The Clique Podcast: Recent Episodes
Abhishek Sonawane & Abhishek Ajit
Progressive decentralization is not easy especially for web3 projects who’re used to exponential output with lean teams.. however if it has to adhere to the ethos of web3 with its niche use cases, it requires decentralization for optimal community support & should also satisfy the objectives that every traditional startup/business would have to deal with
Anze Noc, Community & Growth Lead from DIA DAO, a DAO focused on building out a multi-chain, end-to-end, open-source data and oracle platform for Web3 joins the duo to talk about the origins of the DIA DAO operations & how it has progressively decentralized to having a community with over 700 contributors. We learn about the DAO structure facilitate by a tool stack of Discord, DeWork, Snapshot & smart DIA incentivization schemes. We also learn about how they want to promote optimized democracy, a state where contributors have higher proportion of voting rights according to their contribution. How they balance out the interests of the core team with that of their community towards the ultimate objective of DIA succeeding as the core oracle platform for web3
A banger for teams looking to decentralize their web3 projects with a lot of actionable insights, do check it out !
Podcast Timeline
0:00 - 02:30 - Episode intro
02:30 - 06:00 - Background
06:00 - 17:17 - What DIA's all about
17:18 - 24:21 - Navigating through transition pain points
24:22 - 34:20 - Community Culture ~ Pros & Cons
34:21- 43:05 - Ambiguity around Governance
43:06 - 49:17 - Balancer, AI context Governance, Roles
49:18 - 56:36 - Response form the community
56:37- 1:00:07 - Flip side of scaling too fast
1:00:07 - 1:04:00 - closing remarks
Important Links
Anze Noc: https://twitter.com/Anze_DIA
DIA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DIAdata_org
Website: diadata.org
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The Clique Podcast - Twitter, Discord
2022 was a crazy year for the DAO ecosystem with the advent of new verticals like DeSci & rising transitions of old school crypto projects to formal DAOs, but the advent of the FTX insolvency & the bear market headwinds has also proved tough for the DAO ecosystem with increased layoffs, VC funding crunch & budget cuts leading to dry up in grants across chain ecosystems
Mia Bao, co-founder of The Pass, a DAO data aggregation & discovery platform joins us on the pod as we look back on 2022 & highlight what’s worked out for the DAO ecosystem with an eye to forecast 2023 better & measures to improve on the pitfalls seen within the space. She uses the data from the platform to highlight the growth of DAO treasuries to around $12 bn of which 80% of the DAO treasuries is generated by DeFi projects. We also look into how that arose & what this means for the other verticals. She also gives her opinion on the challenges that DAOs face including a lack of incentives for DAO contributors, the bear market difficulty & advocates for a delegate system over 1 token 1 vote.
She voices out her views on the upcoming trends across DAO ops & governance & points out the Nouns ecosystem, SharkDAO & Aavegotchi DAO as communities to look forward to. Verticals she finds interesting are fashion DAOs & DAO tooling infrastructure.
Timeline:
The Clique Podcast Intro & Episode Context - 0:00 - 1:59
Mia’s Background - 1:59 - 3:39
Overview on DAO treasury data, DeFi dominance on treasury dominance & reasons for it 3:39 - 10:05
Takeaways of DeFi’s successful transition to DAOs for other verticals 10:05 - 14:22
Lack of business models affecting DAOs? Mia’s thoughts on that 14:22 - 23:30
Upcoming trends that could improve DAO ops & governance 23:30 - 29:30
How web2 should look to adopt the DAO model going forward 29:30 - 38:08
Verticals that could drive the DAO wave in the next bull market 38:08 - 43:00
What to expect from ThePass 43:00 - 46:10
Important Links:
Mia Bao - https://twitter.com/mialalala2
ThePass - https://twitter.com/thepass_to
Website: thepass.to
Follow us at :
Abhishek Ajit - https://twitter.com/SicarioOfCrypto
Abhishek Sonawane - https://twitter.com/5800Abhishek
The Clique Podcast - https://twitter.com/clique_dao
Clique Podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/mJDMGzSNtc
Reputation in web3 is a hot topic right now. The potential of integrating reputation as a way to keep governance or the contributor system honest has been seen as a game changer. This comes after a wave of primitive on-chain governance failures such as lack of accountability, poor voter turnout, and contributor burnout due to poor motivation & comp in DAOs.
However the way reputation is scored has been tailored to the web3 approach.. looking at forum activity, proof of work, and what's done over Github, discord, or other forums to get an overview of whether a person is fit for a certain role or not.. to get feedback on the way he's working right now. Our guest on this episode disagrees with this methodology. A lot!
In this convo, we hear from Dr. Matt Barney about how reputation scoring in web3 is fundamentally broken & what his approach to resetting DAO reputation scoring would be. He advocates for having a mix of on-chain psychometrics of the candidate that delves into his character like conscientiousness, loyalty etc along with existing metrics to measure his proof of work. This convo is a strong debate that fundamentally has shaped how we hosts see reputation scoring & we're sure you'll feel the same way, so do check it out!
About the guest:
Matt Barney Ph.D. is an Organizational Psychologist, serial entrepreneur and founder of XLNC, a consulting, training and psychometrics firm that solves difficult business problems with psychological science and innovative technology. Previously, he was the Founder and CEO of LeaderAmp, an award-winning platform for expert and Artificially Intelligent coaching and assessment until May of 2022. In his 25+ year career in multinationals such as AT&T, Motorola, Merck and Infosys, Dr. Barney has innovated interdisciplinary science and technology resulting in four patents, ten books, 43 peer-reviewed works and over 200 keynotes.
