The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Disclaimer, because I’m probably going to need one for saying what I’m about to say
You might not like this, but from my own perspective, this is true, and we still have some major issues, anything said here is not about biting the hand that feeds us, it’s not written to anger the community or to challenge what you believe about DAOs, however, you need to understand there is more to understand past the point of your understanding, and if you ignore these issues, you will never have a true DAO. Now let’s get going.
The beginning of your downfall ser stop speaking before you start
No, I need to
Do you want honesty, or do you want me to tell you what you want to hear?
You know, it’s easy to have a pipe dream and talk about DAO philosophies when you’re talking about DAOs, but unfortunately. And this might come as an absolute shocker to you. The Community DAO or other Harmony DAOs are not currently DAOs.
Don’t cry, it’s okay, we’ll make it through and we can turn them into DAOs. Okay?
They are not decentralized, they’re not run on smart contracts, and they’re not free from the foundation. In fact, the Core DAOs at least are still very much under the control of the Harmony Foundation.
Wut? But why ser?
Well, essentially, the funds in which the DAO needs to survive, is drip-fed through a corporate IV, and to keep that line of cash flowing so the DAO doesn’t come to a grinding halt and seize up like a warm penguin, DAOs must be prepared to jump through the hoops, and rather than solely marching to the tune of the communities drum, they’re kept in check by our friendly overlords from the core team and they are put on a path which they want through requirements for funding (Publicly not behind closed doors) You must understand that all this is public, I’m not talking about conspiracy here, it’s there to see, just look. Like it or not Harmony has the opportunity to punish the DAOs if they don’t believe they’re doing the work that they want, rather than the community making this decision. For example, the Creative DAO has waited for a decision for 44 days for a funding request decision, that’s half of a 3-month term. They’ve already had a governance vote on running a bounty program for a mass marketing drive, but currently, they can’t do this even though the community voted for it, however, some governors are still pushing to keep it alive, but how long can that last. They should just kill the DAO already or with the grace of Satoshi, let it live.
But ser that sounds sinister?
Absolutely, I get it, don’t get me wrong. As much as I don’t like any of the above, and find it extremely frustrating I believe Harmony has a motive to control the DAOs and try to put them on the right path before they find financial independence because once the DAOs do that, they are free from the chains of bondage and can fly like community-driven eagles.
But ser, you work for the masters?
Lolz, Sit down Timmy, let me explain. If you ignore the above and are not aware of these facts, then the DAOs are at risk of never becoming decentralized. You do not like this, you do not want to, but you need to accept it before we move forward.
How do we stop this pls
I don’t know, the governors need to be vocal and call things out as they see it to the community much like this. It’s not like Harmony is trying to sway governance vote, they are trying to build DAOs with their vision and i have to admit, there is a difference between control and nurturing, but there’s a fine line when it comes to DAOs. However, much like DAOs, we need more community input. If we are going to build 10,000, surely it will be good to actually speak to governors from existing DAOs and find out the pain points of growing and scaling before you start running and bounding along throwing DAOs up like girl scouts banging out cookies on a mass scale. Harmony, open meeting soon? in which we can actually address concerns, provide feedback, ask questions. Every opportunity the governors have had to speak to Harmony gets cut short before we can speak or ask tricky questions. It’s time to work together and to stop making governors feel like they are bad for being passionate. We need open sessions with the community, the core team, and the governors so we can move forward. Let’s finally admit our mistakes so we can get to the building on the same page part. This isn’t about us and them, it’s about working together with no hierarchy and working for the greater good, please tell me I’m right? You know, the DAO way? Just the way governors need to push more to include the opinion of many, Harmony needs to do more with these, we all do, and that includes you as a community member, we need more effort from the bottom, all the way to the top. And exactly in that direction, so as a community member, fight for what you believe in, please. Show some passion for your convictions.
What other things do we not want to hear ser?
