The week's focus is on decentralized autonomous organizations. ______________________________________________________ Quote of the week: "DAOs are changing the way we think about how organizations work" - The World Economic Forum level 1: the resignation.
as people hop & skip into the great resignation, DAOs are on the come up.
Unless you've been under a rock, then you've heard about "The Great Resignation," a wave of 33M+ Americans voluntarily leaving their jobs in COVID in search of higher-paying, more meaningful, or flexible ways to live.
The future of work is arriving faster than expected, and it's gravy's mission to unpack the wealth side of this shift and the opportunity it brings. And the emergence of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) is a big one.
DAOs are blockchain-enabled self-managed organizations of people run by a transparent set of computer-coded rules (smart contracts). Jargon aside, DAOs reduce the need for traditional hierarchies. Check it out:
top down vs. decentralized autonomous orgs
source: 101 Blockchains DAOs are infancy stage, but making waves. They've even hit the agenda of Davos, a conference of folks so powerful it's been called an Illuminati meetup (which it had to debunk). Our point? DAOs are worth digging into. Leggo. level 2: the reorg.
"DAOs = crew love" If NFTs, DeFi, and smart contracts are blockchain's 'what' (check our crypto crash course if your face looks like this), then DAOs are the blockchain 'how.' DAOs are used to organize folks, handle votes, pool money & split proceeds.
Sometimes called "group chats with bank accounts," DAOs come in many flavors: Social DAOs turn friends into co-workers. Investment DAOs pool capital. DAO types also include Media, Service, Grant & others (more here).
A few examples of DAOs:
Friends With Benefits: an exclusive "underground" club for thinkers & creatives. Read about the DAOs dynamic young black founder here.
Constitution DAO: raised $47M to bid in an auction for a copy of the US Constitution. It lost to a hedge fund billionaire but gets an A for effort.
Pleasr DAO: buys collectible NFTs, artwork & music, including Wu-Tang's unreleased album 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin', for $4M.
Blockbuster DAO: formed to raise $5M to resurrect Blockbuster Video from Dish Network and turn it into a streaming film studio.
Here's a list of the 11 most interesting DAOs of 2021. Clearly, there's a lot of interesting stuff going on. And there's more where that came from:
the DAO landscape
source: @cooopahtroopa.
Plenty of folks believe DAOs are the orgs of the future, and the numbers say a lot: In 2021, DAO members grew 130x, and their treasuries, or bank account, grew 40x to $16B (can you say "hot fire ").
Even better, DAOs exist in the digital realm, so ethnicity, gender, age, and socioeconomic status don't matter. That's a big deal and could give DAOs the potential to be history's most equitable type of organization.
level 3: hustling frontwards.
for those of us who are one TPS report away from taking it here.
DAOs allow contributors to choose what they work on and when. That's a big motivation for more and more people to work on DAO projects vs. full-time corporate gigs. Could this be the real future of work?
Getting into DAOs usually requires acquiring a "token" by contributing talent or buying them using fiat or crypto. Contributors get paid in tokens and many view tokens as a better form of equity than stocks.
DAOs plays to ride the wave:
Contribute: Of 1K+ DAOs, there's probably one that resonates. Hit DeepDAO or DAOlist to find your peeps and stick a toe in (guide here).
Invest: diversify your portfolio by teaming up with others to acquire a rare NFT or make a bet on specific DAO tokens or index play via Index Coop.
Launch: if you're the bleeding edge type, you can go all-in and launch your own DAO (here's a handy guide).
Now, before you pull an Antonio Brown at the gig, know the risks. For starters, regulators (surprise! ) haven't caught up with DAOs yet, so they sit in a legal gray area. Others include security exploits, infrastructure issues, and more.
In terms of upside, a survey of DAO contributors found that half report DAOs as their primary source of income, 20% report DAOs as their only source of income, and a good number make close to a traditional salary (more here):
Are DAOs your primary source of income? (n = 422)
source: Gitcoin DAO.
One of the best parts of dabbling is the minimal strings attached. Contributors can hold tokens, convert them to other currencies, or exit the DAO anytime with their tokens, no questions asked. No two weeks' notice is needed.
Will DAOs replace traditional, hierarchical companies to become how people organize their work? It's too early to say. Either way, we dig the concept. Fill out this interest form to stay in the loop if a Gravy DAO becomes a thing.
join the conversation:
Join us for 'Building a Unicorn: The Journey & Mindset That Built $750M Tech Company Squire' from 4 pm - 5 pm PT on Thurs, Feb 27th, featuring Brandon Jones with Squire President, Dave Salvant & CEO, Songe LaRon.
We're launching our gravy investment syndicate! If you're an accredited investor, fill out our interest form to get plugged in on deals like this.
Check out the audio of Unpacked: "The Financial Advisor's Roadmap to Generational Wealth", with Jonathan Hodge of UBS & Northwestern Mutual's Jonathan Kennedy sharing views on building generational wealth.
gravy reads:
Manchester United Legends to Create World’s First Soccer DAO
Yours in wealth, gravy.