DAOstack in 2021
In 2018, DAOstack launched an ICO with the promise of creating a modular and unopinionated DAO framework. Back then, DAOs were for the most part, just a concept. Today the DAO landscape looks very different and DAOs have become one of the hottest trends in the crypto space.
Below is a look back at 2020, and some of the opportunities we are excited about as we start the new year.
A look back at 2020
Wrapping up Genesis DAO
Shortly after DAOstack raised funds in their ICO, Genesis DAO was launched. It survived a hack, grew to nearly 300 members, and had hundreds of proposals submitted and were funded by the DAO — from creating interactive video experiences to funding other DAOs. Genesis played a key role in helping guide our product development, and fostered a global community of contributors and thinkers curious and passionate about the decentralized future.
In March 2020, the Genesis DAO experiment was halted to allow us to shift our focus on building a new app, Common. Genesis DAO was an extremely valuable experiment in the early stages of the company that helped forge a number of relationships and helped guide our thinking on DAOs. As a bonus, a number of Genesis DAO members have continued contributing significantly to the DAO space post-Genesis DAO, which is something we are deeply proud of :)
A shifting market, and reevaluating our value proposition
2020 saw an absolute explosion of DAOs. Hundreds of projects launched with decentralization and governance front of mind. Many of these new projects began adopting relatively new governance tools, like Compound or Snapshot + Gnosis Safe, which focused on simplicity and usability.
Although DAOstack saw our fair share of wins in 2020 (including the successful fundraising efforts by DXdao and Prime DAO, as well as the continued success of NecDAO), behind the scenes, we were forced to get back to basics. We doubled down on understanding our target market, and spend much time re-evaluating our previously held assumptions as well as refining the vision for our product.
The opportunities ahead
More focused targets
When DAOstack launched, there wasn’t yet a clear picture of what DAOs would look like, or what the main use cases would be. Over the last year however, we’ve seen certain DAO use cases emerge and gain more traction than others.
One important group of DAO use cases that emerged was a category of grassroot funded not-for-profit DAOs we call Social Collaboratives (spearheaded in a large part by Moloch DAOs). In early 2020, we began developing a mobile app called Common, targeting this use case. Common was recently approved by the App Store and over the coming year we plan to incubate a number of local and global projects. This use case has a large market, from funding and organizing global grassroots movements to funding local clean-up efforts: think “decentralized Facebook groups on steroids”.
Alchemy, on the other hand, is our second product vertical, one that we’ve been making steady progress on. Moving into 2021, we are doubling down on a specific market, around which all of our product efforts will revolve. Stay tuned. 🎯
Decentralizing via Genesis DAO 2.0
DAOstack’s vision has always been to decentralize. In early 2021, we will be launching an updated version of Genesis DAO to progressively decentralize our stack and give GEN holders governance over aspects of our products. Genesis DAO will play a critical role in a growing and aligned ecosystem of DAOs and DAO members. Posts about Genesis DAO should start appearing on our forum in the next couple weeks.
Changes to our business model
Since the launch of DAOstack, the GEN token has only played one role: the utility token in our Holographic Consensus-based voting protocol. But requiring GEN has negatively impacting the experience of users and projects, and in 2021, we will be announcing an updated model for the GEN token. 🤫
Final thoughts
With a more focused target market, and two product verticals seeing no signs of slowing, as 2021 kicks off, we’re incredibly excited for what’s in store. The future of collaboration is taking shape before our eyes!
