HAUS Party LIVE! Notes: Season 4 Episode 1 (1/20/2022)

Join us for 🎉 Haus Party Live 🎉 every Thursday at 2pm EST on the DAOhaus Discord

Notes From the Livestream 🎉

Initial notes shared right after Haus Party LIVE! but will be updated afterward with more references and resources. Timestamps will be added once the video is up on YouTube.

Topics

  • Season 4 Kickoff!
  • Main topic: NFTs, Crypto, Vitriol, and the Environment

Hosts & Guests

  • Felipe, dekanbro, Vanilladelphia.eth, vengist
  • Audience guests

🌱 Welcome to our metaphorical, infinite garden! 🌱

Welcome to Season 4

  • Different approach this Season – we're going to be focusing on subjects instead of focusing on projects
    • 🌱 "Honest conflict has more value than dishonest harmony." 🌱
  • Hold space to host discussions around topics and have room for disagreements and hold neutral ground
  • Building collective knowledge through "honest conflict"
  • We may want to explore always having one person take the contrary viewpoint to ensure balanced conversations

Notes from the UberHaus Universe

  • DAOhaus community call on Friday will be space for sharing DAOhaus product successes and updates
  • Yeeter: https://yeet.daohaus.club/
    • Crowdfunder with ability to rage quit funds at any point

NFTs, Crypto, Vitriol, and the Environment

  • Conversation around Proof of Work and the impact that NFTs have on the environment
  • What is the environmental impact when compared to the petrodollar?
  • Unpacking the narrative that hypersuccessful web2 entrepreneurs are pushing in Twitter as being destructive
  • On vitriol on Twitter:
    • (Potentially) well-intentioned, but malinformed folks
    • Crypto Twitter seems to have shifted – does this have to be related to the "number going down" – is this exposing other parts of folks personalities?
  • Potential for community based solutions to emerge that can help the environment – may not be able to rely on the systems that exist as they are and need to create better systems

Current Narratives

  • Misunderstanding in the psyops around Proof of Work – difference is that our externalities are accountable and can be quantified
    • How do we cut through the noise and vitriol and not be a victim of psyops?
    • How can we own the narrative and have a discussion?
    • If this is the environment what will happen "when DAOs have their NFT moment"?
    • How do we avoid discussions devolving into vitriol? How can we focus on having legit conversations?
      • On social media often devolves to "90% trash and 10% productive communication"
      • Is it possible to ignore the trolls and keep building?

Benevolent Dictator Narrative

  • Last week we discussed flat organization structures and Holacracy – and Anti-DAO sentiment is already happening, and there are a few narratives emerging such as the Benevolent Dictator Narrative
    • Idea that a project can't coordinate unless there is a Benevolent Dictator at first telling folks what to do
    • This is a cop out and a common criticism of DAOs
      • This criticism comes from folks who are well-resourced and often priviledged and well educated
      • Tend to criticize and make fun of what they know but aren't often willing to dive deeper even if they're forward-thinking
      • Mildly crypto aware: "They know about SpiceDAO and they make fun of SpiceDAO" but aren't willing to learn enough and go deeper
      • Why aren't they incentivized to go deeper?
        • Threatens the power structures that created their current positions and wealth
    • DAO structures go against the grain of what is taught in business schools: "You are the boss. You are the founder. You will make this succeed" and can lead to a tendency to criticize structures that are different (such as community first approaches)
    • Technology and structures that "highlight the failures" but perhaps we as flat organizations aren't doing enough to highlight our successes
      • All the problems aren't solved by web2, there are still problems to solve!
  • "To what extent is this an in built problem?"
    • Is much of what we're facing systemic and innately part of the system?
  • Projects working to get off the ground can go to existing cultural magnates and tap into the audiences of influencers. We, as humans, like to have role models and figureheads
  • Entrepreneurs are trained in this Benevolent Dictator mindset: centralize and grow as fast as possible, but on the other hand you have 99% of the workforce being trained to follow and obey which leads to sociopaths being at the top of the pyramids
    • Disrupting this system can be a force for passion and creativity as folks are able to walk more paths than a strictly rigidly defined one
    • Is there a path out of this besides DAOs?
      • DAOs are collectives of individuals, but these changes can be more about empowering individuals to have sovereignty.
      • 🌱 "The value they [individual contributors] can add is so much more than they think it is." 🌱
      • There are questions of compensation and how to incentivize creativity since traditional and rigid approaches are recognizable as ways to generate revenue and sustainability
    • 🌱 "DAOs are the software that allow us to do a better version of collaboration" 🌱
      • Ultimately, this comes down to how you talk to the humans in your project
    • Can DAOs have a figurehead that is a central coordinator without being a Benevolent Dictator?
    • Leaders are a key part of anything – is a problem that DAOs aren't "leaderless" but rather that they are "leaderfull"
    • Traditional higher education is built around fostering a mindset where the incentive structure supports movement into these existing structures
  • 🌱 DAO systems are "leaderfull" and not "leaderless" – it's about "you AS leader" and "you AS temporary leader" 🌱
    • How to put the right mentors in place to guide things forward?
    • Transition from "leader" to "coordinator" in our narrative – how do we prepare people to go through the hardships of "letting it go" and letting other folks move in
    • Power is already in the people but they don't know the possibilities
    • People want to do things but aren't taught how to do these things
    • Show people their own power and how to step into their own power
  • Community member UI369 on stage: Conversation about power and Holocracy
    • This is a conversation about power at the root as it's about holding power and hoarding it
    • Purpose statement: "Change humanity's relationship to power" – How do we change relationships to power?
    • When under attack and criticism, one's power can be diminished even in subtle ways
    • How do you relate to power structures when you're inside one?
    • One of the first things to do if a company adopts Holacracy is to cede authority and put power into a constitution but this brings up its own discomforts
      • People used to having power will suddenly need to operate within the constructs of the constitution
      • Conversely, this is difficult for folks who are used to following power – when operating in self-governed organizations you find folks who are used to asking permission and often need to be untrained from this behavior
        • Asking for permission is almost rude since you're putting responsibility onto someone else
    • Skillfulness in stepping in and out of roles (leader to follower, and follower to leader) and folks in the DAO space often lean into this
    • Existing on a spectrum between leader and follow and flowing back and forth as needed
    • How can we help folks to step into their own power?
    • How can we help folks become more comfortable with taking actions themselves without asking permission?
      • "Empowering your fellow collaborators" is critical but untaught
      • Shared ownership is part of this – it impacts culture
      • If you feel like your actions add value, and that it's being captured, this is a way forward
  • Offboarding responsibility:
    • Responsibility spread out to everyone, and it's up to the individual to take responsibility