Important Links:
Matt Barney - Twitter
RnDAO - Twitter, Discord
XLNC - Website
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The Clique Podcast - Twitter, Discord
The idealism of DAOs is broken for a lot of communities in this brutal bear market. People attribute it to the lack of runway caused by poor biz model implementations, consequent culture breakdown & most importantly the lack of community leadership who can guide the community through tough situations towards its goals
In this episode, Lisa Wocken, founder of Bolster Leadership & founding member,TalentDAO [a community of organizational scientists, strategists and researchers building a world's first decentralized community-reviewed publication protocol for the social sciences & a heavy focus on applications for the DAO ecosystem] hops on our show to discuss how shared leadership in DAOs should be rethought of with backing from decades of research focused on organizational leadership.. She also talks about the various issues faced by leaders in the DAO ecosystem & her ideas for addressing them.
Topics Covered:
Intro: 0:00 - 0:41
Disillusionment amongst DAOs & Crypto Winter: 0:41 - 4:12
Lisa’s background & How to navigate organizational tension: 4:12 - 9:40
Definition of effective shared leadership: 9:41 - 15:30
Building context & Research on research: 15:30 - 18:22
Practical steps for dynamic leadership: 18:30 - 21:18
Vision, culture & balance between operation: 21:18 - 29:51
Community health & appreciation inquiries: 29:51- 32: 50
Goals, Roles & processes: 32:51 - 36:30
The drop in participation & Burnout: 36:51 - 40: 48
Self, Change & Task leadership:40:48 - 47:18
Life outside of DAOs: 47:18 - 51:00
Future at TalentDAO: 51:00 - 54:00
Outro :54:00 - 54:57
Important Links:
Lisa Wocken - Twitter
TalentDAO - Website, Twitter, Discord
Check out their Gitcoin Grants & support their cause: https://t.co/MLXvPbT1W4
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The Clique Podcast - Twitter, Discord
Synthetic biology as a field is redefining a novel collaboration of biology & engineering where new biological entities are created or even redesigned to tackle the challenges of humanity such as climate change & even harbour a new era of solutions within medicine, agriculture & manufacturing.
Tune in to this enlightening convo with Albert Anis & Morgan Richards from ValleyDAO, a DAO that's democratising access & financing to synbio projects as we discuss the state of financing in the synbio world & why democratizing this pipeline is crucial to solving key issues with this nascent field. We talk about ValleyDAO, its operational status & dealflow as well as governance & tokenization plans for the future
Important Links:
ValleyDAO - Website, Twitter, Discord
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The Clique Podcast - Twitter, Discord
Sam Spurlin is a partner at the Ready, a self-managing organization design consultancy focused on changing how the world works & one of the foremost DAO org design thinkers in the space.
For Part 3, we get into his time acting as an external facilitator with GitcoinDAO & the story of how he landed the gig through connecting with Disruption Joe, FDD Workstream Lead, GitcoinDAO. We see his observations around how tensions were rampant across the workstreams during the budgeting process & talking about the value of a clear essential intent to clarify these important conversations. We talk about some of the challenges faced by DAOs while framing essential intents along with some general questions about DAO org design
Enjoy!
Topics Covered
Context for Part 3 - 00:00
The story of how Sam got the gig with GitcoinDAO 00:55
Tensions faced within GitcoinDAO workstreams 03:00
Why budgeting convos are so tough in GitcoinDAO 13:18
Having flexible essential intents within your DAO 16:46
Learning to execute tough convos within your DAO 21:10
Challenges faced by orgs to frame essential intents 26:54
Opportunities within DAOs that Sam finds exciting to work with 31:03
Best org design thinkers according to Sam 34:54 - 38:24
Important Links
Sam Spurlin - Website, Twitter
The Ready - Website, Twitter
Brave New Work Podcast - Website
Chase Chapman Miniseries with The Ready - Miniseries
Sociocracy For All - Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The Clique Podcast - Twitter, Discord
Sam Spurlin is a partner at the Ready, a self-managing organization design consultancy focused on changing how the world works & one of the foremost DAO org design thinkers in the space. We've got him on board for a series of episodes to discuss DAO org design, the tensions that pervade it when the organizational system is not tuned properly & how to address it.
In Part 2 of the series, we set the stage for the DAO org design mindset talking about Sam’s observations of the Ready as a self managing org, talking about the basic fundamentals that DAOs generally face at inception & gradually hitting the OS canvas as a key tool to assess factors that are at the heart of org tensions. Sam also explains how purpose, authority & strategy are at the heart of DAO tensions when the assessment is done & how to address them
Topics Covered
Context for part 2: 00:00 -1:08
Tooling as a way for facilitating DAO org structure: 1:09 - 06:45
Comparing the Ready as a self managing org with DAOs: 06:46 - 11:29
Should DAOs have set parameters of decentralization or voting participation: 11:30 - 17:49
Should DAOs have a proper org design from the early stage of formation: 17:50 - 22:02
Talking about why DAOs or orgs do a reorg when tensions are tough rather than prevention: 22:03 - 26:45
What is OS Canvas & how org tensions are assessed with this canvas: 26:46 - 31:29
Common tensions that DAOs generally face after doing the OS canvas assessment 31:30 - 34:19
Important Links
Sam Spurlin - Website, Twitter
The Ready - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The Clique Podcast - Twitter, Discord
Sam Spurlin is a partner at the Ready, a self-managing organization design consultancy focused on changing how the world works & one of the foremost DAO org design thinkers in the space. We've got him on board for a series of episodes to discuss DAO org design, the tensions that pervade it when the organizational system is not tuned properly & how to address it.
