull requests in GitHub, and communicate with the other contributors in our chat channels.
Meetings, Meetings, and more Meetings.
A mixture of coordination meetings and direct project/client work. I love being able to jump back and forth between various types of projects and activities. I have a 'hybrid' role for both XDAO and YDAO where I split my time doing dev work (roughly 70% of my time) and writing/project management/community building (30% of my time or so).
I believe DAOs are the future of governance. A form of evolved direct democracy based on heterarchy to sustain an incentivization for participation.
The people are great, and I enjoy inspiring/energizing others about what is possible. It makes me push myself as I try to lead by example. I've taken on massively difficult things for me, and have grown by leaps and bounds.
DAO_NAME is the best thing that happened to me . I came from a poor background in Nigeria but DAO_NAME have helped to lift me out of poverty .
What is your favorite part of working for a DAO?
A bunch of people who have never met in each other in real life, working together.
Access to the most cutting-edge dynamics in the field of crypto.��Highly participatory way of working and governing. I have not encountered any limits (yet) in projects and focus I wanted to be part of. One can be part of many different working groups and sub-DAOs. There is fluidity in structure and in roles.
What is your DAY to DAY like?
What is your favorite part of working for a DAO?
(Word Clouds)
Perhaps lack of guidance, but at the same time that creates more opportunity.
Unorganized, and even though it is meant to be less hierarchical, at certain points, need of control and power is overcoming the underlined ideology of DAOs.
Some people need more guidance than others (ie some members are less self-initiating than others). My role is to provide guidance to such members - it can be a challenge sometimes.
There are moments when decisions feel centralized. A member who has more privileged information have more sway in decisions.
Lack of social equity and diversity in most DAOs. Lack of power sharing. Misogynist people. Need better collaboration and reciprocity tools.
We need a little more structure.
What is your LEAST favorite part of working for a DAO?
CREATOR SPOTLIGHTS
How did you get into DAOs?�I have been active in crypto projects since 2017 and the path towards the DAOs has been very linear. I was fascinated by the birth and growth of DAOs and the different forms of governance. Furthermore, working IRL in the environment related to blockchain development, the study of these processes was also linked to a "productive" purpose. I did not actively participate in the ecosystem until the birth of BanklessDAO, in which I was lucky enough to meet many exceptional people who stimulated me to work harder every day to help the development of the daosphere.
What is your day to day like?
The morning hours in BanklessDAO are linked to the planning of the day and to the updating with what happened in the DAO during the night hours, carrying out some tasks with the DAO members who live in Asia and Europe. In the afternoon I participate in calls and chats related to the topics I am involved in, such as Marketing, Operations, Grants and the Guild of Translators. Despite the commitments there is no lack of moments of leisure and fun with the other members of the DAO.
Whats the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
The best part is learning something new every day by building new collaborative dynamics with the other members of the DAO, setting up and carrying out new projects, comparing ideas and experiences that are very different from mine.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO?
For me, working for a DAO is a source of pride, satisfaction and enthusiasm, a commitment that is able to enrich me both intellectually and spiritually and at the same time allow me to build, together with others, something new and at times revolutionary.
How (and when) did you get into DAOs?
I started taking an interest in DAOs in spring 2021. I mostly just read the Discord chats and listened into a few community calls. Bankless was the first one that I became more involved in. It just seemed more obvious that there were spots I could fit myself into and it aligned with my goals (becoming a web3 dev). I’ve spent a lot of time on web forums going back to the early 00s and the process wasn’t all that different. I just sort of lurked until I felt like I had a good idea of what was going on and could make meaningful contributions.
What is your day to day like?
I have a part time position on another small project outside the DAO. I usually start with reviewing emails, messages across three platforms (too many), calendar for the day, and then I manage my own notion ticketing so I can track my tasks between Bankless and the other project. From there it’s sort of just going to work on whatever seems to best match up for whatever my brain is feeling that day. I try to keep any meetings restricted to just Mondays and Thursdays, I have a hard time being productive on tasks that require more concentration when my day is gonna be broken up. I try to end my day by 5pm so I can make dinner and get some little chores done.
