Cool DAOs That Even Non-Crypto Natives Will Want To Join 🌝 🚀
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With the vast amount of dry powder in venture flowing into the Web3 ecosystem, DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, went from a crypto jargon to mainstream consciousness in 2021*.
*In 2021, VCs from all corners of the world invested $30B + in crypto startups, 40+ crypto unicorns were born, and on an average day, blockchain-related startups raised $20M (Pitchbook, 2021).
Think of DAOs like internet-native companies that are collectively owned and managed by their members. Unlike traditional businesses, no CEO can dictate orders from a top-down approach nor a dodgy CFO can manipulate the books. Everything is out in the open and the rules are baked into the DAO via its code.
DAOs replace traditional notions of hierarchical organizations as they have an on-chain treasury management system responsible for dictating how decisions, funding, and upgrades of the DAO are made. Each person involved has a certain amount of shares and therefore voting power to make decisions on what the DAO will do. Thus, control is spread out across the community members rather than having a central authority making all the shots.
DAOs come in all shapes and sizes. The aim could be as simple as pooling funds to buy an expensive piece of artwork. In other cases, DAOs can operate more like a members-only club, where you have to buy a specific NFT in OpenSea to gain access to exclusive social events.
No matter the form and objective, DAOs are beginning to have a major impact on mainstream culture. From art to sports, crowdfunding and finance, these online crypto groups are likely here to stay.
Below I will be introducing some of the coolest DAOs I’ve come across. Since this blog is meant as a friendly introduction to my non-crypto friends, I am not featuring DAOs that require an extra leap to the crypto rabbit hole ie. protocol DAOs such as MakerDAO and grants such as Uniswap Grants.
1. FriendsWithBenefitsDAO ($FWB)
What: A members-only social club
Why: FOMO!
An exclusive crypto social club that has been compared to a “decentralized Soho House” and a VIP lounge for crypto’s creative class. One can only join by owning a certain number of FWB tokens (the current price is about $45). It has nearly 6,000 unique token holders, including musicians like Azealia Banks. Local membership, which requires holding at least five $FWB tokens, comes with limited access to the group’s chat rooms on Discord, a talking and texting app, as well as entry to offline events. The group has chapters in New York, Los Angeles, and London, but its real headquarters is its Discord server.
As of today, most of what FWB has produced has been geared toward throwing social parties, but it is beginning to branch out. The group is developing a member directory with customizable NFT name badges, planning a music festival, and starting a fellowship program for underrepresented web3 creators.
In December of 2021, members voted to invest $18,530 from the DAO’s treasury to develop a yerba mate drink, its first physical product. Once the drink is ready, they plan to promote it at their events before selling it to a broader audience.
2. Proof of Love by Mad Realities
What: World’s first interactive web3 dating show
Why: You get to produce a much cooler version of ‘Too Hot To Handle’
If you wish to interact with the production of the first-ever web3 dating show “Proof of Love”, you will need to buy a membership pass which is in the form of NFTs that can be purchased via OpenSea. As an NFT holder, you get to vote on the cast, interact in real-time with the show (ie. live chat, elimination, show support, speculate on weekly outcomes) and attend exclusive in-person events.
If you purchase a higher-tier membership pass, you will also be granted the right to play host for an episode, choose pick-up lines for the contestants, have a say in set design, and get free limited-edition merchandise.
Mad Realities, the producers behind ‘Proof of Love’, wish to become the crypto Netflix or crypto YouTube, where behind every show on the platform, there is an active community that co-owns, co-creates, engages with, and distributes this content.
With or without the purchase of NFTs, anyone can nominate their friends to be on the show. Or if you are single and also wished to be part of a reality show, you can apply yourself.
3. Mirror DAO ($WRITE)
What: Crypto-native blogging platform
Why: Turning your writing into NFTs to benefit creators
What if you can monetize from your writing if it could be sold as an NFT? What if you could be a shareholder of the publishing platform you are writing? What if you could use your publication to start a DAO, share value with writers that influence you in cryptocurrency, or even crowdfund projects that are derivatives of your writing (ie. documentary)? Mirror.xyz was born as a solution to all of these writers’ needs.
Mirror is your Medium, Substack, and Kickstarter combined powered by Web3. When it first launched, in order to join as a writer, you needed to finish top 10 in their weekly “$Write Race’. Existing members voted for aspiring members and the top finishers in the race each week received 1 $WRITE token that they could mint in exchange for a Mirror-hosted blog.
However, in October 2021, Mirror decided to open the platform to anyone interested in writing on their platform. (Their previous $Write Race model of admitting new members was hit with a big problem: the people getting voted in the top 10 were rich crypto VCs or other DAOs rather than independent writers)
4. LinksDAO ($LINKS)
What: A collective of golf enthusiasts teaming up to buy a golf course
Why: Democratizing the country club membership experience
LinksDAO is a collective of golf enthusiasts and crypto NFT collectors who are teaming up to buy a golf course. Hence, why their slogan is “a new era in golf”.
In order to be a member of LinksDAO, one needs to buy either a ‘Leisure Membership’ NFT (floor price 0.48 ETH =~$1,260) or a higher tier NFT called ‘Global Membership’ (floor price 1.15 ETH = ~$3,000). The lower tier NFT gives holders the right to purchase a membership a the DAO’s first physical golf club, governance rights via $LINKS token, and access to their members-only Discord channel. The Global membership gives holders 4x the governance rights, access to live events*, and rights to purchase a family membership at the physical golf course. (*In March, LinksDAO is hosting a members-only retreat & tournament at SXSW)
5. Komorebi Collective
What: First investment DAO focused on funding female and nonbinary crypto founders
Why: Backing underrepresented crypto founders
Today, 90% of VC partners are men who, in turn, have invested 86% of their capital in all-males. Komorebi Collective DAO was founded to prevent crypto female and non-binary founders from being overlooked by the same male VC partners.
The creators behind this DAO have been participating in the crypto ecosystem as builders, investors, and community shepherds. The core operating team consists of members from she256, which is a nonprofit dedicated to increasing diversity and breaking down barriers to entry in the blockchain space, and Women in Blockchain, an organization focused on increasing diversity through education and community building. Other members of the DAO include firms like Kleiner Perkins, IDEO CoLab Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Mechanism Capital, and Stacks Accelerator.
The DAO is built on the Syndicate Protocol, which is a decentralized investing protocol and social network that enables investors and communities to create Web3 native investing DAOs.
Disclaimer: I am actually not part of any of these DAOs nor affiliated with any of the builders. This content is for information purposes only and you should not take anything from this blog as financial advice.