In Part 1 of this series, we also talk about common org design tensions within the trad world like poor meeting cultures & addressing them with action meetings. DAO people may find a lot of nuggets to ponder about. We also talk about what happens in the trad world when org tensions become too hard & why the reorgs that happen as a result of an unhealthy concentration of authority & miscommunication are messy, and why that serves as a clarion call for DAOs to focus on effective org design.
Topics Covered
Intro of the series: (00:00 - 00:51)
Introducing Sam Spurlin: (00:51 - 03:42)
Sam Spurlin’s background : (03:43 - 08:34)
His first impression after encountering the DAO world: (08:35 - 13:02)
How trad world approached org design & the issues that plague them - (13:02 - 15:25)
The first issue being poor meeting cultures : (15:25 - 16:01)
What the right type of meeting looks like : (16:01 - 18:50)
How it has been implemented in the client network: (18:50 - 22:35)
Looking at the broad organizational canvas & its importance: (22:36 - 25:54)
The issue of reorgs when tensions are overlooked & why there are better ways to deal with tensions than reorgs: (25:55 - 28:46) Why senior management resort to drastic measures without understanding what’s going on with the team & how that’s an important opportunity for DAOs: (28:46 - 32:48)
Issues that DAO face in general from an org perspective & why the lack of structure hampers emergence : (32:48 - 37:50)
Important Links
Sam Spurlin - Website, Twitter
The Ready - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The Clique Podcast - Twitter, Discord
What happens when the medical community & stakeholders across the globe unite to make healthcare 3.0 possible with the help of web3 tools like DAO frameworks, NFT credentials? MedDAO is the conception of such an effort as a DAO that facilitates the distribution of key medical knowledge between healthcare providers, patients & other stakeholders on a global level.
In our first ever video convo, we chat with Dr. Brad Zacharia & George Cecil, core contributors for MedDAO as they discuss the key issues that plague the trad healthcare industry like siloed healthcare data (in terms of geography or regs, lack of sovereignty for patient data or poor autonomy for physicians etc., that’s opened up the use cases for medDAO
We discuss briefly about the MedDAO structure & roadmap, ideating about their community plans & how the web3 community will play a deep role with MedDAO. Brad & George also gets into the overview & the motivation behind the Knowledge Request Framework, a key piece of the MedDAO offering that allows for the on-chain distribution of key medical data between these stakeholders.
Important Links
Dr. Brad Zacharia - Twitter
George Cecil - Twitter
MedDAO - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
The Clique Podcast - Twitter
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Web3 is all about community as it continues to build a revolution that empowers contributors & a bottoms-up mentality. However, community building ain't easy & has a lot of variables to factor in, especially as the product moves from the early stage to the mature stage of the lifecycle. In this episode, the duo has a chat with En, Head of Community over at Wonderverse, a project management tool for DAOs as we discuss the intricacies of community building as a retrospective of En’s journey with Wonderverse
We talk about:
How En’s desire for facilitating community & widespread entrepreneurial initiative led to the fascination for DAOs & how a serendipitous encounter with the Wonderverse founders created the opportunity to become an early Wonderverse employee
En’s early beliefs about DAOs coming from a background in chemistry, how the chemistry background & tutoring enabled En to transition to community management
What Wonderverse is all about, how it helps the DAO space & why En resonates with Wonderverse strongly
How Wonderverse developed their community & En’s lessons of community building from that journey, ideas they’re executing to foster their community
En’s insights on building a community during pre-product, early-stage through creating a mission statement, and values & communicating that to the community
How rebranding Wonderverse’s season cycle into Orbits helped keep the community cohesive
Musing about energy management for communities, hubs across time zones creating bridges to fill the gaps of a global community
How to assess your existing community & orienting the product for the target audience, why Wonderverse caters to the intermediate side of the DAO community
En also talks about Having co-op within DAO tools as an easy way to foster community & the roadmap ahead for Wonderverse
Important Links:
Madam Cult Leader - Twitter
Wonderverse - Twitter , Linktree
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
The energy of web3 represents a massive potential in re-shaping the research ecosystem, made inefficient by centralized funding hubs & bureaucracy. The borderline naive but passionate bunch of people coordinating & finding ways to govern better at a never seen before scale across verticals is insane. However without the right reference points, without accepting the need to human better & learning to separate the right signals from the noise, web3 may be in danger of being a replica of its predecessors
This is not your typical web3 convo, this is an off the cuff, thought provoking chat. Eugene Leventhal, Executive Director for SCRF, a grants funded web3 community for academics, researchers, and industry leaders to share research and solicit thoughtful peer review joins us to discuss exactly about these topics
He gets into:
Background handling partnership roles for Carnegie Mellon University before founding his way to SCRF
What SCRF’s all about & the motivation behind the creation of SCRF such as poor peer review, lack of a proper fundraising network etc
How the research ecosystem turned out to be inefficient paving opportunities for a collaborative deSci ecosystem
How the energy around wanting to solve these issues, the experimentation in governance & trying to human better are the factors behind his bet for web3 making an impact
Eugene also rails passionately about the gap of puff piece ideology vs the reality within web3 going forward & just learning to human better.
