DAOs will be the future of online communities in five years

Online communities, those that share a common interest in the Internet, can range from social networks, grassroots organizations, and customer communities. We as a society are communal by nature, so it makes sense to engage in ideas and interests with others online. Whether we establish relationships with people directly or indirectly, communities are built. However, the way we do it is different.

In 2006, web expert Jakob Nielsen proposed a 90-9-1 rule based on unequal participation in social media and online communities. According to Nielsen, in most online communities, 90% of users are marauders, that is, those who watch but do not contribute, nine percent of users contribute a little, and only one percent represent the most of the contributions.

But as the influence of online communities continues, their nature begins to change. The previous era was dominated by a user, customer, and creator relationship. Now, however, we are beginning to see online communities taking ownership of what they want to share.

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Property and the creative economy

Since COVID-19 forces many of us to work from home and socially distance ourselves from our loved ones, digital connectivity has played an important role in how we stay connected. For many, this has resulted in a greater reliance on online communities. According to research by Facebook, along with The Governance Lab of New York University, 77% of respondents indicated that the most important group of which they are a part operates online.

Today we live in a world where content is easily created and shared. This creative economy, which is based on human creativity, intellectual property and technology, is a concept that continues to grow. And after a year of lockdowns, now more than ever is the time to appreciate the creative economy. As governments seek to rebuild their economies in the wake of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, creative economies will play an important role. So much so that Deloitte figures suggest that this sector could grow 40% in 2030, adding more than eight million jobs.

The next logical step is moving away from this sharing economy towards a property economy. Jesse Walden, founder of Variant Fund, calls the property economy something that "is not only built, operated and financed by individual users, but is also owned by the users." An example of the union of the creative economy and the property economy is seen through non-fungible tokens (NFT). NFTs allow creators to offer a more intimate connection with their followers while eliminating the problems associated with middlemen. By doing so, and thanks to the blockchain, creators have full ownership of their work and have free rein for the copyright of their creations while ensuring their authenticity. By offering a golden opportunity for creators, NFTs are establishing creative ownership.

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And it is the advent of cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) that is helping take online communities to the next level. As the sector uses assets that are shared by all shareholders, creating something that aligns with their interests, cryptocurrencies and DeFi fit together naturally. Empowered by frictionless finance, the property economy enables novel approaches for real-world communities to leverage digital tools to more effectively create, capture, and exchange value in virtuous cycles.

The property economy has pioneered Bitcoin (BTC). Arriving in 2009, Bitcoin proposed a new avenue of economic wealth while using technology on a computer. In doing so, anyone with an internet connection was incentivized while searching for freshly minted Bitcoin, helping to secure the network while claiming ownership of the network itself.

Since then, the cryptocurrency market has grown exponentially and with it, online communities are seeing each other through new tools and incentive design that comprise the trend known today as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO).

DAO online communities

A DAO is essentially a programmable organization of people who are formed around a shared mission and nurture an emerging online community. They jointly control a crypto wallet with multiple signatures, ensuring that their goals, decided by DAO members, are met. The governance of DAOs and their operations are written in smart contracts, which consist of automated if-then statements, making them transparent and auditable.

The great thing about DAOs and their role in online communities is that the way they interact with each other is an open surface area and a lot of work is being done in the space. Anyone can participate in a DAO regardless of where they are. All that is required is wagering funds, which creates a great building block for engaging with a community. DAOs are not walled gardens and therefore their participants have intrinsic and extrinsic incentives to collaborate with other DAO communities to reinforce the capabilities of others while sharing ownership and direction of each project. Without a central party standing in the way, everyone has the right to have a say on how something should or should be done.

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The DAO and DAO2DAO collaborations are still very much a "crypto thing," but the real power for positive change resides in them when the methodologies, ownership models, and tools created from this movement touch communities around the world. real, big and small.

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