It’s not just funding that prevents the DAOs from being as fluid as a drunk octopus, the DAOs are not run on smart contracts, we’re still aren’t at a point where the community can put forward a proposal and for this to turn up on Snapshot and be implemented with little input from a governor. There are many steps to this process, Posting to Talk, the governors posting to Snapshot, this can take a month, then the governors have to find ways to implement a change because quite frankly, a lot of the time community members don’t want to put in the leg work, they want to make a suggestion, then disappear, because it sounds like a good idea, but do they always have the conviction to try to overcome the challenges of actually implementing a change
We need change ser
We do, and coming from my point of view alone, the next steps that the community and governors need to take are simple, we need to make a clear channel, a clear process for paying contributors, people need to know if they work for the DAO as Harmony put ever so simply with a Disney twist, that they know how they will be paid and with how much. There is also the issue with the quality of work, don’t get me wrong, we’re not going to struggle to find someone to work towards the goal of the DAO, the question is, how do we make sure that work is effective and worth what the DAO is paying these contributors? These are challenges, and the first port of call for this is a community discussion, we need to talk about how this works, no I mean how it actually works, not just by saying anyone can work for a DAO, we need to talk about HOW anyone can work for a DAO. You might have noticed anyone that who said this, has never discussed how.
What else?
Financial freedom is a must because quite simply a DAO cannot survive if it doesn’t have the funds to pay contributors, developers, etc. Thankfully we’ve had a lot of work put in so far at reviving the Crazy.One Domains for a funding source for the DAO which should help it survive once it goes live after some major development to make you want to actually own one. Once the DAO is financially stable, it doesn’t have to wait to put change into action, they simply need the community consensus through governance voting. We don’t want to associate DAOs with business, but like it or not, in some ways you need to operate it like one, in business if you’re not fluid and react fast to your environment then you die, DAOs are already at a disadvantage with this, so once more participation and more tooling comes into play, governance voting needs to become faster. Maybe 1wallet can implement something on their app, which community members get push notifications when a proposal goes live for instant voting? Aurrghhhmaggguhhh, Participation in voting would go up x10,000 and would start to truly represent the people. YUS let’s do this. See another reason why I’m here, ideas for days.
Who should work for the DAOs
People that care, people with skills that can add value, and this bit could be seen as controversial but here we go, Not everyone.
Not everyone should work for the DAOs? What is this atrocity ser?
There are different ways you can work, you don’t have to work to participate, we definitely need participation, if we don’t have this then the final outcome of the votes that take place doesn’t necessarily represent the community at large. You don’t want people without the skills to complete tasks working on them, people should work to their strengths. What I’m really trying to get at here, there’s not always going to be meaningful tasks for absolutely every person to do. It needs to have value, right? Does it? Don’t get me wrong, we have even recently paid people just for giving input and ideas with the Creative DAO, they didn’t necessarily have ‘skills’ that qualified them, but the input was great and beneficial so needs to be rewarded right? But let’s say, we’re not gonna pay a random person with no editing skills to do an infographic, you have to suit tasks to skillsets. So how do we do this efficiently and fairly?
I’m panicking, what else might we need?
Decentralized tooling, I’ll say it again, decentralized tooling. If you want the governors to do less, we need the tools to do it, we need to push work to the community easier, faster, and more efficiently.
What needs to happen next?
More people working towards the goal of the DAO, we need to start more open working sessions, much like we are doing with the Creative DAO, a clear line of communication surrounding contributor pay, along with an unbiased community-driven way of qualifying quality of work.
Why more people ser?
It’s not just about getting more work done, it’s about the community giving true input. You see our MAIN form of contact with the community members has been Twitter Spaces, I stand by them because before I started them, we had next to no real contact with our wider community, and no one was showing a true interest, it served as a stage and channel for us to talk with and inform our community at large, it’s always great for getting some input. But we must admit, Twitter spaces are great, but some people don’t want to request the mic and speak as they feel they are put on the spot. Along with the Twitter Spaces, we need to have open discussions in which community members can speak without delay or censorship. With the Creative DAO, we have started meetings with community members, and the meetings have been awesome, hearing their ideas, giving us input, it’s an open discussion and everyone at the table has a say. This is the DAO way. Everyone has an equal opinion.
We do not like you ser, bad, bad governer
This makes me cry inside, however, I was never here to be quiet, I believe it’s a governor’s duty to be loud and bring things to light that simply you don’t usually get to see as a community member. It’s easy to be opinionated about DAOs and to tell people how they should work, but rather than speaking to people about them at conferences and getting all woke, actually be on one, see the challenges they actually face behind closed doors. People talk about participation, but sometimes as we’ve experienced it, it’s even hard enough to get governors to commit time and work when they have they’re more than generous pay set out clearly, never mind a random laptop warrior on Twitter that only really actually cares about price movements.
