“DAOs move pretty fast… if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss them.”
- some noob discovering the world of DAOs
The whole crypto space moves so fast that I felt rushed to write this. There are so many cool and exciting projects popping up every day that I just can’t keep track. And if don’t just write about them now, I never will. You could miss them.
So, this week I’ve compiled a bunch of DAOs (or DAO-like projects, at least) that have gained the attention of my eyeballs. It also just so happens that they all integrate NFTs. Cool.
Oh, and I added some take away lessons for people looking to start or who run a DAO. As you recall from my last post, I’m interested in starting a DAO myself - with you guys, my readers. And spoiler alert, I was gifted a highly coveted Mirror Pub last week (thank you @DanConway650!) so this may become a reality soon. Yes, exciting news. I’ll explain below. But just keep in mind that my brain is stewing with ideas to collaborate with readers. And I want you to benefit from this journey too.
OK. Here’s the list, in no particular order.
1. PaperClip DAO
Remember in 2005 when that guy traded his way up from a red paperclip to a house? In just 14 trades!? Well, PaperClip DAO is doing just that, but as a DAO. And well, their end goal is TBD. But it’s “much more than a house”.
Here’s how it works:
They start with the PaperClip NFT (seen below)
People can create offers on SudoSwap via Twitter
Members of the DAO vote on the offers
If offer is accepted, that person receives $CLIP tokens (and becomes a member of the PaperClip DAO)
They keep going.
Right now they’re on Round 3. I imagined that in about 14 trades (the amount of trades it took Kyle MacDonald to get a house) they’d trade up for a cryptopunk (with some trading for around $1million). But they got a punk in just 2 trades! You can follow their trades on Twitter at @PaperclipDAO, but here’s where they’re at as of August 24th, after 3 trades.
But here’s why it’s different from 2005’s journey (early web2.0 days) and why it’s so genius:
1) NFTs.
This goes without saying, but trading digital NFTs comes with a lot of perks over physical objects:
They’re faster than mail, duh. It only takes a few seconds to settle on the blockchain. It took Kyle MacDonald over a year to get a house. It’s possible PaperClip can get a ~$1million zombie cryptopunk in less than 4 weeks.
Their value can be easily determined with floor prices. Gauging the price of a hand carved doorknob (the 2nd trade in Kyle’s journey) is difficult.
Everyone who was involved in a trade has proof on the blockchain verifying they were involved in the PaperClip transaction, thus raising the value of that NFT. I have no clue how much that doorknob is worth now. Or if it's even the original.
2) DAOs
As a DAO, they’ll share the profits and decision making but they’ll also share their network reach for more valuable trades. And as mentioned, any person who makes a trade automatically joins the DAO. Almost like a flattened pyramid scheme :)
3) Tokens and rewards
They’ve decided to issue tokens and rewards to anyone who makes an offer… or as they say it, accurately “co-creates the story”. It’s just not fun to follow, it’s beneficial to collaborate. Like a Social Token (well, that’s exactly what it is) you reap benefits as someone watching and (kinda) participating from the outside.
Anyone who completes a trade joins the DAO. Assuming this keeps going until they have the most valuable NFT in the world, (and why not? what’s stopping them?) at some point it makes sense to trade your valuable NFT to join their DAO (right? I’m not sure on the math there; I guess it depends on the number of DAO members, but as a trader you’re getting an NFT of ‘similar’ value PLUS PaperClip DAO membership).
Anyways, we’re only a few weeks in and I’m really excited to see where this goes. You can follow their story on Twitter @PaperclipDAO.
Takeaways, inspiration, ideas, thoughts:
Reward your readers and anyone helping to share your story
Explore use of Social Tokens
Make them an offer they can’t refuse
2) ReWilder
Ugh. I frickin’ love this idea. I also love how it came together with his community of readers. It’s something I want to emulate with my Substack and Mirror Pub.
OK first, what is it?
