Long-time readers might recall that earlier this year, I recorded a podcast, which was quickly taken down due to unforeseen circumstances. But let me clarify, it was merely "suspended," not "withdrawn." I'm here, not-so-solemnly, to announce that GMFM is making a comeback. The first episode is now available on Spotify and Apple Podcast. I’m not sure how far we’ll go this time, but I’ll take it one step at a time, hoping to carve out a path.

This week's newsletter features an article I wrote in late May, which is included in the expanded edition of The Sociology of Blockchain: Reimagining Money, Media, and Democracy. If you're a paid subscriber to this newsletter, you should have already received the signed digital edition earlier this month. Feel free to browse or download it from the Liker Land bookshelf at any time. Additionally, a 30% off coupon for the signed hardcover will be arriving in your inbox soon. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or reply directly to the email.

Four years ago around this time, I started writing a series of articles focused on promoting blockchain and cryptocurrency education within the context of Hong Kong society, using the hashtag #decentralizehk for all of them. 

Two months later, by chance, I began contributing to Apple Daily. I didn't spend much time thinking about the name for the column; I just casually stuck with #decentralizehk, which was graciously accepted by the editor. Less than a year later, the column was discontinued along with Apple Daily.

Blockchain inherently emphasizes decentralization and self-governance, so there was no reason for me to give up. I quickly transitioned the column into a free subscription-based newsletter, which has been published every week without fail for the past three years.

From Hashtag to DAO

After gaining some momentum, I launched the DHK DAO in February 2022, laying out the framework with the ’DHK Manifesto’.

(This is the “post-constitutional-amendment” version from May 9, 2022. The original version aimed to ’build consensus for the people of Hong Kong’.)

The mission of DHK dao is to provide "blockchain literacy", with the ambitious yet humble goal of onboarding 7 million people onto the blockchain.

Why ambitious? Because explaining blockchain to just one person can take a fair amount of effort, let alone educating 7 million people without any government subsidies or institutional funding. Why humble? Because getting someone to open a wallet and experience sending and receiving cryptocurrency is just the first step. Beyond that lies a vast array of services, concepts and worldviews that need to be understood — and our target audience represents just one-thousandth of the global population.

Yes, 7 million is about one-thousandth of the world’s population. Of course, you could interpret this as referring to the population of Hong Kong, which is also around 7 million. Think about it: the odds of you or I being born in Hong Kong are just one in a thousand, and the odds of both of us being Hong Kongers is one in a million. If that’s not fate, what is?

If DHK dao had a KPI (Key Performance Indicator), it would be the number of people holding DHK tokens. Assuming each person holds tokens in a single wallet, the number of wallet addresses holding DHK would reflect our progress toward this goal. To make this target measurable, the DHK token was designed with a total supply of 7 million. Successfully guiding someone to set up a wallet and giving them 1 DHK symbolizes helping a newcomer get started. The ultimate goal of DHK DAO is to distribute these 7 million DHK tokens to 7 million people. It’s an almost impossible task, but it serves as our North Star, guiding the community’s development.

A few months ago, DHK tokens were migrated from the Cosmos ecosystem to Ethereum’s Layer 2 OP Mainnet and re-minted. Like the myth of Sisyphus, our progress was reset, and we had to start over from the bottom. On the bright side, Ethereum’s costs have significantly decreased in recent years, improving the user experience, and public perception of blockchain has become more positive. With this renewed effort, our educational mission might just find smoother sailing this time around.

Generating Power through Mechanisms

I don't advocate for "powering through love", nor do I want our mission to become empty rhetoric. That's why, when launching DHK dao, I leveraged the validator business we had been running within the Cosmos ecosystem, which was already generating some income.

The Cosmos ecosystem, which LikeCoin joined in late 2019, operates on a Proof-of-Stake model. Stakeholders delegate their tokens to specific validators, who mine on their behalf, with the former earning rewards and the latter collecting commissions. This delegation also serves as a form of voting, indicating support for the validator as their representative in deciding on proposals within the ecosystem. For DHK dao to succeed as a validator, we not only need to set up and maintain servers, but we also need to secure enough staked tokens to rank among the top validators on a given blockchain. Otherwise, it’s like losing an election.

When DHK dao was first established, we allocated 10% of the mining income to blockchain education efforts. By mid-2023, this allocation was increased to 40% of income, calculated without deducting costs, and the funds were transferred monthly to a multi-signature wallet managed by community members. These funds are primarily used to enhance the liquidity of DHK tokens; when DHK can be easily exchanged for stablecoins or other tokens, it becomes an effective tool for rewarding contributors.

Unlike traditional one-way corporate donations, the mechanism of allocating validator mining income is designed as a loop, creating a virtuous cycle. Initially, 1 million of the total 7 million DHK tokens are reserved as a contingency, with the remaining 6 million being distributed over five years, or 60 months, through a monthly airdrop of 100,000 tokens to the community. Since the income from validators is proportional to the amount staked, at the end of each month, DHK dao allocates the airdropped tokens to users based on their staking share. In other words, DHK dao rewards users and encourages staking through monthly airdrops — the more you stake, the more you contribute to the dao's income, and the more airdropped tokens you receive in return.

