Greetings! While deciding on the theme for this week’s column, I’ve been overwhelmed with my own questions. Basic questions about what I am trying to say that will be of value to the group’s purpose as well as my own mission. About why am I exploring DAOs and cryptocurrency in the first place (I’m a scientist and educator by trade).
I’ll use this week’s column to express several questions that I have, then hope to address them in future editions as I continue to grow and learn about the metaverse and DAO opportunities.
This week I’ve been learning more and more about DAOs and particularly thinking about the ‘decentralized’ aspect. An entrepreneur may see a DAO as a vehicle to accelerate project development. No doubt that they are revolutionary in concept, and the paradigm of decentralization plays well to independent builders of different varieties. While this lack of centralization gives the DAO a great deal of strength, it also presents it with challenges in how to operate the organization.
How will decentralization be balanced with essential central decision making? How will the DAO sharpen both a broad and narrow focus so as to innovate and explore while also getting stuff done?
What’s more, the effectiveness of a DAO to make decisions for the group will largely be determined by its self-coded bylaws. Laws made by DAO creators to “keep us from doing evil shit’, as Rogi said on Friday’s awesome Twitter space.
How can we create bylaws so as to prevent the less honorable but very real parts of human nature from emerging? How can we do ‘good stuff’ in a DAO that helps others and gives us a sense of fulfillment? How can DAOs connect with one another and support each other toward achieving their goals and inter-DAO collaboration?
More specifically, if you read Jkey’s piece in CommLink2, you will get a nice bullet-point overview of the Decentralized Science (DeSci) movement. How can we use science to make our lives better? And what does a better life mean to me? Or you? Or all of us together, as a group? We know there are for-profit DAOs and charitable DAOs. Can we make a for-profit DAO into an entity regularly accomplishing charitable deeds?
How can we help others in need? And when we do, who should we help first? Could it be through innovative education? Looking beyond our immediate goals, it may be a community decides to invest in DeSci research or educational development (eg edudao.org).
The DAO’s community and leadership will decide answers to these questions. The makeup of our community at liftoff is extremely important for future organizational accomplishments.
Imagine educational systems functioning as a DAO. Where students and faculty weigh options together and vote on curricular development. Currently, students pay tuition money and faculty decide what they will learn. An educational DAO may be more empowering than buying entrance to a program under a centralized Dean’s office. Similar to how investing in a DAO can be more empowering and satisfying than buying stock from a CEO.
The present is a time of great upheaval and change. So while continuing to learn about gas fees, tokens, cryptocurrency, and DAOs, I also will strive to pay attention to the many great unanswered questions and opportunities in play. And the potential for worldwide community revolution to help live better lives.
In the meantime, I will keep asking questions and also try to answer a few. And if you have answers to any of these questions, please message me or share them!
Until next time, House DOCMikeG
The Ruse 