An article to understand the new organizational form of blockchain DO
Source: The Way of Defi; Author: David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless; Reprinted with authorization
"nine to five"died.
The days of "going to the office" are also over.
We live in the Internet age, the world has accelerated its digitization process due to the new crown pandemic, and people want to work on their own terms, where they want to stay.
But the digital economy is not optimized for top-down organizations, how do you measure contribution? Where is the human resources department? The corporate system is not suitable for the open and permissionless digital world.
Instead, the future belongs to digital organizations (DOs), the cousins of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), which are still digital, but not fully autonomous. Digital Organizations (DOs) do not strictly rely on codes, but on people and Tokens for coordination.
These are bottom-up emergency coordination tools.
This is how the future works.
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1 The future of work
Where there is value, there is opportunity, and where there is opportunity, labor is needed to help seize that opportunity.
The enormous opportunity found in the cryptocurrency industry dwarfs everything else in the world. Therefore, the demand for talent and labor in the cryptocurrency industry is also insane compared to other places.
In the past 12 years, the large-scale expansion of the value and capital of this industry has exceeded the perception of most people on the planet. Overall, it will take years, if not decades, for the global population to slowly shift to addressing the problem of excess labor. Not even a company like Coinbase can capture the full extent of this opportunity, which is inherently internet-native.
Only internet-native organizations will be able to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by internet-native currencies and the financial revolution. As the total value of crypto wealth grows, so will the demand for crypto labor.
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2 Digital organizations (DOs) are the future
The future of work belongs to digital organizations. Using the previous terminology, we would call it DAO, but this is not the correct label for digital organizations.
DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization whose concept is that the code is at the center and people are only at the periphery. DAOs are smart contracts or smart contract systems on Ethereum, they are autonomous because they have no dependencies on humans, they run as autonomous software on Ethereum. Uniswap, AMM, and RAI are all good examples that fit the original definition of a DAO.
The DAO's theory ends up being more and more complex:
“What if we could turn Uber into a smart contract where all Uber drivers would work for the DAO and be able to keep a larger share of the profits?”
Comments like this were common in the early days of Ethereum (2015-2017), when Ethereum was a fully virtual state machine.
The organizational form of DAOs is a land of infinite possibilities, and I predict that these autonomous systems will finally arrive after 2040, once Ethereum’s ability to organize humans matures to be more effective than nation-states and jurisdictional organizational structures.
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3 Now is the moment for the digital organization (DO)
Digital Organizations (DOs) are the next frontier on Ethereum, and it is the future of how work is done.
For Digital Organizations (DOs), anyone who knows World of Warcraft guilds and raids, or any other MMORPG organization should be able to easily understand the concept.
Digital Organizations (DOs) are made up of human beings without geographical limitations. Currently relying primarily on Discord servers (but not quite!), Digital Organizations (DOs) are collections of like-minded, goal-aligned people working together towards some goal.
Digital Organizations (DOs) tend to form organically, with those who most resonate with the goals and aspirations of the organization increasingly gravitating towards Discord servers and communities.
Now, with Ethereum, digital organizations (DOs) have a new tool at their disposal that transforms them from intrinsically motivated communities to financially motivated organizations.
And this tool is Token.
Token is the driving force of the community. It is what turns a passive Discord channel into an active channel. Token is the fuel consumed by DAO workers to produce value for the organization. They provide and catalyze power for the digital organization (DO).
Tokens represent a reserve into which Digital Organization (DO) members can invest their time and labor. Members of the Digital Organization (DO) are after the token, and if they don't want the token, then they probably won't show up in the Digital Organization (DO) Discord server. The desire to own more tokens is what puts the workforce into a digital organization (DO) and helps make it a thing worth owning in the first place.
A digital organization (DO), as the controlling entity of its own token, has the right to mint/issue/reward tokens to members who work for the digital organization (DO), if there is enough interested labor willing to work for the token of the digital organization, then This digital organization has potential energy available to achieve its desired goals.
A digital organization (DO) is its own Leviathan, where shared goals and culture make up the organization, and token rewards are what keep the organization cohesive and moving toward that common goal.
In Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, he claimed that states were formed by force. The threat of jail or bodily harm is why people don't steal, pay taxes, and drive on the right side of the road.
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4 Instantiation goals and objectives
Token is the instantiation of a common purpose and a common goal. Each digital organization (DO) will develop its own social contract and its own culture, and Token will be the totem of the community, as a representative symbol of everything that the digital organization (DO) represents.
It became the banner behind the Digital Organization (DO) army.
This allows people to resonate with a collective purpose, to work for what they internally believe in, not just a job or a career.
I said above: If there is enough interested labor willing to work for the Digital Organization (DO) Token, then the Digital Organization (DO) has potential energy available to move towards its desired goal.
Whether a digital organization (DO) has potential energy available to achieve its goals is highly relevant to what the organization wants to achieve.