Whats the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
You get to control your own level of involvement and how much others can expect from you. There’s always more stuff that needs to get done than there is people to do it. If you have a cool idea that you think would benefit the DAO you can just bring it forward, and if others are into it they’ll just jump in and start collaborating with you, then you can get it funded! It’s been a challenge to try and keep that all in balance, and not take on too much too fast.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO?
This is the first time in my life where I have to set limits on myself for how much work I do in a day, cause I’m just excited about it. I go to bed excited about the stuff I’ve been working on and am looking forward to getting back to it the next day. I think DAOs have revolutionary potential in how people think about and organize around work.
How did you get into DAOs?�I started a meetup in Chicago that grew to over 3,000 members. When we started needing sponsors to cover the cost of venues, I realized the community was a public good. A DAO could facilitate the coordination needed to fairly and transparently collaborate.�
What is your day to day like?
My day starts with getting one big thing done. In launching the FDD workstream, that has been thinking through the infrastructure that will facilitate better collaboration and relationships. I spend a lot of time during the day talking with contributors trying to figure out how they can excel in the DAO. Many aren't used to being able to choose their work rather than being ordered what to do.�
Whats the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
The most interesting part of working for a DAO is the quality of the contributors. It is SHOCKING to see the incredibly talented and accomplished individuals willing to give their valuable time to a shared mission. I have the best conversation of my life almost every day.�
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO?
Working for a DAO is risky. It's like leaving earth for the settlement on Mars. You and the people you are building with have three months to figure out how to build a source of oxygen.
How did you get into DAOs?
I started my journey in blockchain in July 2020. Randomly I discovered a project called Polkadot then after completing 5 challenges in the hello world hackathon in Gitcoin. It brings curiosity in me to learn more about DAO's and blockchain. Then I completed many blockchain network pathways on datahub by figment.io after that I promise myself I will stick to the blockchain field now. This is the first time I ever earn something in my life while contributing in web 3. My next goal is to learn and grow as much as I can in DAO's.
What is your day to day like?
My day-to-day tasks include walking up early editing videos and after that surfing twitter while learning solidity. After that I took 1hr rest and I cook food by myself for lunch then I started learning a foreign language Czech for 1 and half hr. These all task makes me to look life on the brighter side.
What's the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
In DAO's community members + core developers are humble and helpful. Whenever I had any queries and errors in code they try their best to help me even the project core dev help me lots of times. This is the best thing about DAO's which we'll rarely see in a centralized workplace.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO?
I will say DAO's are our future. Folks who are working in centralized companies should explore web 3 too because they are missing the cool things going on in DAO's. There is equal opportunity for everyone in DAO's whether he/she is technical or non-technical.
How did you get into DAOs?
I went from zero to one. I came late to the cryptosphere, and only went down deep in the rabbit hole of ethereum in march 2021. It was only a couple of months later that I discovered the Bankless podcast, listened to many of the old podcasts and found out about the Bankless DAO. The idea of DAOs was completely foreign to me. I went out there and picked up what was about 1000 USD worth of $BANK tokens then, that others basically got for free. At that time I thought to myself, “Oh well I’ve lost money in stupidier ways, so why not YOLO?”. Since then I’ve thrown myself deep into the community. Something I find useful is asking myself “What value can I bring to the DAO? Rather than, what member benefits can joining this DAO bring me?”. This attitude has been very helpful in my work in the Bankless DAO.
What is your day to day like?
As a member of the Asia-Pacific region, it can be difficult to attend the meetings synchronously. So we have to rely on reading the notes asynchronously. I sometimes wake up very early to attend work hours before my day job. Then after work I will start work by dropping into the discord server, reading all the important messages and the channels that I’m directly involved in. I try to focus on one project a week, that seems to be the only way I can work. At the evening time I usually drop into the NFT Connoisseur Club for my daily entertainment. After I finish, then I will head out to the other discord channels to check on important announcements. In between, I spend a lot of time with my kids. Sometimes, I feel like I live a double life.
Whats the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
Far better to be a small part of a bigger movement, than a big part of a small one. -- cart_collector
There is a lot of information asymmetry in the cryptosphere, being in the Bankless DAO, I feel like i’m being with “cool gang”. This space attracts the smartest, brightest, richest and most philosophical people. I love to rub off some wisdom working with them. The fact that we can put random people around the world and actually ship projects just continues to amaze me.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO?
