GM OR GFM?

An insider look into an organic beast: DOPEWARS DAO.

‘Frens, degens, intergenerational trendsetters — Tech natives, damned natives, narrators, space racers. Attention all hope slingers, chain blingers, freedom hustlers, dope singers.
War is upon us, a war for the fabric of thought’.

We’re all talking about it. We are building Web3, WAGMI, but what are we gunna make!? This is an especially intriguing question when considering DAO’s and I wonder if there is another that weaves together as many electric threads as DOPEWARS DAO? This Metaverse project is a uniquely kinetic collision of naturally matching data points, sent spinning by intrinsically incentivised impulse and near total derivative. Like some sort of semi-conscious, synthetic and self-possessed particle accelerator, we should anticipate a level of dangerous energy and hopefully something fundamentally different altogether.

This highly durable and iconic American gangster/street culture-based game began as Drug Wars and has survived many iterations: humble MS-DOS beginnings, a version available on the T1-83 math calculator, links to the well-known GTA and more. It’s quite ironic that a game we played in class — sacrificing calculus or economic aptitude, is presently being morphed into a P2E community built on sophisticated L2 Ethereum blockchain; not just a game, but serious business on a number of fronts.

8000 DOPE NFT’s (DOPE) were free to mint in September with each subsequently airdropped 125k $PAPER — in game currency. DOPE contains equipment by which to equip your avatar; the hustler. Holding DOPE establishes a voting right within the DAO governance structure which has been pre-emptively struck onto the chain. $PAPER is subordinate to DOPE and $PAPER contracts are coded to accept DAO governance votes. As in true gangster tradition, future enemies have been eliminated and once a hit has been ordered… It’s not personal, it’s business.

In a contrasting parallel, it is intensely personal for many stakeholders and already a large move has been made to embed a measure of equitable opportunity and imbue a spirit of potential. In the land of the free, home of the brave, we are infinitely free to mint a ‘naked’ hustler. Rarity is capped by the items they can be equipped with and hustlers accrue ‘respect’ over time and through deed. Of course, money still talks so you’ll be able to purchase equipment on a market place and if you can find someone willing to sell — you can purchase one of only 500 ‘Original Gangsters’ with maxed out respect status and some extra perks. This mint sold out within an hour. It was a good day.

The DAO environment is a pressure cooker where almost complete anonymity can ferment into a somewhat absurd sense of belongingness, camaraderie and conflict at times! Mostly it’s GM but sometimes it’s GFM, which is not always a bad thing. Abetting this alchemy are an abundance of magnetic meeting points — Tech natives guiding mixed-ish millennials afraid to connect their wallet to anything, or patiently explaining what certain memes mean while pre-internet points of view are valuably gathered like ancient relics for recycle, refurbish and re-use. We see clashes of understanding across a range of issues. There are those who expect to see magic money appear after posting a tweet and there are those who have realised that much of the work to be done, although compelling, is also laborious. In a reality where we are all nodes, it’s a call to the realest networks with amplitude. If you wanna do something, cut the stargazing, yo, move something.

One of the more interesting principled points of contention is the struggle between the shill merchants and the building crew. Fortunately, I believe DOPEWARS DAO is maintaining a balance between solid foundation building and sparking genuine interest and organic growth. Surely if we transplant our previous ‘profit at all cost’ dogma into Web3 we are NGMI. However, in the same token you cannot hate on the hustle. Especially when noting the understandable tension between those already firmly ensconced in Web3, (having bought their ETH at $4.20), and those still awaiting a similar life changing transition. It is inherent that the centre of gravity is not easily apparent and we will have to see what shakes out when we hit some of that spectacular volatility this market is well known for.

We love crypto, for better and worse. It has an unstoppable momentum now and it’s canvassing the world. Thanks to DOPEWARS it’s on an impact trajectory with an omnipresent culture, one that is powerful enough to reach from the top to the bottom of the planet and fabricate a kid with globes at his feet, sacked pants and a NO FEAR hoodie. Assessing this gathering of heated elements on a macro level, it is hard to imagine a backdrop more primed to ignite interest as crypto hustle meets gangster shuffle in a Web3 Metaverse virtual reality being built and flown at the same time. As well as being hyper exciting, it is also a tiny bit scary to imagine what this behemoth could become. This game may well be an onramp for a swag of normies. With so many concentrated streams converging to a reaction point, it will appeal to a spectrum of investors from game room grinders to high-rise hustlers. Whether you are a house-bound necromancer or a quantum field navigator you do not want to miss the story of OG’s.

On the frontier where life imitates art, DOPEWARS will be an apt social tech experiment to see if the abstract becomes reality. Perhaps what will be most curious to see, is the extent to which established culture permeates the space both within DOPEWARS and in a wider sense. As the love of the old wrestles with this emerging protostar, will our black hole sun angrily retract its light or relinquish to the pull of the new?

Out of the Drug Wars era steamed so much vibrant epic energy that coloured the lives of many growing up in the 80’s, 90’, 00’s, and it dragged with it some grim truths that survive until this day.
So are we: Calling all fortune soldiers, $Paper whores, meta mercs and grimey spores: #DOPEWARS.
Or; Calling all $Paper soldiers, matadors, meta mercs and grimey spores: #DOPEWARS?
Within DAO discussions, are these micro beefs of little or no consequence or are they the beginnings of us asking some big questions? Like what is art and what is sacrosanct? What should be subject to discord and what should be immutable? What does the underrepresentation of women in Web3 mean for our future? While we’re witness to the unfolding of this truly remarkable evolution in human co-ordination and value structure there are so many questions, so many unknowns. One thing is certain: DOPEWARS is here to stay and we are hashing out what is and what is not DOPE.
The frontline is everywhere!

Author: Taniela.Taki@TanielaTaki
Freelance Web3 Writer
Full time $Paper Soldier

Editor: C.V Aramakutu