Gitcoin Co-founder: DAO is a New Way to Influence Work
The co-founder of Gitcoin stated that "DAO impact" is at the forefront of the emerging work culture, demanding that our values align with our actions.Author: Scott Moore, Co-founder of Gitcoin
Original Title: 《DAOs Are the New Way of Impact Work》
Translation by: Block unicorn
The Web3 community is fundamentally rooted in profound optimism, and the increasing prevalence of this technology allows us to envision a world where everyone has the capability to survive and thrive.
Essentially, Web3 has become a focal point of hope for people.
In this world, it is easy for individuals to become cynical about failing institutions, crumbling infrastructures, privacy violations, and climate disasters, which makes our presence on the internet particularly important. Sometimes, we even feel as if we are living in a divided world, unsure of who the "good people" are.
While Web3 cannot solve these issues overnight, I firmly believe we have more tools than ever to address the most pressing coordination problems we face today. Collaborative, internet-native organizations like Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) particularly offer shared narratives (memes), economic incentives (money), and more flexible local governance structures (management) to help us move in the right direction.
Impact DAOs are at the forefront of this new work culture trend, which requires us to align our values with our actions, steering clear of so-called Bullshit jobs. In this sense, despite contrary voices, Web3 serves as an antidote to the increasingly abstract economy, providing us with opportunities to engage more directly in every meaningful job through a sense of play and absurdity.
The theory of "Bullshit Jobs" comes from author David Graeber: a Bullshit job is one that contributes little to the world, and even the person doing the job believes it has no meaning; if the job disappeared, it would have no impact on the world.
Many DAOs are actively driving change in the industry, such as Gitcoin, which not only focuses on its mission but also on forming decentralized "impact networks"—networks that collectively generate positive externalities for those around them. With this in mind, platforms like Gitcoin Grants (Gitcoin 2.0 donation platform with more features, composability, forking, modifiability, donation NFT vouchers, etc.) have been able to help projects from seed rounds to core infrastructures (like ether.js) to scaling systems (like optimismPBC layer-2 networks) to widely used applications (like Uniswap). Thanks to the composability of Web3, the success of these projects enables us to build more shared infrastructure together.
The Impact of Shared Narratives
However, keeping these networks vibrant requires us to think in new ways about what it means to work together when we are often far apart, sometimes merely avatars on a screen. Specifically, it requires deep reflection on how we can align with others and build large-scale self-management (self-organizing) non-standard approaches.
Fundamentally, unity relates to our ability to connect deeply with each other in smaller groups, teams, or what many now call "pods," which is our capacity to seek connection and a sense of belonging. If social media has taught us anything, it is that achieving consistency beyond Dunbar's number (also known as the 150 rule, which refers to the upper limit of close interpersonal relationships one can maintain, typically thought to be 150) is extremely difficult.
Almost everyone reading this article is likely part of a group chat, continuously sharing memes and building the empathy needed to view each other as 3D humans. However, when team members grow from 15 to 150, or even 15,000, this resonance may not diminish due to our reduced capacity to connect with one another. This is the main challenge faced by the DAO promoted by "Friends With Benefits" (FWB)—the social club model.
Sharing stories and knowledge, especially those created around generating impact, can help us maintain alignment over a longer period. Of course, this is not new for Web3—every society has its own set of narratives to help us manage collective memory, stay on the same page, and move in the same direction. In Web3, we can go further by creating incentive mechanisms that drive us toward a common goal, to continue playing positive-sum games together without being bogged down by endless bureaucracy. By using shared currencies that align with our values, we can play these games for extended periods to generate greater impact.
Generating Public Management
But like any organization, DAOs still need structure—the shared protocols act as glue that holds us together even when we do not maintain alignment.
Crucially, structure is not a hierarchy but rather a typically clumsy negotiation aimed at keeping the space together in a formally inclusive manner. Movements like Occupy Wall Street are good examples of why this is necessary. The simplicity of "We are the 99%" is a powerful rallying cry that unites people across divides, but without clear structure and accountability, it cannot withstand pressure from those in power.
At Gitcoin, we have considered many regenerative structures, starting with caring for our own local shared needs. To do this effectively, much of our thinking in the DAO is based on Ostrom's eight principles:
- Set clear boundaries between the community and resources.
- Define rules locally with direct stakeholders.
- Propose clear participatory processes for updating rules.
- Establish accountability once rules are set.
- Resolve conflicts and implement "gradual" social sanctions.
- Ensure conflict resolution is informal, accessible, and low-cost.
- Ensure your rules are not hindered by higher regional authorities if necessary.
- Continue nesting rules until everyone is aligned.
In short, Ostrom refuted the notion of the tragedy of the commons—that communities naturally tend to overconsume and underinvest in scarce resources, ultimately depleting their common needs. By establishing many locally effective, slowly expanding small agreements, it is possible to genuinely control resources and maintain the sustainability of ecosystems.
In DAOs, the tragedy of the commons occurs in less intuitive ways, such as leaders not sharing backgrounds with their successors or time being consumed by cycling. However, through shared principles, protocols, and creative constraints, DAOs can fundamentally generate and set initial conditions for an unordered open environment. Unlike traditional corporate structures, these mycelial networks form without bureaucracy, allowing contributors to reclaim their agency and self-organize. Notably, no DAO is perfect, and like any organization, this is crucial. Investor Linda Xie (co-founder of Scalar Capital) is one of our most active managers, and she has outlined well the developmental process we have been contemplating.
The best part of the emerging future of work in DAOs is that none of these questions have been answered by anyone yet. In Web3, there are no "experts." No one knows where Web3 will lead, but we are all here finding direction.
Find your team, join a DAO, and make an impact; let’s create a future worth writing about.
