Personal Track Record in DAOs
This is Part 1 of “My Journey in DAOs”.
Read: Part 2 and Part 3
More parts coming soon…
This first article is focused on my personal track record. So it may seem like this experience necessarily applicable to a wider audience. Do not despair! I will elaborate greatly in my next articles covering: the term “DAO” in part 2, GenesisDAO+FestDAO strengths and weaknesses in more depth, incentives in DAOs, and more.
Being freshly out of GenesisDAO and FestDAO removes potential conflicts of interest while still having fresh memories of what happened.
I want to convey a clear message, down to earth, based on personal experiences and many debates with other very active actors of the DAO space. Why? To help buidl more solid foundations for the DAO platforms and DAOs to come. To let us distinguish our delusions from what can be done right now and in the near future.
Here is a factual summary of my journey in the very new world of DAOs. I care about listening to the right people so I believe that it is important for me to share my track record in DAOs with my readers.
I aim for this read to be refreshing to the DAO landscape, but also valuable by adding personal insight to the facts: why I joined, some key achievements and why I resigned when I did.
Jump to the glossary at the bottom of this article if some vocabulary is foreign to you.
All The DAOs I took part into so far run on DAOstack
GenesisDAO
Goals of GenesisDAO
1/ to fund efforts benefiting DAOstack; whether Development (i.e. build a module), Events (Meetups), Content Creation (i.e. articles and videos), and more.
2/ to get direct feedback on the platform; this is the first community using the tool, so things break often.
3/ to get experience on the quality of human collaboration on the platform; the most interesting part in my opinion.
Note: these were its goals when I was active (until Dec 2019).
Funding of the GenesisDAO
DAOstack is the only entity funding the GenesisDAO.
Why I joined
I joined GenesisDAO in April 2019 by frustration. I was writing yet another blockchain investor report, this time about DAOstack, however I couldn’t understand the what and how of this project even after spending hours going through many medium articles, forum posts and youtube videos.
Note that I had been writing 100+ blockchain investor reports by then so it was rather surprising. By joining GenesisDAO I aimed to answer all the pending questions I had.
What I achieved
As my last proposal testifies (my resignation proposal), I ended up being one of the most active members of Genesis DAO for about 6 months with 17 proposals submitted and a high activity on the GenesisDAO forum (DAOtalk > Genesis section). This forum activity also shows that I remained active in the community until December 2019.
My contributions ranged from creating the most comprehensive report on DAOstack and GenesisDAO, reward meetings note takers, creating UX mockups, creating proposal templates, and organizing DAO meetups.
By the end of summer 2019 ???? I was mostly focused on organizing DAO meetups.
Why I left
The main reason is because of the intention to transition towards a system where 1 coin = 1 vote; futarchy is something often mentioned in the crypto space, in such system my vote, although a top contributor, would lose almost all its power.
There was other reasons such as inefficient decision making, lack of funds (which resulted in underpaid contributors), continuous organizational mess (a lot of content scattered) and far too many daostack team members in the DAO (which resulted in a many awkward situations), and more. The list is long, DAOs are very experimental and it feels like we are still going through a period with many delusions.
Festdao
Goals of Festdao
The initial goal of Festdao was to fund efforts benefiting DAOstack, but only efforts around the topic of events (meetups, mini-conferences, etc). You can think of it as a sub-dao of GenesisDAO (aka nested DAOs, aka fractal DAOs).
Funding of the Festdao
GenesisDAO is the only entity funding Festdao so far (early March 2020).
DAOstack is the only entity funding GenesisDAO, making Festdao indirectly funded by DAOstack.
Why I joined
I joined Festdao in November 2019 as I grew tired of inefficient decision-making inside Genesis DAO. The high focus of FestDAO gave me the hope that group decision making would be much more efficient and it made sense since my contribution in GenDAO was focused on organizing DAO events in the past months.
What I achieved
All my contributions to Festdao were about organizing, speaking or facilitating DAO events. These events happened in Barcelona, Paris, Geneva and Zurich.
My most successful DAO event was in Paris during France Blockchain Week in March 2020 with 100+ people coming during 4 hours of workshops and fishbowl discussions.
Why I left
A lot could be said here but what needed to be said was said to the concerned person and my only hope is that things change for the best. Lack of experience, delusion and ego trip getting in the way are probably the main reasons that lead to my resignation. Nothing new under the sun: many crypto projects have suffered such issues. Forward.
Polkadao
Polkadao vs Polkadot
PolkaDAO was launched by Polkadot, one of the most highly regarded blockchain project worldwide. Lead by Gavin Wood, co-founder of the Ethereum Foundation. Polkadot is a project of Web3Foundation, it is also built by Parity and now has many of its ecosystem built by many other organizations supported by the Web3Foundation Grants.
Goal of Polkadao
The goal of Polkadao is to fund efforts benefiting the Polkadot ecosystem; whether Development (i.e. build a module), Events (Meetups), Content Creation (articles and videos), and more.
Funding of the Polkadao
Web3Foundation is the only entity funding Polkadao so far.
Why I joined
I joined PolkaDAO in May 2019, mostly by chance. I was working on a blockchain taxonomy effort and ran into a similar work published on the W3F github repo. I contacted Hutch (community & growth at W3F) to see if I could simply include some of my work in their document. This didn’t work out but he suggested I start working with a member of the Polkadot community on a taxonomy within the Substrate/Polkadot ecosystem. Which is what my first Polkadao proposals were funding.
What I achieved
I soon realized that Polkadao needed stronger leadership to onboard new members, demystify daostack, and foster higher participation. That’s when I submitted my Polkadao Growth Support proposal and started my biggest contribution to the DAO until now (march 2020).
See all my contributions to Polkadao.
Thank you for reading, this article is part of series on the “oh so hype” topic of DAOs. Read more: Part 1, Part 2.
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Glossary
DAOstack: a project+team+product aiming at allowing anyone to create and manage a DAO in a few clicks, much like you create and manage a facebook group in a few clicks.
Wallet: think of it as a crypto-currency account
DAO wallet: think of it as a crypto-currency account, for a DAO
Useful Links
GenesisDAO:
* UI of the dao: daostack.io/genesisdao
* Intro to the dao: GenesisDAO Hub
Festdao:
* UI of the dao: daofest.io/festdao
* Intro to the dao: daofest.world
Polkadao:
* UI of the dao: polkadot.network/polkadao
* Intro to the dao: Polkadao Hub
Official websites of related projects:
* Polkadot
* Web 3 Foundation
* Parity
* DAOstack