"Even a billion-dollar capital can't compete with a project with soul."
—— Vitalik
To have a soul is to have purpose and meaning in this world. Unlike any previous organizational structure, digital organizations (DOs) have the ability to bring people together around the world under shared goals and aspirations based on intrinsic desires rather than extrinsic profit motives.
ETH bulls are willing to accept a minimal token issuance to provide sufficient equity to the system. Those who are most aligned with Ethereum do the most work for it at the least cost.
Digital organizations (DOs) will have the same effect. People join a digital organization (DO) because they are inherently aligned with the organization's goals, aspirations, and culture. These people find themselves wanting to contribute, rather than being forced to.
These are the people who will work for the DO at the lowest cost because they inherently believe in what they are doing and they want DO tokens more than anyone else.
The Digital Organization (DO) is a strictly opt-in system, and the only people who provide the workforce to the Digital Organization (DO) are those who essentially want to be there.
For example, imagine a young digital organization (DO) owning a brand new token with little (or no) market cap and little liquidity. And the digital organization (DO) wants to build a relatively ambitious website, so it can do the following things:
Find a Website Builder
Find talent from within the digital organization (DO)
Because this digital organization is new, it does not have any capital, but only its own token (very low market cap), and low liquidity. Imagine how difficult it would be to convince a third-party agency to build a website for this digital organization while at the same time accepting the digital organization's illiquid token.
If the web agency isn't inherently interested in the benefits of this digital organization (DO), then it's going to be a very tough sell, and they'll probably want excess tokens to offset the associated risk.
On the other hand, if the digital organization (DO) is working towards the inner beliefs of the participants, those who are interested in realizing the vision will naturally be attracted to the digital organization (DO) and are willing to help the digital organization (DO) get what it wants. They may work for this digital organization for free in order to earn social capital (aka credit) from other DO members and increase the social influence of the digital organization (DO). Perhaps they are also willing to bet that this digital organization (DO) will reward them with tokens for their labor in the future, and by demonstrating their commitment to the DO, they will be in a good position to receive future compensation.
Perhaps these incentives will attract enough talented web developers and project managers that digital organizations (DOs) can build their own websites from this talent pool.
A digital organization (DO) is a tool for acquiring a workforce from talent that aligns with the vision and ethos of a digital organization, and a tool for building an organization that is highly aligned with human values.
A digital organization (DO) has the ability to form a shared vision of the future among its members.
And the better the vision, the more talent and labor it will attract.
The Digital Organization (DO) is a tool for establishing fundamentally human values.
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5 New extension limits
Internet-native organizations have the ability to align incentives at Internet-scale, however, one can already see the vulnerability of Web2 applications like Twitter, Facebook, and Google. These traditional companies have a fundamental incentive imbalance between the different parties using their services.
The Web2 social network started as a paradigm shifting platform, allowing people from all over the world to come together and share cultural experiences.
Then, as shareholder incentives take over, the companies that own these platforms move from growth to extraction. If the platform is free, then you are the product.
Nic Carter argues for "squatter rights" on social media accounts in his article Your Property Rights Should Extend to Social Media.
Nic thinks:
It is the users of these Web 2 platforms who create the value.
According to the "bill of rights" (ToC) of each Web 2 platform, users do not own their own property (Twitter, YouTube account, Facebook page).
Web 2 platforms have unregulated and misplaced governance practices on the real estate their users inhabit.
Users may migrate to more "politically stable" platforms where they have stronger guarantees of their property rights as account owners.
Select an excerpt:
"Facebook, Twitter, etc. don't really create all the content on their platforms, nor do they really own it. Instead, they define a namespace that users use, build on, and in some cases commercialize. Users not management Members create the vast majority of value, so users are the legal owners of their digital property.
'...it is clear that the largest internet platforms today are adopting an unsustainable approach to digital governance. '
We can expect that if the major platforms continue to operate irresponsibly, users will be attracted to a system that is more politically stable and embodies genuine protection of property. "
This is why we need organizations built by users, and why digital organizations (DOs) formed by individuals with a common goal of producing something that a team wants together is particularly revolutionary .
This bottom-up organization allows the bottom to determine the direction of the platform. Because digital organizations (DOs) are made up of opt-in individuals rather than VC-funded leadership, they produce products that align with a collective vision rather than the entrepreneurial spirit of a handful of visionary entrepreneurs.
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6 Change the work culture
Discord and Slack have a lot in common, they are basically coordination software that keeps workflow focused and organized for asynchronous coordination between people. You don’t have to work on one site forever, things can happen without you there, you can adjust them when you’re ready, and keep up.
Different Slack/Discord channels are started for different workflows, and the flow between channels allows workflows to come together as needed.
But the main difference between Discord and Slack is that Discord is more open, and there is something in its culture that promotes openness and accessibility. Slack's culture is very top-down, which is very corporate, while Discord's culture is bottom-up.