Additionally, after three years of operating the DHK DAO weekly report, we've accumulated 156 articles and over 20,000 subscribers, with more than 150 readers supporting us as paying "DAO friends". Previously, I used this income to support creative work and civil society initiatives, but starting this year, these funds will be redirected to the community, directly transferred to DHK dao’s multi-signature wallet. This provides another income source to help the community withstand risks. After all, the validator business is highly competitive, and there’s always a chance DHK dao could be pushed out as a validator on certain blockchains, losing that mining income.

The Minimal Viable Constitution: Learning Through Practice

In addition to acting as a "bank on the blockchain", validators also serve as "legislators on the blockchain." Unless users engage in direct democracy and vote on proposals themselves, validators cast votes on behalf of the users, with voting power equivalent to the amount of staked tokens. This dual role means that running a validator on various blockchains isn’t just about generating revenue; it’s also about fulfilling the responsibilities of a representative, participating in cyber governance, and staying engaged with the ongoing development of digital democracy.

The rapid pace of blockchain development, combined with the technical and governance aspects, makes it impractical for validators to consult users on every decision. To address this, DHK dao adopts the "lazy consensus" principle. This means that by default, the community follows the intentions of the operators, but stakeholders can express dissent at any time. This approach aims to balance democracy and efficiency.

Lazy consensus encourages participation and negotiation. If consensus cannot be reached, stakeholders have a final recourse through a "reverse proposal" — a motion to oppose a specific decision. If this motion passes, it signals that the operators should follow the will of the community. Voting in DHK dao operates on a "1 DHK, 1 vote" basis. However, since individuals hold different amounts of DHK, there is potential for wealthier members to dominate. To counter this, I propose addressing the issue on two levels.

First is the community contract on a spiritual level. The DHK Manifesto, particularly Articles Six and Seven, emphasizes the "pay it forward" ethos, where each stakeholder should retain only 1 DHK. In other words, "with great power comes great responsibility" — the more DHK one holds, the more DHK one should distribute, thereby onboarding more newcomers. The declaration further suggests that if someone holds too many DHK tokens and cannot distribute them, they should at least sell them, retaining just 1 DHK. Although these rules lack formal enforcement, the shared consensus remains crucial.

Second is the design of mechanisms. Depending on the development of DHK dao and blockchain technology, the community can continually improve the voting mechanisms and, if necessary, amend the Declaration of DHK to reflect new realities. For example, the community could decide to switch from "1 DHK, 1 vote" to "1 wallet address, 1 vote". However, this is just an example, as those looking to manipulate votes could easily create multiple wallets to carry out a "Sybil attack". Without effective countermeasures, such a change could backfire. Relying solely on mechanism design without widespread education and value-based consensus often leads to greater challenges. Tools and technologies may change frequently, but values and principles tend to be more enduring. This is why I advocate establishing core principles through a social contract and then allowing the community to implement them using the latest technology.

This approach, inspired by the minimum viable product (MVP) concept often used in internet startups, can be understood as a "minimum viable constitution". In the early stages of an organization, it's better to define a few basic principles that are just enough to bring the community together and get started, rather than creating a comprehensive set of rules. As long as there is a method for continuous improvement, even a simple and flawed initial set of rules can serve as a foundation for community interaction and engagement.

Since DHK dao is a decentralized autonomous organization, it should be community-led. No matter how much it grows, the progress is a result of collective effort. From articles to columns, from columns to newsletters, and from validators to a social experiment, as the initiator, I offer this summary as my swan song, wishing DHK DAO continued decentralization and success on its journey ahead.

p.s. The Mac mimi at home is a late 2014 model — meaning it's already a decade old. While it’s still running smoothly, it no longer supports the latest Mac OS versions, rendering software like calibre and Proton VPN unusable. Last week, I decided to put it to good use by installing Chrome OS Flex. Everything seemed to work fine, except for one peculiar issue: the left mouse button wouldn’t respond. I tried another mouse and even a different Bluetooth trackpad, but the problem persisted. I suspected Chrome OS might not be compatible with the Mac mimi’s mouse, so I switched to Bliss OS, but the issue remained. Still not satisfied, I installed Ubuntu Linux, only to find the same problem. Baffled, I wondered if it was a ghostly glitch — after all, it happened on the 14th of the Lunar month, when ghostly things are said to occur.

The next evening, I resumed the battle, stubbornly refusing to give up. Finally, I discovered the first mouse was not only faulty, but if it wasn’t unplugged, it would cause any other connected mouse, even Bluetooth ones, to malfunction — specifically making all left-clicks unresponsive. Whether it was my rusty hardware skills or an especially tricky "ghost mouse bug," this tiny issue ended up costing me two precious evenings. However, solving it brought back a long-lost sense of geeky satisfaction.