Working for the DAO, I feel like I’m part of historical events constantly. But only on hindsight. The space moves so fast. Without a team and a warm community, there is absolutely no way to keep up. It’s really important to be part of a DAO to play the long game and not burn out too early.
If You Want to Go Quickly, Go Alone. If You Want to Go Far, Go Together. -- African proverb
How did you get into DAOs?
I became interested in DAOs this summer! I’m more excited by the sociological/organizational impacts of decentralization (the money side is fun, but I like diving into the people side more) so I was looking for DAOs I could get involved in. Since I listen to Bankless so frequently, I decided to give this one a go! It’s been really fun and I’ve learned a ton so far.
What is your day to day like?
Since I work a non-crypto job, I squeeze in crypto stuff everywhere I can. I usually listen to Bankless or Uncommon Core while running, so I get exercise and crypto news all in one! I do my DAO work when my normal work is slow (shhh….don’t tell my normie coworkers!) and on weekends. My boyfriend is deep into crypto from the developer/coding side, so we’re constantly talking about crypto and DAOs and Web 3. Living in a crypto-native household makes it easier to get motivated to work on the weekends (it honestly doesn’t feel like work though). 0
What’s the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
I’m interested in how decentralized organizations like DAOs can work through problems of organization without turning into a corporation. Normal corporations have to use a complex hierarchy to get things done, but I’m excited about how DAOs can skip the hierarchy and solve problems through voting.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO?
It’s really opened my eyes to how backwards many of our traditional corporate systems are. I can’t wait until the day I get to vote for a DAO for president!
How did you get into DAOs?
I’ve known of DAOs for quite a while but hadn’t seriously considered working with or for one until recently. I found Gitcoin and joined to lead the effort to decentralize our core products. The quest to decentralize started with Gitcoin Grants. Having stepped into a DAO Steward role, it began to feel like a natural progression to bring the Progressive Decentralization workstream into existence and move to working for the DAO full time.
What is your day to day like?
Currently my day is partially like the normal day of a CTO or Engineering Leader. I play the product owner and project manager, do some recruiting from our community, keep communications going, and other normal related tasks. I spend a good bit of time thinking through and working out how to do some normal company things but in the way of the DAO.
Whats the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
The most interesting part of working for a DAO is being a part of finding solutions to some of the hard problems that DAOs face. I really enjoy taking a problem at a time and progressively moving them more and more toward decentralization. It’s also extremely interesting talking to all of the energetic and enthusiastic people that are involved in DAOs and hearing so many different ideas and perspectives. Everyone that I’ve had the privilege of working with is truly in this space to make the world a better place and collaborate and that’s refreshing.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO?
The more that we can help people understand what DAOs really are, the easier it will be to make forward progress with DAOs. There are a few areas such as regulatory, legal, and financial where it is currently difficult to bridge the gap due to antiquated tech and understanding that would benefit from having a better understanding of what could be.
How did you get into DAOs?
Getting into DAOs was a very gradual process for me. I liked the idea of TokenSets back in 2020, so I bought some when they launched. Then when Set started Index Coop, I again aped in. When the Investment Committee of Index Coop was launched in 2021, I saw an area with my own skillset where I could make contributions beyond token holding. I introduced myself and gave feedback. This led me to became a member and later on I got asked to become the Coop ambassador towards Kyber, whose team I had connections with through my research work.
What were you doing before DAOs? �Before working with DAOs I was a crypto researcher for a crypto fund. I started working there in 2016 and climbed up to become the head of research. Before that I had been doing unrelated work, which did prepare me for my work today. Since I was 16 years old I had been teaching part time, a skill I still use in my research and my talks. And I had worked as a hotel manager, a skill I use in project managing.
What is your day to day like?�I work 5 days a week, morning to the afternoon. With multiple breaks for lunch, a nap and dinner. Due to time zones I often still have calls later in the afternoon and evening. I divide my working hours currently between 6 different projects, 1 of which is not a DAO. My actual work is 1/4th research, 1/4th advice, 1/2 BD. Roughly speaking.
Whats the most interesting part of working for a DAO?