ReWilder is a “way to use NFTs to represent contributions to a non-profit organization that buys land for conservation” started by Manual Araoz. (check out his newsletter, and this post for more deets).
But it’s better to understand the idea by seeing how it came together, while Manual was out for a walk with his sister:
hey, what if we could do cryptohorses instead of cryptokitties, but with real horses? (my family has a history with horses and horse breeding)
wait, what if we destined the money raised by selling each NFT to caring for each specific horse?
wait! what if we did that with endangered species instead of horses?
and what if we gave each NFT owner access to a feed with info about the animal they helped protect?
what if we added IoT devices to each animal and showed real-time statistics on its age, health, and GPS location!?
and what if when animals mate and have offspring, we create new NFTs and give them to the owners of the mom-NFT?
whoa, wait, that’s too complex. Let’s start with an MVP
He landed on an experiment to test whether NFTs could be used as a “good technology to help track wildlife donations”.
One issue Manuel had with most charities and/or wildlife preservation efforts was transparency. He was never sure how much of his contributions were going directly to the cause, and how much was going to other things like salaries.
That’s how we came up with the simplest, most direct way to test this: NFTs sold in auctions where 100% of the money raised goes to buying real-world land for passive rewilding.
Rewilding meaning “reversing the destruction of the natural world” and passive meaning letting nature run its course.
With the purchase of an NFT you can see exactly how your “money is used and receive updates on how the land is doing (info, pictures, satellite imagery)”.
That’s the idea at least. NFTs plan to go on sale in September 2021. I’ll be buying some!
Takeaways, inspiration, ideas, thoughts:
Explore using NFTs as a token for contribution, physical representation and ways to fundraise
Humans like transparency in how their donations are spent. NFTs provide this, and are a great way for tracking and providing updates = Integrate transparency as much as you can into your DAO
Do more experiments. Ask your audience. Get feedback.
Ed Note: I heard on Discord that this was a DAO. I couldn’t find info on that? So I’m kinda cheating and including it as a DAO.
3. Noun DAO
Speaking of charities, this next DAO / NFT project is also pretty, to use an adjective, freakin’ cool. It’s called NounDAO.
Every twenty four hours a new “Noun” NFT is randomly generated (using five different inputs), minted and auctioned off to the highest bidder by the NounDAO. Every day. Forever.
But it gets even cooler.
First, they just look cool. I mean, just look at them. The generation algorithm is also pretty sandals and socks cool too. Check out this post for more on that.
Second, unlike many other NFT projects which just dumped a whole collection at once, NounDAO generates and mints just one new one each day.
Third cool thing, and this is for the nerdy data types, but the artwork is stored on-chain. TL;DR, but take a look at this recent Twitter thread for why this is important.
But the coolest part about NounDAO is the DAO and treasury. If you buy a Noun, you become a DAO member and receive governance on how the treasury is spent. Instead of the sales money going to the artist or project creator (tho, they do get every 10th Noun) 100% money raised from sales goes directly into the NounDAO treasury.
In the first round of treasury voting, after raising $100,000 they decided unanimously (just seven members at that point) to give it all away to six different charities.
A few days ago there was about 2,074.0122 ETH (~$6.88m) in the treasury. Not sure what it’s at today, but the project has been running for 19 days (today being August 25th). So it’s probably reaching $10m soon.
Here’s an excerpt from a Decrypt article (also, check out the origin story!)
The latest Noun owner, who goes by devloper and won Noun 13 today at a price just above 128 ETH ($418,000), told Decrypt that they believe the mix of decentralized finance and NFTs is “the most interesting thing happening in the space,” and see potential in the DAO growing an “epic media brand.” Mostly, however, they’re just having a good time.
Takeaways, inspiration, ideas, thoughts:
Let members become part of your DAO by buying an NFT. Sounds so simple, but so genius at the same time.
If you’re going to make an NFT collection, make it generative and consider slowly releasing them.