Important Links
Eugene Leventhal - Twitter
SCRF - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
DAOs are one of the best frameworks of organizing communities globally with layers of ownership, on-chain decision-making, reputation systems & much more. Those frameworks are just ordinary instruments without the cultural alignment of proper collective action that can be taken up by DAOs for the ideal outcome of self-sustainability & organization.
In this episode, we talk with Niran Babalola, founder of Panvala, a self-sustainable ecosystem that wants to move funds away from the marketing economy to self-organized, Panvala aligned communities through PAN token participation & Panvala stamp campaigns
We talk about:
His background before crypto, how it represented a seed to a better collective world & what Panvala’s about
How Panvala’s different from Gitcoin, the various parts of the ecosystem like PAN Token & the Panvala stamps, looking at moving from an attention economy to a collective economy
Talking about what collective action means & why DAOs have not even scratched the surface of what could be possible with collective action
Why strong community narratives are the key to cohesive collective action within your DAO
Why inter community cooperation within the DAO ecosystem is key for a vibrant collective action mindset & exudes the common core values even more brightly
Niran also discusses with the duo about why creating frameworks of social capital incentivizes a strong sense of agency that grows sustainable collective action & also gets into the broader roadmap for Panvala ahead.
Important Links
Niran Babalola - Twitter
Panvala - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Tune in to this episode with Eaglelex, co-founder of Blockchain Lawyers Group (also co-founder of bDAO legal, Legal advisor to Polygon & genesis team of PolygonDAO) & Miguel Lucas, co-founder of Blockchain LG, an NFT gated global network of legal experts in blockchain and crypto asset-related matters
We talk about:
Some fun banter about lawyer stuff, their background before getting into the whirlpool of DAOs
How they joined hands to form the Blockchain Lawyers Group, the reasons for its conception & the role of the crypto lawyer directory
Why the US is centralized from the frame of legal discussions & the impending spread globally
Discussing a little about the implications of the OokiDAO case, why the legal definitions of a DAO ‘member’ will matter now & the need for legal wrappers
Why the decentralization of the DAO matter now with the legal situation at hand
The growing trend of subDAOs within a DAO & what that means from a legal standpoint
Eaglelex & Miguel also discuss DAO structures in feasible jurisdictions that make sense currently to them
Disclaimer: This is a broad discussion & is not to be considered legal advice
Important Links
Eaglelex - Twitter
Miguel Lucas - Twitter
Blockchain Lawyers Group - Website, Whitepaper, Twitter
PolygonDAO - Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Tune in to the episode with Samantha Marin, Communications & Growth for Aragon as we discuss the various pieces of the DAO compensation puzzle & the best way for communities to solve it as best they can. This discussion was inspired by her piece ‘Having the Hard Conversation: Building Better Compensation Frameworks’ with BanklessDAO (link given in the description below)
We talk about:
Her background working in startups & her red pill moment of seeking equity there eventually led to her discovering BanklessDAO
Her thoughts on how DAO compensation structures are deployed within communities
Impact of having collaborative decision-making on compensation allocation resulting in more transparency, however, the process is unfair too as the experience of the person is not counted along with constant popularity contests
How a lead should balance out core compensation for contributors - drawing the line between tools like Coordinape for collab comp allocation & a lead taking the call
Conflict Resolution ideas & implementing the right duration considering community bandwidth for collab compensation allocation, also figuring out the ‘which token to pay’ piece of the compensation puzzle
Reasons for the lack of ecosystem-wide transparency about DAO contributor compensation data & why it’s necessary
Having the tough discussion about compensation cuts during bear market dynamics & how to keep financial stability a focus in light of keeping things stable for contributors as well
Samantha also gets into the sort of DAOs (DAOHaus, Aragon) she looks up to as ideals for studying about compensation practices & some alpha about what to expect from her new metalabel Quorum.
Important Links
Samantha Marin - Website, Twitter
Article: https://banklessdao.substack.com/p/having-the-hard-conversation-building
Aragon - Twitter
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
In this episode, David Ehrlichman, author of Impact Networks (the book that’s centralized the attention of the DAO space) & co-founder of Hats Protocol, joins us to discuss his views on DAO org design & how to reshape them from the lens of his xp observing & working closely with impact networks
We talk about:
His background & work done with collective networks before his entry to the DAO space through Zach Anderson, partner at Converge & co-founder of Coordinape
His views on what makes DAOs stand apart in terms of traditional impact networks he’s come to work about
His views on how DAOs should design for facilitating network leadership & in-built trust across workstreams & weaving in how Hats Protocol could facilitate effective delegation, accountability for roles & fundamental composability for DAO native orgs
Why a certain section of DAOs are afraid of structure & how DAOs should think of a minimum viable structure for their communities
How to deal with subDAOs going independent & putting the broader collective in a tough spot, weaving in reputation systems within these DAOs for accountability
David also discusses with the duo about other DAO design ideas, but if you wanna know what they’re, do check out the episode! ;)
Important Links:
David Ehrlichman: Website, Twitter
Converge: Website, Twitter
Hats Protocol: Twitter
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Tune in to the episode where the duo chats with Seth Benton, core contributor for Source Cred (a reward distribution tool for measuring value created & covers activity such as Github commits, Discord & Discourse activity) as we discuss his journey & insights with SourceCred as a tool for reshaping how value creation in DAOs is rewarded.
