The Way of The DAO with MonkeDAO
In this Twitter Space interview, the Serum team sits down with the bright minds behind MonkeDAO. MonkeDAO has built a strong and loyal community around their NFT tokens and is widely-considered as the example of how a DAO should be done.
Read on to discover their thoughts on how DAOs should operate, the difference of token DAOs vs. NFT DAOs, and much more.
How did the idea of MonkeDAO come about and how did you get started with that?
Essentially, mint day for SMBs was August 3rd of last year. Post-mint, SMBs were pretty much building the marketplace, and a lot of the primary holders within the “monkey” ecosystem wanted to be more active holders — they wanted to move beyond the SMB brand. So a few of the “OG monkeys” took action and put together the MonkeDAO Discord.
The goal was to put together a space for SMB holders to get together to see how they could help grow the ecosystem. This also took place before marketplace was even launched, so a lot of OTC trading and people trying to buy SMBs took place here, as well. That’s essentially how MonkeDAO started.
MonkeDAO has definitely been one of the most successful NFT DAOs in the space. How has that journey been, and where do you see DAOs headed in the future?
Everybody is talking about DAOs and building DAOs. But, when it comes to DAOs, there’s actually a difference between a token DAO and an NFT DAO.
From what I’ve seen, with token DAOs, it’s more about increasing the price of the token and adding value to the protocol. NFT DAOs really bring value by focusing more on the community and the value you get from networking with these other talented individuals.
We have so many amazing builders and pioneers within MonkeDAO. I think, as we head into the future, it’s not going to be so much about “what can I do to help myself.” If we can support and help everyone else, then everyone else wins. So, as we continue to build within the space, everyone else does better and everything just comes along with it.
For MonkeDAO, how do you guys think about decentralization? How do you guys make decisions as a DAO right now?
To be completely honest, I think we’ve seen the definition and level of governance transform within the DAO and progressively mature over time. We didn’t start MonkeDAO by trying to be “The DAO” in the space. Over time, we started to introduce decentralization in a way where we needed to build a DAO as the community got larger.
We didn’t want any 1%, or small group, within the community to control the conversation or the fate of an organization. So, that’s how it initially came about. Fast forward to today, where every member is able to submit a proposal, based on what they feel is the right direction for the community within the governance guidelines of the DAO.
More recently, with the community getting much larger, we started to realize it may not be effective if every single proposal had to go through a vote. So, we needed to decide on a different way to make smaller decisions, choices about things that wouldn’t necessarily be big-ticket items or affect fundamental principles like the core values of the DAO. Perhaps we can delegate these decisions to certain board members or other individuals that are rightfully identified.
We’re pretty interested to hear what MonkeDAO is currently working on. Are there any exciting things in your roadmap that you could share with us?
So, everybody’s heard about the Monkey token we’ve been working on for the tokenomics within the DAO itself. We’re also continuously working on the education aspect of our staking defi protocol to educate people on gel pools and show them how the integration of our defi protocols can actually earn them the same yields they would see by staking.
We’re also using the MonkeDAO validator to help a lot of new communities set up their DAO, and we have a space coming up where some really smart “monkeys” are going to be talking about DAO tooling. They’re actually building out tools to help us manage the DAO a little more efficiently.
Another thing I’m really excited about that we’re working on is expanding MonkeDAO out to other continents. We really want to make an effort to reach the broader membership outside the US and Europe. We’ve been working on a Monkey Map by grabbing IP addresses from anyone who’s been joining us in Discord and, right now, we’re talking to a Monkey that’s in Hong Kong and Japan to see what we can do to expand our reach to Asia.
Recently, Solana NFTs have been gaining a lot of interest. Where do you see the overall NFT industry heading?
From when I first started, the industry was kind of about utilities. Then, the industry moved into staking for a little bit, and now there is a lot of merch in the space. It shows that people are starting to feel a sense of pride in representing the community they belong to and are a part of. That will probably lead to more community members being comfortable doxing themselves.
Early on, no one knew if you were a man or a woman, what you look like, and in most communities, if you didn’t do Twitter Spaces, people wouldn’t even know what you sound like. I’ve met a lot of Monkeys at our events and some of them are exactly how you would picture them, and others are nothing like their Twitter personalities. So, I think this aspect will kind of continue to come into play where more and more people feel comfortable revealing more about themselves.
Understanding NFT DAO Communities
That’s a wrap on another Project Serum Twitter Space interviews. What an insightful look into all the amazing things happening on Serum and in the digital economy as a whole. Thanks to brilliant people in the space like the MonkeDAO team, we’re seeing a new economy spawn right in front of our eyes.
For more on what the MonkeDAO team is doing with Serum, check out the full Twitter Space interview.
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