DICEology –– Information Networks, Holo-Organizations, Unlimited Human Progress Current implementations of DAOs are flawed and no one has yet come close to addressing the root problem. The notion of “Autonomous” organizations coupled with excessive democratization are fundamentally incompatible, rendering the whole space oxymoronic. Mainstream framing of DAOs as elite, token-gated, social / investment clubs are reductive, and harmful to their long-term potential. In the future DAOs will be modular, created and disbanded as needed; built on top of a distributed information network serving as a highway of “essential nutrients” in the form of information, knowledge, and data analytics.
If we’re to achieve truly Autonomous behavior, as for any harmonious life experience, we must forgo the illusion of control and surrender ourselves to the complexity of our universe. DICE –– Distributed Intelligence / Collective Emergence –– is not an admission of weakness, but a recognition that together we may become greater than the sum of our parts. I envision a network of interoperable knowledge graphs, encompassing contributor onboarding, education communication, and treasury spending.
Studying mycelia networks, we see how nature has chosen to organize its information system, giving us a blueprint for our own networks. Graph based systems (knowledge, analytics, decision, etc) are a mathematical analogue to these networks. Here, I’d like to go over why we need these networks to flourish, how they improve current organization models, and what shape they could end up taking.
Unlimited Human Progress Our world needs healing for a variety of reasons. I won’t go into specifics as I’ve already written about those; back in 2020 my concern was food insecurity on college campuses and the loneliness epidemic gripping our world. For human prosperity to continue, the bare minimum to meet is adequate nutrition and a sense of belonging. It should come as no surprise then that a plurality of people (35%) join DAOs to “belong to a community”.
Crypto’s very genesis was in reaction to decades of mismanaged monetary policy. We now have an opportunity to take an active role in rewriting our social contract. Given the necessity (and superiority) of emergent systems over prescriptive ones, it’s no surprise that the web3 ethos has been so captivating. The promise of connected ownership in contrast to rent-seeking grifting is evident to those who lived through multiple “once in a generation” system failure in their short lifespans.
Moving away from extractive zero-sum models, to sustainable positive-sum ones, is the challenge of our time. The legacy walled prison systems of the past, reliant on privatizing that which is public, don’t have a place in our world anymore. Interoperability, forkability, and modularity in distributed systems provide a safeguard against bad actors that aim to exploit us. Projects experimenting with radical funding, like Olympus (appropriately named Shroom-scaling) and Radicle’s grant programs, are exemplary efforts that deserve study and replication. Free and funded open source projects are desperately needed right now.
Holo-Organizations Researchers have described lichen –– fungi and plant matter symbiosis –– as Holobionts, different organisms coming together behaving as a whole. Lichens are able to survive in Earth’s harshest climates (even space!) utilizing strengths of both fungi and plants to become greater than their parts. Holos, Greek for “whole”, evokes the fluid nature of life. Studying all life for that matter, we come to appreciate existence not as a bounded autonomous process, but a collaboration between organisms. Each coordinating and competing with each other. Humans ourselves contain more foreign bacteria cells in our gut than “human” cells in total. If then our organic world requires specialization to thrive, our human systems should aim to mirror it.
Much like blockchain scaling will occur by moving away from monolithic chains, DAO scaling will happen by distributing away from nexuses of power. DAOs will act as the fruiting bodies, the mushrooms, of a greater complex network. Effective coordination requires us to create and adopt standards of power distribution. Thus far, the most common way we’ve seen this done is through token-weighted voting, which I take some issue with. A better way we’ve begun to be talked about is subcommittee / subDAO / PODing decision-making, distributing towards those closest to the action. By credential-weighing (or even gating) these pods, where contributors need their own personal “proof-of-work”, we can start to build out contributor competence graphs.
Two projects I’ve taken a keen interest in are Govrn, who asserts “You should be able to govern everything that governs you”, and Orca, aiming to be the fluid subDAO protocol through their PODs model. I’ve written a whole article about the Govrn Framework, and how it can become the “consensus” layer for credentialing. Govrn’s “proof-of-work” primitives are established as proof-of-engagement/commitment/contribution. Conditioning pod membership on previously determined proofs-of-work emerges a feedback loop of competence building and proven stewardship. Pods can in-turn quickly form around tasks as determined by some community.
Information Networks With the large amount of public immutable data being generated, we can start to map out contributor and knowledge graphs. Reading about graph databases recently, and the potential of graph systems to help in anything from information management to assisted decision-making, I’m buzzing with excitement at its application to DAOs and blockchain. Regarding contributors, we can use data from Govrn and Orca to establish leaders in certain areas, say those that have extensive experience in certain fields. Additionally we can surface beneficial connections, either matching similar candidates together to work on difficult problems, or complementary skillsets with one another to create new paradigms. As we shape these networks, the quality of project outcomes increases, as does connectedness and connectivity. Instead of optimizing for outrage and hate, we flip towards shared interests and progress.
With Onboarding being such a pain point for DAOs right now, information management becomes vital to their functioning. Clear, graph based visuals, would facilitate a currently convoluted process. No longer will you need 1-1 followup on discord asking your strength areas and where you’d like to contribute. Now, based on your accreditations, you’ll be presented with an interactive “model” of the DAO, the main hub sprouting into different pods, each containing papers, proposals, and KPIs. Mirroring sink/source dynamics in mycelium, where nutrients are directed towards areas that need it most, onboarding will become highly automated and fluid.
One project I’m fascinated by here is DiamondDAO, who’s begun to build out these knowledge graphs using external and onchain data. A recent thread by a contributor of theirs showcases how we can optimize for meaningful experiences. It was shown that EthDenver attendees, as checked by POAP, were 86% more likely to attend another event than those that didn’t attend. Data being publicly available and curated into knowledge graphs, make this previously impossible event a strength now.
Yup With these credential, executive, and knowledge primitives being built, the future for DAO coordination is bright. As for chain scaling, we start to have consensus, execution, and knowledge availability layers, that combine to unlock massive potential. My Futuristic for DAO Scaling looks like a thriving ecosystem, a tropical forest if you will. DICE is the mycelia like integration between scaling layer that underpins our system; distributing information, contributors, and other essential nutrients to support other systems. The fruiting DAOs act as incubators, combining when needed to aggregate talent and eject spore ideas into the world. Various trees, plants, and flowers are the public goods, new protocols, and artwork that emerges from the life thriving below the surface. This may all seem very peace and lovey, which it is, I’m a massive hippie, but coordination occurs very simply. If we all choose to collaborate then we can build a better world. Zero-sum competition ensures our destruction. In that regard, our continued prosperity demands we work together even when we may face differences. I hope the potential of these technologies inspire others to work in this field and contribute their best work towards this vision.