Transparency Within a DAO

Improving the flow of information to supercharge organizational development

One of the main tenets of Web3 is decentralization. And this makes sense — power in traditional organizations, both decision-making and resources, is concentrated in the hands of too few people. We all know it. The power of blockchains to create organizations where people can vote and make monetary decisions with strangers on the other side of the world is incredible. But there is a more fundamental power that needs to be distributed, and that’s information. The flow of information through a system may not be as sexy as dollars in a bank account or votes on-chain, but it is no less vital. The workings of a DAO need to be transparent to those participating in it. It’s one thing to say that information is available on-chain, it’s another thing to be able to access this data without being a blockchain detective — in a DAO, it’s not up to the “people on top” to decide if power is well distributed, it’s up to everyone, so everyone needs to be able to see it.

A compelling example of transparency being baked into a DAO is in the Token Engineering Commons (TEC). One of its ten working groups, the Transparency Working Group (TWG), is devoted entirely to this function. For on-chain data, the group uses Dune Analytics to audit votes and the flow of money. This dashboard makes the data convenient and easy to digest. Someone has already done the hard work for you, and it doesn’t have to be repeated for every person who wants to look it up.

The TWG also records and catalogs every important meeting within the TEC. At the time of this writing, 891 hours of video have been recorded. This is a tremendous service, not just for those unable to attend the original meetings, but also for the long tail of the organization. If people years or generations from now want to understand the history of this group’s development, they have the means to do so. And this aim does not just apply to the TEC. The TWG is committed to sharing its processes openly so that any DAO can learn from what it’s doing.

Imagine if people could sit in on every meeting of Apple, Tesla and Microsoft. The impact on entrepreneurs everywhere would be incredible.

The challenge here, of course, is the sheer amount of data being presented. Sure, the lessons may be there, but how much time does one have to devote to screening through hundreds of hours of meetings? That’s where the last main function of the TWG really shines. They don’t just distill the on-chain data into a digestible format, they are also tasked with helping each part of the DAO distill their workings into manifestos that can both guide their operations moving forward and support the understanding of those looking back. Distilling this knowledge is, in many ways, the most important long term function of the TWG.

Which is why it’s not just their responsibility. The TWG team members see themselves as there to help other groups tell their own stories; if the TWG tried to do this on the behalf of others, it likely would not be particularly comprehensive or accurate. What’s more, it would also deprive the group of the opportunity to learn how to clearly articulate its aims, methods, and actual results so they can be reflected on and refined over time.

Most DAOs share the ideal of reinventing the structure of human organization and collaboration. In order to do this, it’s not just power that needs to be decentralized, it’s also data and the lessons learned. Building transparency practices into an organization is the antidote to information siloing. This doesn’t just apply to an individual DAO, either. Open-sourcing organizations will allow the entire space to progress that much more rapidly. As DAOs grow in complexity and number, the need for organizational transparency becomes more and more obvious. It should be seen as a crucial early step in a DAO’s development to focus some energy towards fostering and maintaining availability and clarity of information. Because it’s not just money and votes that need to be decentralized, it’s knowledge.

To learn more about the Token Engineering Commons check out:

Medium — https://medium.com/token-engineering-commons
Discord — https://discord.gg/AtvXefnguf
Website — https://tecommons.org/

Thanks to Gideonro, taxil, & Jason Phelps for their help giving feedback and editing. thanks to Zeptimus for taking the time to interview with me, for adding links and for all his work in the TWG.