The freedom it brings. All participants are there because they want to, are passionate and believe in the work. Otherwise they would have put their time in somewhere else. People who work in DAOs right now are super motivated, highly intelligent people who are working on the edge of what is possible within global human cooperation.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about working for a DAO? �Challenges around DAOs should not be ignored. Ownership is often not distributed enough and regulations are still unclear. We as a community have to keep striving towards full decentralization if we want to keep this experiment going.
🔥🔥🔥 TAKES
(15 min read)
We don't work for a dao. We work for us. At the very least it's we work for ourselves. Dao is us. We are dao. Dao is all. Thank you.
Anon
ANON HOT TAKE 🔥
I wish Twitter stopped romanticizing DAOs and tbh DAO is a horrible name. These organizations are not decentralized or autonomous. We are building corporations on the blockchain. It isn't a democracy and not everyone is going to have a choice. However, what is amazing is that anyone anywhere can join and participate. People are judged more fairly than traditional jobs.
Anon
ANON COLD TAKE 🧊
@Niran’s 🔥 Take
DAOs are the missing economic tool we need to revitalize community life and bring people together again.
Corporations have equity as their powerful tool that makes corporate life take up so much space.
Governments have currencies as their powerful tool that makes political life dominate everything.
DAOs and their tokens are the missing piece of the puzzle. You need to join a DAO so you can shape what comes next!
Auryn Macmillan’s 🔥 Take
The emergence of DAO's — multi-organizational networks; constellations of people, teams, organizations, communities, and tools — represents a monumental paradigm shift in the way humans organize with, collaborate with, and incentivize one and other to achieve their individual and collective goals.
Most interesting is our newly rediscovered ability to architect systems where the desired outcomes are the emergent results of uncoordinated participants acting in their own mutual self-interest.
METADREAMER’s 🔥 Take
There's no doubt any more that DAOs are going to define the future of human coordination. The invention of computers, the internet, and cryptocurrency were all just steps in a longer journey we are still on together, and the next step is DAOs.
To think that all these things happened in less than one lifetime really puts into perspective how we are still very early in this journey despite the inconceivable impact it has had on humanity and that it will continue to have for generations to come.
There is no industry more fulfilling, exciting and rewarding to work in than DAOs right now, and we are just getting started.
@leighcuen’s 🔥 Take
@hudsonjameson’s 🔥 Take
As is the case with many innovations, people need to change the way they think at a fundamental level to be open to new ideas. When it comes to DAOs, too many people are quick to bring up the road blocks and reasons why it can't work today. The real innovators look beyond that and iterate towards a future where workers have more autonomy over their pay and more transparency into organizational decisions.
@ShapeShiftCOO’s 🔥 Take
A DAO is not a new type of company or just a new way of governing things; it contains those aspects, but it is so much more than the sum of these parts. It is an entirely new type of economic activity and system we don’t yet have the full language to describe yet, and much less have the language to describe where it will go.
I believe DAOs will prove to be the next great innovation in how humans can collectively coordinate on accomplishing and incentivizing the operation of shared goals. Perhaps it will even prove to be the greatest such innovation in not just centuries, but millennia of humans learning to work with each other.
@JuliaLipton’s 🔥 Take
DAOs unlock the ownership economy. They allow people to collectively organize, create value, and capture that value. In DAOs, instead of companies capturing the upside, members capture the upside. That's really fucking cool.
@TimBeiko’s 🔥 Take
DAOs are important because they enable on-chain organizations of every types and sizes. The Ethereum Cat Herders has been run as a DAO since 2018, and EIP-1559 was in part funded by a DAO that was put together overnight to collect and distribute funds. For me, it feels like over the past couple years they've gone from a rough proof of concept to a tool that I use regularly without thinking too much about it. That's huge!
@nanexcool’s 🔥 Take
@PallerJohn’s 🔥 Take
DAOs, at their core, create positive sum economic games. An infinite tide of creativity & shared value.
Owner, Stakeholder, and Contributor become synonymous. A truly beautiful future.
Peter Pan’s 🔥 Take
If it weren't hard, we wouldn't be here. We are very much reshaping what economic coordination will look like day by day. ��The immensity and difficulty of what we are trying to achieve will be overwhelming at times.