4. Shark DAO
Right, so NounDAO is awesome. We all agree. But most people don't have 80 ETH lying around to buy a Noun. Only whales do.
Enter Shark DAO
Shark DAO is a DAO that buys and collects Nouns - letting people with smaller pockets be part of the NounDAO action. Or as their Twitter profile puts it:
Shark is a noun. Shark is a DAO. Shark hunts nouns. Nouns is a DAO. Simple. Owner of Nouns #2, #5, #15 and....
So they’re a DAO inside a DAO. Like Jonah and the whale. Or shark rather.
You can buy $SHARK tokens and join* the SharkDAO. It looks something like this…
*Currently they’re not letting in members. I tried. But this may change soon.
Takeaways, inspiration, ideas, thoughts:
Even becoming a member to SharkDAO could be costly. Anyone down to start BabySharkDAO and own a fraction of SharkDAO?
4. PartyDAO
PartyDAO is kind of like SharkDAO. But where SharkDAO is specific to Nouns (at the moment?), with PartyDAO, you can band together to buy any NFT. It’s a party. Oh, and PartyDAO was crowdfunded out of Mirror. Which I’ll get to next. (This is alllllll coming together). They published a proposal on Mirror, and quickly raised $80,000 to start PartyDAO.
After their Mirror Pub, PartyDAO quickly made an app called PartyBid* that lets anyone pool together their resources with their own networks, to start their own “party”. Essentially creating their own PartyDAO version with their friends. And don’t worry, you can also band together on PartyBid to buy a Noun too.
For more on this, and why people would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a JPG, checkout Not Borings great read ‘Status Monkeys’. And while you’re at it, join his Party.
Takeaways, inspiration, ideas, thoughts:
Utilize your Mirror Pub!
Make NFTs social.
5. Mirror
When I started my newsletter I had originally intended to publish it on Mirror, not on Substack. Mirror is crypto related and I was writing about crypto stuff. Also, I wanted to make it collaborative, and reward readers just for spending the time to read and share my newsletter (which… I think you can do??). So it seemed like the logical platform.
But I didn’t fully understand what Mirror actually was. Nor appreciate how difficult it was to get a publishing domain.
And it turns out Mirror is much more interesting than I previously thought. So what is it?
On the surface, Mirror is just any old publishing platform, like Medium or Substack. But it’s on the blockchain. Immutable. Programmable. And forever. Being on the blockchain also makes it easier for monetization and collaboration.
As the founders describe, it was created as a way to “help creators connect with their target audiences in a more direct and innovative way”. Or, as their devs say:
What is Mirror = Who’s on Mirror.
(Is this a mirror reflection reference too?: )
According to their website “Mirror is the next big change in the long history of symbolic communication. Through a decentralized, user-owned, crypto-based network, Mirror’s publishing platform revolutionizes the way we express, share and monetize our thoughts.”
It allows creators to monetize, collaborate and build communities with their readers and other creators.
What makes it even more unique, is that each essay can be in itself an NFT. I say essays, but they can be anything: thoughts, ideas, crowdfunding proposals, poems, even short stories, or even a novel. And because it’s an NFT, it can be bought and sold.
But that’s just half the fun. Like a DAO, it’s a decentralized platform run and built by its members (or contributors). Meaning members are also co-owners. And they also decide who to let into the clubhouse...
Enter the $WRITE Race.
Each week, thousands of people submit essays and ideas to Mirror in hopes of becoming a member. Mirror members then vote, using their $WRITE tokens, on their favourites. The top 10 vote getters are allowed in - they get membership, $WRITE tokens, and a domain. Yes, it’s a rat race. And the process repeats; new members get to also act as gatekeepers, by voting in next week's $WRITE Race. And so on. It’s a way to “ensure a quality foundation”.
If you’re interested in joining the $WRITE Race, this article is a must read.
