Why I joined a DAO and what I’ve learned so far.
The Rise of DAO Culture The Rise of DAO Culture synthesizes group culture and decision-making with cooperative leadership while working to avoid the dangers that occur in typical corporate settings. I recently joined my first DAO and from the beginning, I was immediately impressed by how different it is compared to other businesses and organizations I had been a part of. I have been looking for ways to contribute to the exciting world of Web 3 and found that Yearn Finance had put out a call welcoming all contributors. I quickly applied at the beginning of the new year and hoped to get a reply. I was excited that they were looking for marketing and content roles and that they were open to part-time, remote contributors.
Why DAOs? DAOs are attractive to me because these organizations have no central authorities to control what participants do. In other words, DAOs are autonomous and exist freely over the internet — completely independent from real-world controlling entities. Unlike traditional companies, DAOs can perform certain tasks with more efficiency because they are completely free and immune from outside interference and issues emerging due to hierarchies. The traditional hierarchy model can create rigidity resulting in a model that stifles creativity and employee initiative.
On-Boarding Yearn’s response to my inquiry was surprisingly quick. In traditional organizations, onboarding new talent can typically take anywhere from 1–4 months from the first interview until the start date. With many decision-makers at a variety of levels in this process, a new hire can quickly fall into a stalemate. This time lost can be the difference between kicking off a successful project and falling behind on deliverables or deadlines. Many articles have pointed out Web 3 and crypto companies luring talent and I can see the appeal to jump full-time. Compensation has always been important to job searches and they will most likely be the main factor influencing someone accepting a new position, however, often in web 3 we see speed and purpose are factors that lead job-seekers to consider working for a DAO. With flexibility and a “earn as you contribute” model, Yearn makes it possible to earn regardless of the number of hours you commit.
My First Few Weeks After initially taking a call with Farrah and talking through my goals while learning more about what Yearn was looking for, it was now time to get started. In a matter of days, I quickly went from a newcomer to being fully immersed in the culture, joining the weekly marketing stand-ups, and taking on my first few projects! To those only familiar with traditional processes in Web 2 this seems crazy. Why would you ever allow a newcomer in and immediately allow them to jump into the internal processes, to “see how the sausage is made?”. But for the future of the internet, this will become commonplace. With the rise of DAOs and the culture around them, no longer do you need to wait a certain amount of time to be deemed valuable.
What’s Next At the end of each month, Yearn pays contributors through Coordinape. Coordinape is a web3 payment tool, which is separated from the Yearn ecosystem. Individuals first contribute, then they are added to Coordinape which allows them to receive a monthly grant in a token (for Yearn it’s $YFI) for their work. By allocating and rewarding individuals based on the amount of work completed, Daos have an easy way to compensate active participants. I am looking forward to finishing up current projects and wrapping up my first month at Yearn!
Stay tuned for more updates over the coming months, I plan to continue to document my journey here at Yearn!