�I think we lose perspective on how difficult this transition from centralized to decentralized is and that we are all figuring it out together.�
@sassal0x’s 🔥 Take
For the first time in history, DAOs allow humans to coordinate on a global scale without a centralized intermediary. ��DAOs bring people of all types of backgrounds together to work towards a common goal by either leveraging their own selfish interests (through token incentives) or rewarding participants with increased social capital.
@LefterisJP’s 🔥 Take
After working on "The DAO" and having faced both code exploits and governance and game-theoretic problems I ended up very hostile to the concepts of DAOs.
5 years later and our ecosystem proves that DAOs can work and are indeed the future of collaborative work in an interconnected world. Through DAOs and the tooling around them we can coordinate and incentivize large sets of of people with common goals.
@ASvanevik’s 🔥 Take
DAOs extend the design space of organizations. For several hundred years, humans have been restricted to a handful of ways to coordinate themselves. With DAOs, any form of organization that can be expressed as code is possible.
@mkriak’s 🔥 Take
From governing and building protocols to pooling investment capital, we are changing the way the internet is architected and funded. But placing web3’s future in the hands of the community has its peril.
�We need to help DAO communities better communicate, coordinate and respect the value and contribution each of us brings. Decentralized identities that can issue verified credentials and show reputation will help add provenance and weight to DAO proposals, discord threads and delegation of voting to stewards. ��Here’s to building all of that and more.
@melove_07’s 🔥 Take
It’s a privilege to be this early in crypto and to be part of an ecosystem shaping the future of organizations and institutions via DAOs. With that privilege also comes a responsibility to do it with a longterm view of designing them for sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion. ��If not, DAOs may only create value for an exclusive group of people and fall to the risks and negative consequences that come with concentrated wealth and power. If we’re here to change the world via how humans organize, coordinate and create value, we need much more diversity of people, backgrounds, skills and expertise for a truly multidisciplinary approach to designing organizations of the future — not just people who found crypto now. ��I want to ensure someone who finds a DAO in 10, 20 or 50 years can benefit just as much as someone who found it now. I want to ensure that people who don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on tokens can be part of a DAO and have a voice. I want to ensure the cultural revolution we say we are creating emerges from many diverse cultures with varying perspectives.
@thegrifft’s 🔥 Take
DAOs enable bottom up economic organization. You used to need an army to start an economy, now you and your friends can just start a DAO! 🚀
It is still early days, the Tech is there (could be better 😉), but the cultural patterns for using DAOs effectively are still emerging.
The best DAOs are structured as Community Governed Economies. The better the coordination, the better the DAO #ItsAllCoordination.
@Loie_Low’s 🔥 Take
In DAOs we practice within what we put out into the world. Decentralization goes far beyond hosting, beyond consensus/truth, beyond tech. It's in how we relate to one another. How we determine what to pay, how we decide project strategy, how we hire and fire. All these pieces, previously centralized up the pyramid onto a boss, are now community owned and operated. I'm proud to be a part of teams dedicated to practicing what they preach even when it's difficult. As above so below, as within so without.
@Defi_Dad 🔥 Take
DAOs are the next evolution of clubs, organizations, even meetups where you can find like-minded people to connect with. The difference is DAOs allow us to coordinate in a digital-first community and manage a treasury of digital assets in our journey to accomplish something great together.
@Sim_Pop’s 🔥 Take
This whole thing is about evolution - not revolution so it might take a minute. It’s about elevating our current structures to support much more collaborative, empowering dynamics that genuinely set us all up for thriving vs the selfish, growth obsessed egotistical maniacs we’ve been taught to be for generations. But this evolution also requires unlearning as much as it requires a coordinated build so we must always be mindful and fully responsible for what we bring forth in our new structures.
@SantiSiri’s 🔥 Take
"As crypto impacts the lives of billions, scaling coordination and legitimacy will be critical.
DAOs will pave the way to new forms of identity and democracy that will render obsolete our legacy institutions and embrace our planetary challenges."
@EvaBeylin’s 🔥 Take
A DAO is a skeleton for a body of works, communities and contributors to flourish from.
If your DAO is successful you shouldn't even know it's there, it'll just be a well-functioning community.
