How DAOs Will Bring Tribalism to Web3
And That Won't Necessarily Be A Bad Thing
Humans are a weird bunch. We’re the only animal on earth that willingly separates itself from the natural environment.
Not too long ago, we lived off the land and traveled a lot. But now, we live most of our lives in little boxes in front of glowing screens.
But here’s the thing. You can take the man out of nature. But you can’t take the nature out of man.
We’ve got all these little quirks from our time in nature. Byproducts of evolving to fit our environment and survive. And those don’t go away.
In fact, the biggest trends take advantage of these evolutionary quirks.
Men evolved to love competition. So we sell them video games. Young girls evolved the desire to attract attention from boys. So we sell them make-up. And don’t even get me started on the media that takes advantage of the powerful emotional response of anger.
So, every time a new set of technologies become available, it’s important to think about how it fits with human nature.
Today, we’re exploring the intersection of DAOs and tribalism.
Human Need to Belong
There’s a big myth today. The idea of rugged individualism - that everyone must stand alone and sink or swim based purely on their own actions.
Not only is this a flawed way of seeing the world, but it goes against our very DNA.
All humans rely on other humans. Not just in an economic sense, some people make food, others create goods and services, etc. But also on a more personal level.
We all start out as children. Other people must take care of us and raise us. Otherwise… we die.
You get a real sense of the failure of rugged individualism with the Unabomber. He was a radical individualist who lived off the grid in an isolated cabin for years.
He's the most extreme individualist that ever existed. And even he relied on financial support from his family.
Individualism is a lie. Even to those who worship it.
One of the biggest influences on human evolution was other humans.
We evolved in tribes. It makes sense that we developed psychological tools that encourage group cohesion.
This includes quite a few things.
Love
Friendship
Competitiveness
The desire for respect
But we don’t live in nomadic tribes anymore. At least, not most of us.
We settled down in agricultural societies. But the urge to belong never went away.
Naturally, things stepped in to take the place of the tribe. Things like families & communities. To an extent, even countries are an extension of tribalism.
An individual is incapable of doing much on their own. But that same person can change the world in a tribe. And that’s exactly what they’ve done.
The Power of the Tribe
Nazi Germany gives you a real sense of the power of tribalism. 70,000,000 people were complacent or collaborators to genocide. And they nearly made a whole race extinct.
That’s the power of the collective.
This was an unhealthy case of tribalism. But that doesn’t necessarily make tribalism itself bad. It’s important to view it as neutral. A tool, even.
Can it be used for evil? Absolutely. But it can also be used for good.
My favorite examples are the penny auctions. In the midst of the great depression, mid western farmers were losing everything. Banks often foreclosed on family farms that were generations old.
Communities came together to fight the bank.
When the bank tried auctioning off a foreclosed farm, the community showed up with guns. Anyone who tried buying the farm was threatened. This kept the price low enough so the original owner could buy back their farm for pennies.
Whether it’s to exterminate an ethnic group, or defend one of their own, tribalism works to unite people in common interest.
But the most promising aspect of tribalism isn’t from the past. But in the future.
DAOs & Tribalism
The more things change the more they stay the same.
We may live isolated lives. Stuffed into boxes in front of shiny screens. But the need to belong lives on.
DAOs are the 21st century version of tribes.
And like the most powerful tribes throughout history, the successful ones will share a few traits.
A bold vision of the future
Concrete actions to make it reality
Resources for members to take action
Internal culture that encourages & rewards action
In practice, this will empower individuals in a way no other collective can.
DAOs give you the best mix of 3 important factors to a tribe.
Restrictions - actions members cannot do.
Resources - the money/labor available to the tribe.
Structure - how it’s set up. Includes hierarchy, mission, rules, norms, culture.
DAOs give you a lot of resources and little structure & restrictions. This enables contributors to take action. While structure & restrictions aren’t inherently bad, they’ve been roadblocks instead of enablers.
How DAOs Enable you
DAOs empower members in a few ways.
Ways that are often impossible or poorly managed in older forms of tribes.
Pool resources
The idea of putting our money together for a common good is as old as time. Hell, that’s basically what taxes are supposed to be.
The tricky part comes in the decision process. With governments, we rely on politicians to act on our behalf. Of course, they don’t. That’s where DAOs fix things.
It's a real opportunity to pool resources and have an actual say in how they’re used. You can make proposals yourself, vote on proposals, etc. Voting is done in a public and secure way. There is no manipulation. In fact, there can't be.
Create Bounties
Bounties are a powerful way to incentivize action. Having a financial reward to do something is often enough to get someone to do it.
This creates a dynamic where DAOs can change the world proportional to the size their treasury. And as they continue to change the world, more members will join which increases the value of the treasury - that’s a powerful flywheel!
Collaborate & coordinate
When you join a DAO, you’ll share a mission & vision with the other members. It connects you. This naturally fosters collaboration and coordination.
Take a whole bunch of people who believe in Web3 and put them in a Discord. It's inevitable they started building things & working together.
No tribe or collective has ever empowered individuals like DAOs.
I already know what you’re thinking. A tribe with resources that enables anyone to take action? What stops bad actors from undermining the DAO?
Accountability
You’re bonded to the tribe on the blockchain. Your identity forever tied to the actions of the DAO. It’s real in a way that no other tribe has ever been before.
The best part? It’s easy to keep track of who does what. Modern tech lets us see how much every member contributes. And exactly how they contribute.
If a member of a DAO does something that’s obviously wrong (stealing, murder, etc) then the DAO can kick them out. They can’t take away their token. But they can be ostracized from the community.
Let’s think about a more extreme example. Let’s say a DAO gets overtaken by bad actors who want to do bad things. For example, build the next version of Silk Road (anonymous online black market). The more difficult problem would be how good individuals can distance themselves from this action. They’d have to:
Show they opposed the action
Left the DAO when they started doing this
This will depend on the circumstances. But is bound to happen sooner or later.
Here’s a more likely scenario.
DAOs for Evil
Any given DAO is influenced by who started it and why. As Web3 becomes more widespread, it's inevitable that bad actors get their hands on this tech.
So, here’s a prediction on the future of DAOs.
DAOs for Political Extremists
Political extremism is on the rise. And lots of people are ready to take action for what they believe to be a just cause.
Outside of fringe political groups, these people don’t have many outlets. It's only a matter of time before they turn to DAOs. And all those things that empower people to take action in a DAO? They’ll be used to further an extreme agenda.
This is dangerous and inevitable. After all, there won't be any way to stop this from happening. There won't be any social accountability to stop things from getting crazy because the DAO was created with bad intentions from the start.
It's almost hard not to imagine something like the KKK becoming a DAO sooner or later. Unfortunately, anything that empowers good people also empowers bad people. That's the Achilles heel of technological innovation.
Final Thoughts
DAOs are going to be a big deal. They'll help bring tribalism, an all too human need, into the 21st century. This will do a lot of good for the world. As in cases like Developer DAO and Bankless DAO.
But this will inevitably empower bad groups in a similar way.
It's important to remember that DAOs are just a new technology. A tool. A powerful weapon to change the world.
It's up to us to use DAOs responsibly.