But that’s not the only way to become a member. I was gifted $WRITE tokens and membership by a member, thank you again DanConway. In order to grow the membership (remember only 10 people get in each week, and we're on week 20; so it’s slow growth!), they airdropped a bunch of $WRITE tokens to the most active Mirror writers, who then could distribute as they please. (I met Dan on $FWB, and we shared similar ideas). Anyways, now I have a lot of pressure to do great things with my Mirror publication. And I may need your help. Like, for starters, what to call my Mirror Pub domain.
When you first become a member, you’re given 1 $WRITE token which you burn to get your ‘name’.mirror.xyz domain. Your domain can be anything, but you can’t change it. It’s on the blockchain for good.
A lot of interesting projects have started from a Mirror publication. They began as a simple proposal or idea, then received crowdfunding to go out and make it happen. In fact, I think every project I’ve listed here maybe started on Mirror? Not sure about Rewilder… it should have. It’s a perfect example.
{I’ll share some neat projects coming out of Mirror next time}
In the coming weeks, I’m going to synthesize some ideas about what I want to accomplish with my Mirror Pub. As I described in my last post, I want to form some kind of Kind Granting DAO with my readers. I want to take some ideas and lessons from these projects listed here, and new ones I discover, plus ideas from my readers to make something really cool.
If I could make a word cloud of what I’m thinking, this experiment I want to create would look something like this….
Mirror meets NounDAO meets Dollar Collective and Noodler readers….
crossed with Rewilder and SharkDAO ….
Blended with generative art, cute NFT robot avatars and SquibbleDAO…
And add in some breeding with DarkHorse DAO just for fun.
Yeah. That’s the idea. Make sense? Good.
Have some suggestions? Leave ‘em in the comments.
I was going to end there, but there are two more DAOs that I came across last minute that I wanted to add. So here they are. In brief.
6. DarkHorse DAO
I think you should know that there are people racing and betting on digital horses on the internet. Wild, wild horses. I mean, wild stuff.
It’s happening something called ZedRun. People can breed horses (as NFTs) to raise and train better horses in digital stables to win digital horse races. What a world.
And of course, there’s a DAO, more like a shared stable, called Dark Horse DAO. Here’s their mission:
Dark Horse DAO is a collective digital stable created to assemble, breed, and race horses on Zed Run. The DAO was designed with a dual-purpose: to collectively pool our rare, prized equestrian capital and provide our members with monthly, self-bred dividends.
The DAO was founded in May, but will be open to members in September. Place your bets.
7. Squiggle DAO
You’ve probably seen these Chromie Squiggle NFTs around. They’re the first generative art NFT launched on Art Blocks - so pretty much OG. Well, now there’s a DAO, SquiggleDAO, that’s all about supporting the growth of generative NFT art.
The members are “art collectors, artists, tecno-centric dreamers from all walks of life that enjoy digital art and believe in decentralized decision-making” who believe that “art is one of the most important aspects of human expression and that a world with more art in it is a better world”
Hard to argue with that.
Funny enough, I had lunch with an old colleague today, and they brought up the book The Gift. I see overlap between supporting art and creativity and communities, and the use of NFTs to do so, but, from the back cover of this book, I read:
the alternative economy of the gift, which allows creations and ideas to circulate freely, rather than hoarding them as commodities.
Makes me think twice about the act of commodifying everything with NFTs. Hah.
Takeaways, inspiration, ideas, thoughts:
Reconsider use of NFTs
Phew ok. That wraps up my list. Am I missing any DAOs?
Let me know in the comments.
BTW. I’d like to do a continuing segment like this -- creating a short list of exciting projects. It helps me understand the projects a bit more and I get to share some neat finds with you guys.
So if you come across anything cool, leave a comment. (Fact: I don’t actually enjoy saying “leave a comment”, and I need to stop saying “cool”.).
For example, I just came across this Tom Sachs project 30min ago. Looks very cool. And I love Tom Sachs, so looks like I’ll have to research and contribute somehow.