@CamiRusso’s 🔥 Take
DAOs are changing how we organize talent and capital. By using decentralized networks as their rails and tokens to incentivize participants, closed companies can now be open protocols. Their user base can be instantly global with a workforce that is more flexible, sourced from a larger talent pool, and flatter. DAOs can better collaborate with entities in the same field and grow together. The type of organization that’s even possible is also changing, as online communities can now more easily monetize their networks -- we might see some of the largest companies of the future emerge from a gaming Discord channels, from an artists’ fan base, or a content creators’ subscribers ;)
@santiagoroel’s 🔥 Take
DAOs are very interesting mechanisms to coordinate resources - financial & human capital - towards a common goal. The key will be balancing out the creative energy with some degree of structure to empower DAO members. I'm excited to see more DAO tooling and infrastructure be built out that allows for DAOs to scale and operate in a more efficient way.
@Aaron Wright’s 🔥 Take
DAOs are the native structure of the Internet Age
�They create hive minds and ideally leaderless organizations, favoring swarm like behavior over hierarchy.
@ntnsndr’s 🔥 Take
The big question to me about DAOs is how they are going to evolve beyond what has so far been their superpower: the reliance on economic incentives as the primary design strategy. We human beings are more than just homo economicus. If we're to entrust important things to DAOs, we need to make sure they're accountable to our whole selves.
People are already figuring out how to do this in exciting ways. The way Gitcoin centers public goods is part of it. The way 1Hive centers a values-based "covenant" is part of it. Projects like Kleros and ETHDenver are also building on top of cooperative structures—building democracy into the core of the community. Economics needs to be accountable to democracy.
Cooper Turley’s 🔥 Take
DAOs are the new LLCs.
For the first time in history, we can work on what we love and get paid in ownership for the value that we create.
(Read Cooper’s breakdown of the DAO Landscape)
WRAP-UP
Thanks + Contact Info
Thank you to the Gitcoin Funders League for making this (and other) public goods available & well-funded
Thank you to Electric Capital for inspiring us with your annual Developer Report.�
Thanks to Cooper Turley, Peter Pan, 0xLucas for feedback on the report.
Thanks to everyone who submitted data and/or a take. We <3 you!
Thank you to everyone working in DAOs for giving us something interesting to report on, and hope for the future of coordination.
Acknowledgements
Not financial or tax advice. This deck is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This deck is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclaimer
APPENDIX
TLDR - On 8/24/2021, we announced a survey to Creators who work on DAOs.
�This was the prompt:
As of August 2021, thousands of people are now working for DAOs. This is uncharted territory, and GitcoinDAO/BanklessDAO have banded together to begin mapping it.
We have identified you as someone who works for a DAO. We invite you to contribute to the discussion and help inform the ecosystem + hopefully help the ecosystem coordinate to create better infrastructure for the internet of jobs.
This survey is about 25 questions long and will take 10-15 minutes to fill out. All questions are optional and answers will be kept private on an individual level (though anonymized/aggregated statistics will be released, and we may reach out to you for specific permission to quote you IF your answer is interesting enough).
In return for your participation, we have a very special limited edition POAP we will be sending at the end of the survey. We may also drop you some DAI if your answers are especially thoughtful :)
Thanks so much 🖖
@frogmonkee and @owocki
The Survey Prompt
MORE TAKES
Vishal Kankani’s 🔥 Take
DAOs are the next logical step in our history and would bring incredible prosperity.
Crypto innovation cycle culminates in coordination mechanisms that would be orders of magnitude better than the status quo.
Owocki’s 🔥 Take
It’s all coordination & it always has been. DAOs are just the latest frontier in coordination technology.
@cadamstallard’s 🔥 Take
With a DAO, I can create a chain of actions, tie them to a vote, and when it passes, the actions happen. This beats the trust involved with delegating to a trusted person to take a check to the bank, for example.
DAOs are also bringing a lot of attention into finding creative ways to make decisions, involving more people, and automating where possible so that everyone has just the right amount of governance. DAOs are very early, but this attention is great.
@JessicaZartler’s 🔥 Take
I look forward to the day DAOs work for the people so we don't repeat the anthropomorphization of bureaucratic entities, enabling them to become entrenched power structures. DAOs are a vehicle for collective action, not bureaucracy & enslavement.
@ASvanevik 🔥 Take (bonus one!!)