We talk about:
- His foray into open source code, how his passion for it eventually lead him to work with Decred, one of the earliest crypto communities in the space & the XPs that lead him to tinker with SourceCred
- What SourceCred’s all about & how its scoring algo was inspired by Google PageRank
- The thought process behind implementing Github commits as a reward-worthy metric & broadening the scope to Discord & Discourse activity
- How early adopters like MakerDAO used it for incentivizing community engagement & his insights for rewarding these engagement streams while running MakerDAO’s SC instance
Seth also has some spicy takes about DAO governance as well as emergent governance & reward distribution ideas that he’s tracking.
Important Links:
Seth Benton - Twitter
The piece he wrote as advice for SCRF running their SC instance - https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/t/flying-the-sourcecred-plane/1873
SourceCred - Website, Documentation, Twitter
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Tune in to the episode with Drake Danner, Ops Manager for MetricsDAO as we discuss the origin story of MetricsDAO & how around the key components of a strong community culture, high quality educational onramps & the integration of xMetrics within bounty ops has created a cohesive community of data analysts that cater to partners like Uniswap, OlympusDAO & Messari
We talk about:
His background before entering crypto, working with Flipside Crypto & what Flipside Crypto’s all about
What Flipside Crypto differentiates itself compared to Dune Analytics & Messari, why he prefers Flipside Crypto’s community first approach by incentivizing analysts
How the potential of cultivating a large pool of analytics talent & a space for open building of passion projects in analytics lead to the origin of MetricsDAO
What MetricsDAO’s all about, its vision & how his xp with the community has evolved with time
How the DAO structure of MetricsDAO looks like & the thought process behind it
Getting into the culture of MetricsDAO & the enthusiasm of the analyst community to build the DAO together
How the bounty system within MetricsDAO is structured, criteria for good bounty submissions & how analysts have responded to the bounty submission cycles
How the unexpected, emergent launch of educational onramps & resources within MetricsDAO developed strong cohesion within the MetricsDAO analyst network
Drake’s advice for DAOs looking to develop educational courses & onramps
The structure behind MetricsDAO’s native token xMetrics, how it’s the key to an inbuilt reputation system within the DAO & why it’s non transferable
Drake also talks about how MetricsDAO has dealt with market dynamics, how to reward contributors in various stages. He gives his 2 gwei about how to build reputation systems for your DAO from his xp with MetricsDAO & the roadmap ahead for MetricsDAO.
Important Links
Drake Danner - Twitter
MetricsDAO - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Tune in to the episode with Tommy Olofsson, Operations Lead from PolygonDAO as he points out how the potential of social DAOs has been imperiled due to a lack of foundational thought about setting up the governance processes & consequent alignment of incentives.
We talk about:
How Tommy found his way to the BanklessDAO Discord, started contributing there & eventually made his way to becoming a genesis member of PolygonDAO
What the focus of PolygonDAO is all about & what it’s like to contribute there, a brief chat about the governance process as well
What a social DAO’s all about & what he feels are the missing ingredients for ensuring his success
How to build the foundation for a successful social DAO or community, why vibes, initial operational processes & governance processes should be kept with sustainability in mind
Discussing how balancing attention between operational, governance processes & the culture, vibes is key for success, why he feels members of social DAOs should be made to participate in these processes
Discussing ideas & his insights (it’s a brilliant rant by him btw) for a minimum viable governance, aligning incentives accordingly for these social DAOs
We also discuss briefly on how to form a community structure for proper alignment & community cohesion, strong governance & operational effectiveness
Important Links:
Tommy Olofsson - Twitter
PolygonDAO - Twitter
BanklessDAO - Twitter
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
In this episode, we’ve Addigator, Chief of Staff for WGMI DAO, a MetaCartel backed collective/serviceDAO of folk ranging from web3 pros to community managers who are keen to provide education on-ramps, community management related consulting services & community tech stacks & matchmaking community professionals with partner projects, talk about the WGMI DAO story, what goes into building a collective/service DAO delivering community best practices & into the xp of what it takes to be a good community manager
We talk about:
Her life before her entry into crypto & how the desire to spreading affordable healthcare insurance options & entrepreneurial initiatives formed the catalyst for her eventual contribution to DAOs
How she started out by being a community manager for DAOs like Chainforest & NY based communities & work on the bleeding edge of crypto
The origin story for WGMI DAO & how she came to contribute to it, how WGMI DAO turned out to be a service DAO matchmaking great community people with vetted projects
The vision of WGMI DAO as a community & the services offered, imparting community skill sets to CMs, offering consulting services for founders about community growth & community management & community-related tech stacks
How the DAO structure looks like & the pathways to contribution
How does the educational onramp for imparting skill sets works & how do they handle the matchmaking for community professionals, what it’s like working with web3 projects as clients
How they ensure the standard for quality CM services & a feeling of ownership among CMs & more how they operate as a collective
Her perspective on how CMs deal with burnouts, certain xp that they’ve to deal with & what WGMI DAO’s deliver with respect to mental health & crisis messaging-related soft skills
About the WGMI DAO IRL event happening in DevCon Bogota & plans for more events + roadmap ahead, her advice for service DAOs dealing with the early stage of the DAO cycle
Important Links:
Addigator - Twitter
WGMI DAO - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Tune in to the episode with Mark Tan, Community Product Lead, Yield Guild Games as we discuss lessons learnt about community best practices & retention tactics working with DAOs like OdysseyDAO, DAOMaster & ultimately at his current Community Product role at Yield Guild Games, a community of play to earn gaming guilds.