What now
Look, I’m clearly here to put my name in for my last seat on the Community DAO council, I want to get the Crazy.One Domains project is done and dusted so I know that the DAO will survive, I want to implement working groups and open discussions which can happen before the election regardless if I’m here to stay for the moment. I want to see ideas turn into governance votes faster. I have experienced every emotion from sheer delight to moments of depression with this DAO, if the DAO becomes what it’s capable of, I will actually cry with joy no joke.
U cry for DAO? Ur high man
Man, madame, DAOs can be a truly beautiful thing. We’re a long way from beauty though. Beauty is in the days when governors really, actually, and I mean seriously, don’t actually, seriously, don’t have to do anything, when people care enough once they see the potential. But first, they actually have to care enough to put the work in and people need to be rewarded for that when they put that burning passion into something they care about.
No one has even really noticed the gift you have received
Do you want a million dollars? No… why? We can complain about the process and the way things are done. However, when Stephen Tse projected his vision and instructed the team to roll out the DAO grants, he was giving the funds as a gift to you. The funds are essentially the communities because the DAOs belong to you if you care enough about them. This presents amazing opportunities for the community to make changes in things that they want to see change with. The DAO can use that money to achieve its goals.
Why are you so philosophical you melt
Because I actually care, vote for me, and whilst you at it, even if you don’t vote for me, vote for Harmonious dude, because if you don’t without much explanation, if you don’t vote for Harmonious dude the DAO is ****ed because Harmonious dude will spend the time doing all that boring admin stuff in the background that’s absolutely essential but no one else wants to do. He’s done some incredible work for the DAO and is absolutely essential for the moment.
Your main point for this term if you manage to get a seat
Participation and setting up how people are paid along with the quality aspect, and I won’t do this alone, this will be done with the community, in open community sessions, which includes you if you care enough about anything that I’ve said. We need to push the deliverables into the hands of the participating community. We have a lot of legends, they don’t all have the time to commit to the DAO as a governor, however, they may be able to work a couple of hours here and there to create some amazing work for the DAO
Here are the questions put forward for the DAO Candidates
I will try and do this without buzz words or Bulls**t
1. Are there obstacles you see in being able to commit up to 10 hours/week as a DAO governor?
No, there haven’t been any issues with this, apart from when I was in the hospital for a week with my 3-year-old son, there hasn’t been a week I haven’t worked and I’m always willing to put the time in when necessary. Day or night.
2. What skills and/or abilities do you hope to bring that would be beneficial to the Community DAO?
Experience, drive, and passion, apart from my skills from the real world which I bring, I have a good understanding of how these ships sail now, I’m gonna be real and outspoken when I need to be and bring the light to the people who aren’t paying attention. If they want to listen and take the pill.
3. How long have you been in the Harmony community and why do you want to run for a position on the council?
I’ve been involved since the end of January 2021, it’s been an absolute rollercoaster. I want to be on the council because there are still a lot of things we need to put to bed and get finished with. We also need to switch up the DAO massively and push for community working groups which I will be pushing to implement.
4. What timezone do you live in for the purposes of potentially scheduling the 2nd AMA?
UTC + 1 but available anytime
Anything else you wanna say?
No, actually yes, I always have more to say, clearly. Look, I care enough about this to put the serious effort in that it deserves, I actually understand the challenges that we face, I’m not going to get a seat then drop it and disappear like we have seen so many times before. I don’t give up when things get difficult, I work harder when times get hard.
For everyone that does vote for me, sincerely I appreciate this. For anyone that doesn’t, I honestly hope for the best for the people that get a seat, I believe in governance and believe the right people will be chosen that the community wants to elect, at least if enough people show up to vote.
Best of luck to the other candidates! Please treat the DAO with the passion and drive that it deserves.
Bricktop_ONE
Quick one guys, I don’t want this post to become about the wrongs and the right, please simply show approval for me running in the comments or disagree and tell me why I shouldn’t run.
I need 5 people to show approval in the comments to make my candidacy valid.
Edit : Planned open working session for the Community DAO : https://twitter.com/OneCommunityDAO/status/1502750949487661058?s=20&t=z0FHxH0DyAnQ45UpSlWhew