Shared Success Stories

  • How do we craft and share narratives around shared success stories and "winning together"?
  • We lack the narrative of winning together – often loses out to the narrative of an individual being the focal point and where we have celebrated the collective success are in fascist and authoritarian or cultist spaces
  • As we "end up with a multitude of small clusters" instead of a structure where there's lots of folks following a single person
  • 🌱 "What does it mean to have narratives of success as a public good?" 🌱
  • Audience member vante43 on stage:
    • Narratives of success are something that would be nice to come across more often in challenging times
    • What about concepts of shared power around the reality of people self-organizing?
      • If all leaders were to cede power we would see folks create tribes and self-organizing. What would this look like?
      • How can a DAO encourage self-organizing in new ways and sharing power in new ways?
    • People with power often aren't comfortable giving it up readily – there is often not a rational incentive to do so. As a result people will self-organize and create new systems
    • MolochDAO itself was folks self-organizing to fund Eth 2.0
    • MetaCartel was folks self-organizing to fund public goods
    • Be a DAO from day one or you'll never be a DAO
    • 🌱 "DAO space is a mashup of software engineers with community engineers and organization engineers." 🌱
      • What could it look like to fork an organization?
      • Language of "forks" and "branches" comes from git and software development. Branches go off and then are merged back in to the main stream, whereas forks can (and often) go in a different direction without the intent to fully merge back in
  • Community member Gaian on stage: If something is an autonomous organization, modeling it after life itself – could be healthy to have things fork off and become something more specific instead of gravitating toward becoming a "monolithic organization"
    • Stories of mutual success: How do we develop the tech stack around mentorship and apprenticeship and concepts of a reputation system?
      • What tooling is available to help folks address this?
    • Is this the function that tokens fill?
    • Could shared treasuries impact this?
    • Raid Guild RAID token is an interesting example
      • Bringing folks in requires staking from a champion who is putting their reputation on the line
      • Raid Guild does a lot of experimentation around these things – Raid Parties (small working groups) are one area where Raids get things correct
      • "Just do it and see what happens"

Origins of Power

  • Much of these conversations are rooted in conversations in power
  • Where does power come from?
    • Is it because of actions taken? Products produced? Or is it organized around something that folks care about?
  • Forkability and challengabilility of hegemonical systems – web3 allows for calling out and challenging structures
  • Petrodollars are rooted in power backed by force – this is a core part of the conversation around Proof of Work and the environmental cost
    • Psyops campaign and conversation has slowed adoption, and this has limited the amount of folks who are working to improve systems
    • Is this conversation emergent or fabricated?
    • There are so many positives but why can't we move the narrative forward?
    • Kernel of truth problem: Effective because there is a kernel of truth related to the psyops
      • Fund media production or fund education to help address this
  • Audience member vante43 on stage: Power is purpose. When folks align with their natural talents. Power is coercion (connection drops)
  • Audience member UI369 on stage:
    • Practical aspect of power – if you can't physically have folks hear your ideas you're restricted and limited
    • There is so much power that is hoarded that is coercive and persuasive
    • Connection between power and coercion
    • Connectivity issues: Practical, physical layer that we all operate in

Additional Resources

Resources mentioned and shared during this episode

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