It's easy to start a DAO, but hard to make one successful. This probably means many DAOs will disappoint in the short term. At the same time, DAOs are likely underrated in the long-term, as we figure out what works and what doesn't.
@AustinGriffith’s 🔥 Take
In DAOs, we are still discovering the ways we want to coordinate. I’m working with a bunch of coders to prototype coordination mechanisms in something called the Moonshot Collective. We’re building tons of coordination starter kits and hope to discover new, better, DAO-native ways to allocate resources.
@chaserchapman’s 🔥 Take
DAOs will crypto pill more people than defi and jpegs combined.
You don’t need ETH to start contributing + the upside of ownership can be just as lucrative.
@jchervinsky’s 🔥 Take
I believe developers, creators, & others who coordinate in DAOs should have limited liability.
Our society gives limited liability to other business forms to encourage risk-taking & innovation. DAOs deserve similar treatment.
If we need to change the law for this, let's do it.
@PaperclipDAO’s 🔥 Take
Speaking from experience, a great way to form a DAO is to start with a fairly small Avenger's style superteam with complementary abilities and then expand slowly and gradually to include people who've meaningfully contributed to the dao. But it's still really hard.
@YalorMewn’s 🔥 Take
The way I see it DAO's are in a state of amorphous evolution, we don't yet know what impact they will have on society. We have great hopes and aspirations for what they "could" become, a tool for empowering individuals, for super charging communities and overcoming the capture and extract models of past tech.
But at this point the best thing anyone can do is dive in with both hands and help these entities find their footing. By using our integrity and intuition to guide this miraculous technology forward we are ultimately liberating souls and empowering a wave of innovation that will echo long after we're gone.
@SantiSiri’s 🔥 Take (Bonus, 2nd take!)
"We have seen grandparents, mothers and children use Ethereum for the first time thanks to the incentives of having Universal Basic Income implemented on top of Proof of Humanity. In many places around the world, UBI is bringing a better alternative than the government's pension system in place... the social face of Ethereum is going to be more powerful than being just a decentralized form of 'social media.'"
@frogmonkee’s 🔥 Take
@pillheadddd’s 🔥 Take
For all their hype, DAOs are little more than another new and exciting acronym. To realize their potential, we'll need to gain a deeper understanding of the cognitive basis of human communication and coordination and the broad implications of incentive design. A more sophisticated culture of pseudoanon identity, supported by a reputation model based on what you actually *contribute* can help reduce discrimination and empower those people that *act*.
Finally, the cultivation of digital animism can provide us with a compassionate framework for elevating non-human digital entities and systems as equals within an environment that must inevitably begin its life as predominantly human-centric.
OWOCKI’s TAKES
1. Pre-internet, there have existed many different designs of vessels for human coordination. These Skeuomorphic Comparables may help us understand the design space of DAOs.
Co-Op - a member-owned and member-controlled business that operates for the benefit of its members.�
Keiretsu - a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings.
Common Stock Corporation - Common stock is a security that represents ownership in a corporation. Holders of common stock elect the board of directors and vote on corporate policies.
Egregore - a distinct non-physical, psychic manifestation, or thoughtform, occurring when any group shares a common motivation—being made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of the group, in which a symbiotic relationship develops between an egregore and its group.
OWOCKI’s TAKES
2. Many DAOs are designed for the evolution of trust between their participants. ��Some common design patterns:
1. Repeat Interactions
2. Possible Win-Wins
3. Low Miscommunication
+1
+1
OWOCKI’s TAKES
3. DAOs design their incentives & curate their culture to create long-term oriented, positive sum interactions between their participants & other stakeholders.��When participants’ actions move beyond short term + selfish gain, actions that are long term + good for the whole DAO begin to emerge.
{
Great DAOs
Design for this
Not just this
{
{
{
OWOCKI’s TAKES
4. For now, DAOs are a crypto-only phenomenon. However, there is excitement about DAO’s going mainstream on day.
Crypto is a a global, transparent, immutable, well-financed, & programmable foundation for resource allocation & coordination.
�If coordination mechanisms develop in crypto that are better than our legacy coordination mechanism, it is possible that crypto-native and DAO-native coordination can scale to become a mainstream use case.
Crypto
�Todays DAOs
Tech
The World