We talk about:
How Mark wanted to use his PM xp for growing in crypto & how he found his way to the DAO space through DAOMasters
How Mark’s xp with community user testing in product management role & developing skill sets allowed him to flourish as a contributor for multiple DAOs
His experience of becoming a DAO contributor for DAOs like OdysseyDAO & DAOMasters & trying out new skill sets, his overview on what OdysseyDAO’s about & what he learnt from it
An overview about YGG, what’s made YGG successful from his perspective (4 key points) in retaining community
How to build spaces that allow contributors to feel heard & contributor, how moderation & rewarding key behaviour on leaderboards, Guild Advancement Programs (& more!) has worked out for retaining a solid community in YGG
His take on how DAOs should build great products in web3, dealing with market dynamics affecting communities & discussing reputation systems in DAOs
Mark also talks about the roadmap for YGG & the games he’s a fan of
Important Links
Mark Tan - Twitter
Odyssey DAO - Website, Twitter
DAOMasters - Website, Twitter
YGG - Website, Twitter
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
DAOs allow communities to contribute & inspire the crowd like never before. Facilitating the initiative & a space is key to building a devoted community who cares. Tune in to this episode with Anthony“Zombie ''Shepherd, Mycaleum & NoFuturistic from the GMI Guild, a content creators collective dedicated to intensifying the culture & vibes of the Aavegotchi ecosystem.
This guild is a prime example of how web3 ecosystems can build community run media guilds that really make people care about the vision of what’s being built
We get into:
Their background before web3, how a spirit of independence & entrepreneurial initiative form the theme of their alignment with being a DAO operator
How they found the promised land, the Gotchiverse & how the open nature of the community inspired them to contribute in fun ways, what Aavegotchi the MMORPG game’s all about & the eventual metamorphosis of the community that can offer tremendous diversity of xps
How the community has been a part of the shared vision since day 1, voting on tooling, how the game should be structured & what it means for the community
How the AavegotchiDAO structure looks like, the roles of the DAO Treasury Force, wearables Task Force & Arcade Task Force
How PixelCraft Studios inspired the community to contribute to the journey of Aavegotchi
How GMI turned out to be an independent guild from the AavegotchiDAO, influencing the culture of Aavegotchi, creating content & events such as the Aavegotchi art auction, Artist Summit that make the welcoming culture to engage the Gotchiverse
Listen to what the trio says from 51:25 - a phenomenal convo about how the GMI guild facilitates the Gotchiverse to thrive - simple thing as inspiring people to contribute without critiquing, patience & really caring for people
We also talk about how they plan to convert the mainstream audience, roadmaps ahead for Aavegotchi as a game, the DAO & the GMI & stay tuned for the end, a spontaneous segment for the Gotchiverse
Important Links
Mycaleum - Twitter
Anthony Shepherd - Twitter
NoFuturistic - Twitter
Aavegotchi - Website, Twitter, Discord
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Disruption Joe, FDD Workstream Lead for GitcoinDAO joins us to discuss how the Gitcoin community & contributor base evolved to be such an impactful community & the processes they put in place to make it happen. His insights that came out of those experiences too We talk about:
His life before he joined the Gitcoin team in 2018, how he turned out to be one of the first from the company to transition to the DAO to oversee the FDD Workstream The transition from web2 to the DAO structure, how the teams & process evolved within the newly formed DAO structure & the best practices that shaped up within the work streams allowing for impact-driven team dynamics How they developed the space for emergent contributors to weave into the Gitcoin ethos & values & deliver on fulfilling workstream objectives Why does being exclusive allow for a tight bunch of mission-driven contributors rather than being all inclusive Discussing how reputation systems can be optimized for better community onboarding & hiring, how Gitcoin passport is like a tech stack that enables community to communicate & connect better key data points How he finds the Gitcoin Grants Proposal, Gitcoin user registry, etc to be exciting future developments for GitcoinDAO
And on a parting note, Joe briefly describes how enabling hyperstructures would be a game-changing development for the DAO space. Important Links Disruption Joe - Twitter GitcoinDAO - Website, Twitter Follow us at Abhishek Ajit - Twitter Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Technology, climate change & social causes dominate the web3 discourse & activity when it comes to public goods funding. However if society is to re-shape itself for tremendous possibilities, then there’s nothing more vibrant & fulfilling than backing human creativity, the expression of arts, film & culture.
Tune in to the journey of Rene Pinnell, founder of Artizen Fund, a DAO that’s building quadratic funding based public goods model for initiatives of human creativity such as art, culture, open source etc & was also a co-founder of FreeRossDAO.
