My DAO Experiment: Part 3
This is part 3 of a series outlining my continued experiment participating in Genesis DAO, the first decentralized organization built on DAOstack (see Parts 1 & 2 if you haven’t yet).
In this article, I will explore some of my favorite / least favorite aspects of participating in a Genesis DAO: The Good and The Ugly. Note that no two DAOs will ever be identical, and my experience only offers a small sliver of insight into what DAOs will look like.
The Good: The taste of freedom
Most of us have, at least once in our life, felt like a cog in some great big corporate machine.
You should be grateful if you’ve never had to experience this.
Fear not! DAOs are coming to the rescue. Hopefully. At least for some of us. Maybe.
One of the aspects of working for a DAO I’ve enjoyed the most is the freedom. In theory, you could propose to do any scope of work you can imagine. For someone like me (who enjoys variety), this is fun. Over the last few months, I’ve written articles, coordinated branding efforts, and helped bring DAOs to life… something I could never be doing within a regular organization unless it was an early startup.
Note that although there is flexibility here, this freedom has a cost. Freedom is based on accountability, transparency, and trust. One should be cautious not to take this freedom for granted.
The Good: One big happy family, for now
One of the most enjoyable parts of being part of Genesis DAO has been the sense of community. Although we use very experimental web3.0 tools… the nature of interactions within the community feels very human.
A large part of my professional career has been spent working for others. Although I’ve had a number of friends in these organizations, these interactions have been distinctly different than the ones I’ve experienced within the DAO.
They’ve felt more transactional in nature possibly.
Perhaps the main difference in interactions can be explained by an intrinsic alignment of shared values. Because of the open nature of DAOs, everyone is there by choice.
Within most traditional organization, unless you’re a startup or have managed to recruit incredibly values aligned employees… this just doesn’t exist.
The Good: A sense of hope
DAOs will solve all of our problems.
Probably not. But there are some really cool things happening in the space, which could possibly help tackle some really hairy problems like climate change (see Giveth’s Commons Stack).
DAOstack has a big vision. In the words of Matan, “ We are at a point where markets and hierarchies do not have the capacity to handle the set of problems that needs to be solved. At a certain point, if you can’t solve the problems you are facing exponentially, you are done. We need to invent a new set of tools for how humans can coordinate their sense-making, choice-making and actions. A collective intelligence. That is precisely what DAOstack is aiming to do.”
One can’t help but get excited at the hope of possibly achieving such an ambitious objective. If you squint a little, you can sometimes see it...
The Good: Nuggets abound
Opportunities are literally everywhere you look in the DAO space (although this can probably be applied to all of crypto in general).
DAOs are very new, and there are still many questions that need to be answered. But the design canvas is huge, and this wide open feeling gives one the space to dream, to ideate, and to create. The last few months have felt a little bit like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
The Ugly: Experimenting can be frustrating
There will be challenges. It will get frustrating. Governance issues, bugs, new situations, unanswered questions, coordination and communication challenges. Having a proposal FAIL.
Sometimes it may also feel we are creating a Collective Stupidity as opposed to a Collective Intelligence. Patience is required.
The Ugly: DAOs are attention hogs
One of the downsides of being part of a DAO is the fact that it never really turns off. Teams are distributed around the globe, and it often feels like the conversations always keep going. Although nobody requires you to participate every hour of every day, it does impose a sort of omnipresent burden if you’re interested in being active and never missing a beat.
Genesis DAO currently only has 326 members in our Telegram channel. I can’t imagine the attention that will be required in a DAO like dxDAO (which will hopefully reach many orders of magnitude this number). In all likelihood, there will be too much information and narratives for any single person to absorb, with different conversations happening all over the place. Sub groups of sub groups, with each agent only able to absorb a small fraction of it based on interests.
The Ugly: Which way to go?
For the most part, traditional organizations have had hierarchical decision making processes. For the past century, this has served organizations well. Among one of the many benefits of this kind of organizational structure is the ease in which a shared vision / goals can be created (or in many cases, thrust upon you).
In a decentralized organisation, this process may be significantly more challenging. Building a cohesive vision within a DAO is just as critical as within a traditional organization, but it is likely a more challenging process, due to the number of stakeholders.
What will happen when two factions within a DAO don’t have the same vision / goals? Likely they would fork. What happens to assets controlled by the DAO once it forks? Do the asset get split? What if they can’t be split? Down the rabbit hole we go.
The Ugly: Slow down, cowboy
For those used to the fast pace of a startup, hold your horses.
Collective intelligence may be slower than what you are used to (unless you’ve got a few too many neurons missing).
Proposals take time to pass through the collective decision making process. When you compare this to a startup making all their decisions without a blockchain, it seems very slow. However, when you compare this to sending a work proposal to a client, it is likely fast on average. This later example seems like a better analogy.
The Ugly: Not sustainable yet
Make no mistake, joining a DAO is an entrepreneurial endeavor. For many people this involves some form of financial uncertainty (which has been the case for me).
The good news is that in comparison to other entrepreneurial endeavors I’ve attempted (there are many), this has so far been the least risky and expensive. No large upfront capital required. No months of team building. You just jump in, that’s it.
The ? : Give me DAOs please
There is a lot of excitement around this space, but for it to mature and achieve its grand ambitions, lots of money will need to flow towards it.
So the next question is: what will bring money to the space?
Higher crypto prices will help, but my belief is that demonstrating that DAOs can generate positive investor returns will open the floodgates. Successful DAOs will generate real revenue, and have tangible assets. Once DAOs start doing this, money, employment opportunities, and excitement should follow.
Originally, I set out to spend 3 months exploring the DAO space to sniff out opportunities. The good news is, there are plenty… let’s see how this plays out…