Here’s what the BanklessDAO discord looks like a week after its birth:
For the younger generation, Crypto culture is a product that fits the market. For internet natives, Discord digital organizations are blurring the lines between labor and pleasure. Work happens where people re-create and everyone is close to progress and relaxation.
Members of digital organizations are leading the WFH lifestyle, not only do they not have an office, but they also do not have a "9 to 5" working hours. Like the 24/7 cryptocurrency market, the DAO is always "on", but working members will switch themselves on and off fluidly because it fits their way of life.
In the traditional world, you would put work before life so you could keep a job.
Whereas in the Digital Organization (DO), the lifestyle determines the labor, not the labor determines the lifestyle.
The Digital Organization (DO) will provide an experiment that both establishes new paradigms in work culture and explores what it means to be productive. 9-5 office workers in companies are known to only actually work about 2-3 hours a day, then spend 5 hours pretending to be “busy” until 5pm and then go home .
The crypto industry has a habit of stripping unnecessary parts from things in order to get to the bottom of the matter. People working for DOs are already at home, so no one is sitting idle during working hours, and DOs have found creative and innovative ways to compensate for output.
It’s the work-and-live culture millennials and Gen Zs dream of (working from the comfort of their own homes with little or no top-down oppression of power).
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Unlike typical employment, a digital organization (DO) does not make you sign employment contracts and is fully committed to them. Digital Organization (DO) members can move freely between major Digital Organizations (DOs), contributing their skills where they are suitable.
Unlike rigid vertical corporate structures, digital organization (DO) work can resemble a flat mesh network of organizations. Interestingly, many DOs are likely to share a large number of the same members, since they can work for multiple DOs.
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8 The Future AI World
Before diving into the world of cryptocurrencies, I was most fascinated by the upcoming world of artificial intelligence, largely because of these two books:
《Life 3.0 》- Max Tegmark
《Homo Deus》 - Yuval Noah Harai
The two books reach largely similar conclusions about the relationship between artificial intelligence, humans, and labor.
Summarized as follows:
The point of technology is to reduce the need for manpower. The progress of society is that we find ways to automate all the things we don't want to do, which is what we need to do anyway.
Logically, humans will create generalized AI that can literally do every task we need in order to survive.
It's utopia because there are robots doing all our jobs!
But it's even more detrimental because, economically, a large portion of the population won't be able to finance themselves because they'll lose their jobs.
In a world where we need to re-create markets for specific human labor, this is what digital organizations (DOs) can do for us. Digital organizations (DOs) have the opportunity to redirect this misaligned future toward a more positive future by capturing the supply of available human capital and channeling it into cultural output.
The whole point of being in this world is to create culture, and eliminating low-value jobs (making hamburgers, etc.) can be a boon for culture creation.
There will be certain things/products/services that humans specifically want from other humans. These products and services will not be affected by the advancement of artificial intelligence, because these products will be produced by humans, and they are also needed by other humans. I believe that the digital organization (DO) will be largely a culture-generating facility, and that the competition among digital organizations (DOs) will ultimately focus on which digital organizations (DOs) can serve as contributors, creators, members, and consumers who create the best culture?
Culture as a product can only be produced by humans for human consumption. Future work will focus on cultural creation, funded by an insatiable desire to buy culture. Digital organization (DO) and doing work can be a sanctuary of human capital from non-cultural AI.
You might be thinking: "Clothes? NFTs? Blogs? Can AI produce all of these things? They can create culture just like humans! The whole point of AI is that their output is indistinguishable from a human's. It's a Good point of criticism.
in conclusion
in conclusion
We are about to embark on a great expedition! Digital Organizations (DOs) will help us do more than ever! If the above vision can be realized, it will have great potential.
Of course, it may not be possible.
Perhaps the digital organization (DO) doesn't have what it needs, and perhaps the emergency organization system without top-down control is too grandiose to hope.
But if it happens, it happens because people help other people figure out what it means to do it. What does it mean to be a good DOer? What jobs and workforces are most in demand by digital organizations (DOs)? How do digital organizations (DOs) fairly compensate organization members when rent needs to be paid and family needs to be cared for? How do we ensure that different parts of different digital organizations (DOs) are compensated fairly but differently?
We need to find answers to these questions, and those answers will come from collaborative experiments. As with all things, it will be an iterative process of discovering what works and what doesn't.
If you want to participate, or even just observe these experiments, you can become part of the Bankless DAO.
If the goals and values of the Bankless DAO don't suit you, don't worry, in the end, there will be a Digital Organization (DO) for everyone. It's only a matter of time before anyone with any particular interest has an associated digital organization (DO) that they can align with, just like every hobby has a subreddit or every interest has a Facebook group.
We are at the forefront of digital organizations (DOs).
Just DO it。