We get into:
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His experience in the film industry & switching to design & tech for making an impact
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His journey of iterating accelerator programs through Kaleidoscope & grants based models for creators for over 10 years, the insights from iterating these grants & the hurdles faced that inspired them to get into web3 & continue their mission
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Implementing the DAO structure for governance, fair curation & improving the donor experience through issuance of NFT artifacts for every grant project on the platform
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How Artizen Fund plans to tackle the issue of censorship of projects that we’ve seen in other grant projects
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Discussing ideas along with iterations of his past platform & to ensure unbiased discoverability of grants, a tough design problem to tackle
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Roadmap for Artizen Fund, Proof of Contribution NFTs. Also looking to integrate community curation into the platform & evolving into a SAAS model where anyone can create their own community fund
Important Links
Rene Pinnell - Twitter
Artizen Fund - Website, Discord
Follow us at
Abhishek Ajit - Twitter
Abhishek Sonawane - Twitter
Tune in to this baller episode with Andrej Berlin, Founder of DeepWork Studios, a decentralised design studio who’s had the the EF, Consensys, Arbitrum etc as clients on design projects as we chat about how DeepWork Studios was conceived & the insights he’s gained building a collective of project oriented contributors & the consequent organizational design that can shape how DAOs design for their community & work based attestations.
We talk about:
His background & inspiration for launching DAOs
Why he feels the term DAO is generalized
The experiences that lead to operational processes at DeepWork being iterated for long term contracts to project oriented ops - setting up education modules for contributors as onboarding mechanisms, setting up in built reputation systems & project based work commitments
What his product DeepSkills’s all about
How organizations should set up valuable attestations for contributors & inspire retention
How DAOs currently have inefficient org design
Setting up effective org design, why he believes people don’t adhere to blatant incentives alone & setting up spaces for letting people do what’s effective & remove the space for ineffective activity
Why project based workstream is effective rather than long term contracts, debating about salary based work vs project mentality affecting team culture & weaving in reputation & token ownership as the balancer
How to weave in transparency pragmatically within the DAO
Andrej also provides advice that can help service DAOs to survive the bear market & thrive for the long term.
Important Links:
Andrej Berlin: Twitter
DeepWork Studios: Twitter, Website, Case Studies
Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model Paper - Link
Blockscience
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit
Abhishek Sonawane
As DAOs continue to experiment with the frontier of cutting edge tech, there will be a lot of operational pockets that the community may not have the expertise. And taking uninformed governance calls on such decisions may lead to a major backfire hampering the progress of the protocol.
Tune in to this episode where Puncar, co-founder of Bankless Consulting & contributor to DAOs like GitcoinDAO, LlamaDAO, IndexCoop etc makes the case for DAO2DAO governance where serviceDAOs can fill in the expertise gap & direct DAOs in the right direction by becoming a delegate for such protocols
We talk about
- His background & how he found his way to DAOs
- His experience working with these DAOs
- Governance in general & how current governance processes has issues that hamper the DAO’s progress
- A brief about DAO2DAO governance & how service DAOs such as LlamaDAO make good stewards for protocols like MakerDAO
- We also chat about the grey areas of this form of governance & Puncar’s advice on how getting involved with the community deeply & focusing on key competence is key to being a good steward
Important Links
Puncar - Twitter
DAO Govenance Sessions - Twitter
How to DAO book - Twitter
Puncar’s ETHCc talk about DAO2DAO governance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51JCyQOmvq8
DAOs that Puncar contributes to: Bankless Consulting, BanklessDAO, IndexCoop, LlamaDAO, GitcoinDAO
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit
Abhishek Sonawane
DAOs that scale massively in growth face immense challenges when dealing with the horde of wannabe contributors. The implication for faking identity or work credentials is high & when dealing with the frontier of tech such as DeFi can be a minefield of trouble. Marco Moshi (Grendel), Operations Lead, PolygonDAO makes the case for a reputation layer to be the key for solving DAO’s current challenge of community onboarding & retention.
We talk about:
Why he chose the name Grendel as an inspiration from the antagonistic dragon in Beowulf
His life before crypto & how consuming Bankless content was the game changer for his entry to DAOs, the vibrancy of the DAO space & enjoying his contributions to BanklessDAO & Forefront
How he sought to decentralize & implement transparency for Polygon’s grants program for projects building on top of them
Why DAOs should focus on pain points that can dominate the web3 space & how such efforts require a lot of contributors
The parameters & definition for an on-chain reputation layer & the problems which the lack of credentialing creates for communities, how pseudonymity creates headaches, especially during onboarding in Defi
We also discuss how enabling a reputation layer for communities should facilitate better contribution & learning within communities.
Important Links:
Marco Grendel
PolygonDAO
BanklessDAO
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit
Abhishek Sonawane
Being a Community Manager for a DAO is sometimes a thankless job, you’re at the front of the community dealing with all sorts of people in an ecosystem fickle to market movements & sentiments. In such a situation, you gotta have the right mindset & practices to ensure you stay effective as a CM & orient the DAO towards its mission
In this episode, we listen avidly to the experiences & insights of Coach Viking, a self-effacing, chill (yet brutally upfront, when he has to be :P) guy, who is a genesis member & lead CM of PolygonDAO. He’s also a key member of BanklessDAO who’s been instrumental in setting up the DAOlationships Guild.
We talk about:
His story about how he got into crypto & DAOs
Experiences handling community management for these DAOs
Balancing community calls or async comms - how to decide the right approach for optimal team productivity
Correlation of bull-bear markets & DAO community/contributor sentiment - trends he’s seen & how to manage the community through these markets
Setting boundaries & systemizing a DAO for work-life balance to reduce burnouts & sustain motivation for contributors, other ideas for sustaining care & health of community members
How to facilitate spontaneous leadership & action from the community - good advice on how to stop being a lurker
How exuding & aligning core DAO values to the ideal personal values of a community member is important for effective engagement
We also discuss how communication between CMs & core team is important to understand the pulse of the community.
