![What does power look like in a DAO? Again, these are questions that are still really being flushed out and I think there are some good/bad points here. One thing is the practical application regarding what a DAO can do. A DAO could serve as a medium between physical businesses that are selling and transact with transparency and automation. Here’s an example of that. Let’s say “Steve” wants to sell his storage space business in Los Angeles to a group of investors in Texas. He could create a token or NFT that represents the property that is written in a contract that the holder of the NFT or token has 100% rights to the property. Steve then creates a smart contract that states for X amount he will transfer the NFT and company to the Texas investors. This allows him to sell the asset via the digital currency and have all interest in the building (the holding company) be tied to those tokens created for the storage space. Now this allows for much faster sales, no need for middleman brokering the contract and automation to execute token delivery on arrive of money, seamlessly. This is a very powerful tool and even just from the aspect, we are going to start seeing this implemented very soon once the legalities have all been flushed out.   

We can look past just the purely business aspect and move into the power of social networks and circles. Having access to certain groups, people and soon places (in the metaverse) will give a type of status that I believe social media has exposed our deep longing for. To show off what we have. Long gone are the days where you bought an outfit just to step outside and wear it. Social media has taken “showing off” to another level.](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/jF59mxlkaFrIi3gAoRVGo.png?height=62&width=936)

![Arguably the most important part of the DAO is the people. This is the backbone of concept of the DAO, so understanding and galvanizing your community for growth, efficiency and transparency is key. As someone who loves building community on the ground, I love to start with the type of people I want to affect, what the core values/ideologies are and how to I get others involved that is beneficial to them and the community. I’ve done this by finding a gap in the market that is needed (i.e., helping aid “starving artist” in their pursuit of entering the art world) by providing paying opportunities that allow them to display their art, meet new potential investors. The key in our success was to dream bigger and find a better solution for patrons of the arts who don’t have money to invest in a gallery signed artist, but want to support emerging artists, all the while we found a way to pay artists for their time. Once we started, we continued to grow organically because it solved two key issues and brought people together in a community that wouldn’t have been introduced to each other, otherwise. Now let’s take that same concept and apply it to the DAO space. What if we helped those same artists build globally, with people that can’t physically be with them to see their work or support them in person, but rather help build a community and tokenize economics around empowering that artist to continue to make work and mint “create an NFT” for a certain number of projects to give back to the community? These are some of the fundamental shifts that are happening in the culture and if we get the governance and community right, it’s a win-win.  

As of December 11, 2021, I’ve joined around 6 DAO’s, 40 discord channels and more that have to do with crypto and specifically DAOS. There are some cool initiatives and I believe as we continue to build, we will see which ones will become sustainable and what makes them so. Some of my favorites:

•       Cabin Dao – A community looking to purchase a retreat space for all its members to heal, use for vacation, incubation and economics for a physical/meta interweaving. I love this because it brings the physical and virtual together. This is something I’m actively working on and it’s great to see a community be built in real time towards this mission. Lots to learn and more to come regarding their progress and community. 

•       FWB (friends with benefits) Dubbed the soho house of crypto, it’s a community full of cool people and people looking to build relationships, exclusive events and productize software/services to keep the community building. I love the fact that the core of FWB is built on culture. FWB’s mission is to activate cool individuals inside the DAO to help create the future, while throwing events, parties and exclusive drops. It’s great to see such an active global community that is constantly growing.

•       Seedclub – An accelerator connecting entrepreneur’s, investors and those alike.  A great community of entrepreneurs, inventors and others looking to break into the tech world. It’s a great support network that has many aspects of growth. Though started as a DAO accelerator, it’s so much more and I find valuable information, knowledgeable people and action driven results based on the goals of the DAO. Can’t wait to see them grow and continue to flourish and support more creators. 

