DAOs and The Crypto Creator Economy
A Rising Community Lifts All Members
Your job as a creator is to provide value to your audience. And many Web3 technologies let you do just that.
But not all of them are about you.
One of the best things that you can do as a creator is build a community around a shared interest. There is tremendous value in this not just for the creator, but also the members.
Web3 is here to change community forever. Allowing people to organize in ways like never before.
The Power of the Collectives and Scale
Individually, humans are not that powerful. There’s only so much impact a single person can have. Luckily for us, we live in a world of infinite leverage. We can get leverage in a few ways.
capital
labor
media
code
Anyone can create the next giant social media platform. Or the next multi-trillion dollar asset class.
But things weren’t always this easy.
For most of history, we barely understood the power of leverage. And it was limited to just a few people who could use it at all. Primarily, the government. Whether it was the Roman empire or medieval France.
Labor was exclusive to the government. And capital to the aristocracy. This resulted in stagnant societies. But one day, the British combined capital and labor leverage.
And the world hasn’t been the same since.
The 1st big company
The East India Company was a joint stock company. People could buy shares which represented part of the business. The company could use that money to start new ventures and increase the value of the company.
The money would go to explorers and sailors (labor) to start colonies and collect goods. These goods were brought back to the UK and sold for a pretty penny.
This was the reason the United Kingdom controlled a fourth of the entire planet.
These two powerful forms of leverage unlocked nearly infinite upside. More upside than had ever been seen in history.
The invention of companies was so powerful that they became an integral part of society as we know it. For better and for worse.
DAOs are the next iteration of companies. An even better way of organizing capital and labor. But unlike companies, they will be more scalable, have better incentives, and better take
DAOs
DAO stands for decentralized autonomous organization. It’s a way to organize individuals around a common cause.
You can become a member of a DAO by owning a specific token. This grants you access to the community.
These communities exist for a few reasons:
Connect with like-minded people
Break into a new industry
Increase wealth
Help solve a large problem
DAOs have countless advantages over traditional internet communities.
Why DAOs Work
DAOs operate similarly to companies. There is a shared financial interest. However, companies limit the financial interest to investors. Employees rarely own stock in the company they work for. They are simply selling an hour of their time.
DAOs are completely different. Every member owns the token. Meaning that they have a strong incentive to increase the value of the community. The better the community, the more valuable their token becomes.
Another difference to companies is that DAOs allow individuals to contribute freely. The employees of a company are compelled to act through their wage. If there wasn’t a paycheck at the end of the month, they wouldn’t be doing their job.
DAOs don’t work like that. Members only contribute their time and energy if they want to. no compulsion necessary.
But there’s another powerful benefit. Work done voluntarily is significantly higher quality than work done through compulsion.
This will exponentially increase the value of DAO labor compared to company labor.
Members will have the option to work as they see fit. But still maintain individual autonomy over what they do and how they do it. No micro-managing boss required.
Self-directed labor is life affirming. It makes life worth living. But prior to DAOs, there was no streamlined access to it.
The only opportunities was self-employment, content creation and freelancing. The labor that became the creator economy.
This turned out great for lots of people. But it’s a rare breed of human that can operate solely by themselves. After all, we evolved in tribes.
DAOs may be the best way to take advantage of our natural evolutionary traits.
Why DAOs are the Future
DAOs are more efficient than companies. Let’s take an example from the cryptocurrency industry. Uniswap is objectively better than Coinbase.
Coinbase has thousands of employees. Lawyers, developers, marketers, etc. Uniswap has a core team of ~20 developers. That’s it.
Despite the drastic size difference, they do similar levels of volume. There have even been days when Uniswap volume surpassed Coinbase.
This demonstrates the difference between companies and DAOs.
And make no mistake. Coinbase is a great company. They have capable leadership and an amazing team. But a company simply has no chance of competing with a DAO.
DAOs won’t just be crypto exchanges though. It’s not unreasonable to predict DAOs will largely replace companies in our lifetime.
Here’s how you can get involved.
Joining a DAO
The best thing you can do right now is join a DAO. But you don’t want to join just any.
You’ll want to explore the DAO landscape. Find one that resonates with you. There are countless to choose from.
Once you found a DAO that lines up with your mission, get in there! If you spend a few hours talking to members, they will happily get you up to speed.
Once you have a solid understanding of what is going on, start contributing. Help your DAO change the world. The more you get done, the more valuable your membership will be.
Find a DAO that resonates with you
Get up to speed quick
Actively participate
Once you’ve spent a few weeks contributing to your DAO, you’ll have a solid understanding of how they work. Great.
The next step is to consider starting your own. There is a lot of room for new DAOs in every industry and niche. You’re still early. And you can be a founding member of a DAO that may change the world.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Crypto Creatives. Make sure to follow our Medium publication for more info about the Crypto Creator Economy.
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