Important Links:
Coach Viking - Twitter
PolygonDAO - Twitter, Discord
BanklessDAO - Twitter, Discord
Follow us at:
Abhishek Ajit
Abhishek Sonawane
In this episode, we've Ayyan Rahman, co-founder of Gateway, a decentralized protocol for organizations or people to issue & receive credentials to discuss the story of Gateway & the various use cases of credentialing it can enable for the web3 ecosystem.
We discuss:
His foray into web3 & how he got fascinated by DAOs
Reasons for poor widespread adoption of credentialing systems in web3
Immediate credentialing use cases in crypto
How Gateway allows for building reputation systems that upgrade a DAO's onboarding & hiring processes
Best practices for DAOs to ensure proper credentialing for onboarding & hiring
Roadmap ahead for the Gateway platform
We also get into how reputation systems can allow for meritocratic, fair communities in web3 & the cool future that Gateway & the rest of their dID partners can enable down the road.
Important Links -
Ayyan Rahman
Gateway
Discord
Substack
Ceramic Network
Lit Protocol
Follow us at -
Abhishek Ajit
Abhishek Sonawane
Creating an empowering space for humane collaboration along with a direction built upon the foundation of solid research allows for greater chances of facilitating mainstream DAO adoption & building solid web3 tools
In this episode, tune in to the no holds barred conversation with Daniel Ospina, founder of RnDAO & former head of governance, Aragon as we discuss the start of his career as a Michelin star chef & how that shaped his philosophy working with DAO & the eventual conception of RnDAO, an innovation center focused on research & product initiatives for DAO operations & organizational insights.
We further discuss:
- His work with organizational design & Aragon that lay the seed for RnDAO
- DAO contributor situation in 2018 while being a part of Aragon
- Experiences & problem statements that lead to RnDAO
- What RnDAO’s about & how his experiences facilitate the RnDAO community mindset
- Vision of RnDAO & how it operates
- Brief on RnDAO initiatives & how he expects them to evolve with time
- Insights from the Research & Compensation guidebook research along with learnings from implementation at RnDAO
Daniel also describes the roadmap ahead for RnDAO & further pathways for you to participate in the journey of RnDAO either as a contributor or to pursue research collaboration with them
Important Links -
Abhishek Ajit
Abhishek Sonawane
Daniel Ospina
RnDAO
RnDAO Discord
The DAO ecosystem is all about collaboration & initiative. In order to really thrive in it, you find & excel in the right niche to perform & build relationships with the right circles. And have fun doing it, obviously! Any community that facilitates this form of social engagement & excitement publicly will boom in social media.
In this rollercoaster ride of an episode, we’ve Jaris James, a contributor to BanklessDAO & WildfireDAO talking with a lot of heart about his life before crypto & how he found his way to BanklessDAO.
(Bonus point if you figure out the dude’s fav movie)
We also talk about:
- His early days & contribution to BanklessDAO
- His advice for newbies who want to participate in a DAO, how entrepreneurial instincts goes a long way within a DAO & the DAO operators he looks up to
- How Jaris gives his best contributing to multiple DAOs + building ‘The Kliq’
- What Wildfire DAO’s all about
- How he used social listening, engagement tactics & keyword research for helping out DAOs
- Cool alpha on how to mobilize & get the community excited for consistent engagement & how they aid social media exposure as well (community ops ppl, get it while it’s hot)
- His pick of DAOs & web3 projects that have massive potential to succeed in the next couple of years
Stay tuned for more podcasts @
Abhishek Ajit & Abhishek Sonawane
Key Links (Twitter)
Jaris James
Projects: BanklessDAO, WildfireDAO, Aavegotchi, Across Protocol, Akash Network, Truts, idriss_xyz, rep3, NodeStarDAO, CultDAO, ChippiNFT
It’s imperative for DAO operators to ensure proper facilitation of the fundamentals of DAO community ops to achieve mission impact & community retention within a DAO.
In this episode, listen in to the insights of Nelson Jordan, co founder of Avenue, a collaboration platform for DAO communities & part of the leadership team at DAOMasters as he talks about:
- The experiences in his web2 journey that allowed him to take the plunge into the DAO world
- What the DAO space was like at the time & how DAOMasters was formed
- Why DAOMasters wanted to DAOify & its ultimate aspirations from being a tool review curator
- Personal experiences & lessons learnt from facilitating community ops at DAOMasters
- The problems he identified (the lack of fulfilment of the 3 Cs) which inspired his product Avenue, what Avenue’s all about
- How Avenue solve for the 3Cs, facilitates self organization in a community & the tools that can be compatible with Rooms
- Best practices & ideas for DAO operators to facilitate the 3Cs in a DAO
We further discuss his views on how DAOs will grow in the next couple of years especially with the current bear market, his favourite DAO communities to participate in & what to expect from Avenue in the coming days.
Follow us at -
Abhishek Ajit
Abhishek Sonawane
Important Links:
Nelson Jordan
Avenue
DAOMasters
Book mentioned: Impact Networks by David Ehrlichmann
Cabin
Folklore
JokeDAO
DAOStar One