I think these are a great start to be prosperous and intentional DOA’s that will be great. Some of the things I’ve noticed is the idea that they want to lead the space in bringing historically underrepresented people to the table and community outreach/building. However, because this can be easier said than done.  I believe the core inventors of these DAO’s aren’t disenfranchised themselves, therefor proving challenging to grasp some of the ways to penetrate these communities on the ground and create positive change. This is also not a “fun” topic in some of these spaces, so the conversation starts, then goes nowhere or gets overshadowed by something that is fun. I was invited to a platform (remaining unnamed) in order to see how we can effect positive change in a community. What ended up happening in this “white dominated space” is that they start to pontificate over the meaning of “help” and more esoteric concepts rather than deciding on something, sticking with it and doing the work. There was also a large emphasis on NOT coming off with buzz words and being inclusive in the language used to help others, in order to find out where to start with the help. Once everyone agreed that this should be considered (the language used that is), some of the core brainstorm ideas and next steps fell flat on their face. I proposed some very real, tangible starting points (along with others that are in the nonprofit space), to no avail. That conversation was one and done. I think for these communities to survive, there must be governance and agreement around what the rules around nonprofit/community work is and that be written into the “laws” of the community (i.e., “once a week we will commit to street cleaning with proof” or “we will invest in Black artists NFTs quarterly worth in effect 5000$”) or something to this effect. It would create a balanced, rule abiding community that isn’t just “FUN” (unless it’s meant to be).

Currently, there are endless ideas to create a DAO, but starting one seems to be a journey. Firstly, the tools that are needed to start/manage a community, are all over the place. From understanding how to use Airtable for applications, Figma boards/notion for brainstorming sessions and discord/twitter for community communications/outreach, there are a lot of moving parts. We haven’t even gotten to the technical side of creating a token, the gas fee’s, how many tokens are created, etc. These are all aspects that need to be considered when creating a community on the blockchain and one that is highly transparent so all the growing pains in your community will be out in the public. A solid core team that works hard to get the thing off the ground is essential. However, with so much money, visibility and innovation in the space, there is a lot of incentive in the space right now, that may not be there in the future in order to create these DAO communities. Its pertinent to get started ASAP while you can get the support (investor wise) and have a better chance of surviving. Currently one of my favorite DAO’s (FWB)took a 10m check from investors but operating at a 100k monthly burn rate. This means we really need to figure out how to get the costs down and produce money for the survival of the project. The current community has heavy tech hitters so spinning up products/services is possible, whereas I don’t believe every DAO has the same abilities. This can prove to be a real big challenge in the future, when the space is less visible and   I’m working with other founding members to start a WellnessDao for the underrepresented community. We want to build a community of doctors, natural pathologist, yogi’s, therapist and the like to create a community accessible for wellness. All this under one DAO and building a physical practice/space that interacts with the metaverse. From a retreat to a physical “therapy” office and more, we look to empower those who have been gatekept out of wellness. More to come soon.](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/Kk5px3LhHSJOQfUq3rFBp.png?height=62&width=936)

![As I’m writing this, congress is debating regulations of stable coins and the cryptocurrency environment at large. One of the most interesting things, is the comparison to the internet in terms of governance vs. innovation. How do policy makers regulate, when fundamentally its growing in directions that they don’t understand (also struggle to understand the core concept of the technology). How do we regulate these things properly? What are some the implications between letting it grow organically and fostering innovation? My last real question around the future (one I am interested in solving) is inclusivity. Real inclusivity. Some who are less fortunate don’t have the time, energy, access or money required to join this space. Sure, the internet is more widely available in America, but what are the implications for countries in Africa or South America. How will they participate in shaping the identity of DAO’s? We tend to think of non-profits and giving a handout to someone who “fell down” as help, however I think that’s a small part of the story. True inclusivity and help begin when we all join at the table and tell stories of our challenges/successes and what life looks like for every one of us. I believe we really can affect some of these changes by looking deeper into possibility. We can do this by joining and engaging in communities that speak to you. You don’t need to be technical or even have “skin in the game” to vote, communicate and get to know different DAO’s.  

I propose creating a DAO that not only gives back, but gives in. One that will allow us to take a physical community and help them transition and participate in the metaverse. Imagine a laundromat in a not-so-great neighborhood. Who are the people that patron those? What are their struggles, how can we engage and give them resources to understand DAO’s while supporting the local business on the ground? How about a prison reform DAO that will include current prisoners that can email and discuss and engage with the community to give a real lived experience concerning how the system looks in practice and not on paper? I believe we have a vast amount of economic power and ability to effect real world communities that are under privileged, while building for the future that will help create our own legacy.

I believe in my heart that a large part of what I’ve built in the real world will be applicable to DAOS, crypto and the metaverse. Hospitality has mainly been gatekept by price, governance and accessibility to networks that can “greenlight” a project. I would love to see experience, local communities near hotels and under privileged/youth be able to participate in the success of building and governing a vacation rental property/brand in their own neighborhood. This could fundamentally shift how business is done in the space that brings more equity.](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/_HfFQjHjKPW258b8msePV.png?height=62&width=936)

In Conclusion