bdao thoughts
bdao thoughts
bdao thoughts

bdao thoughts

đź’ˇ
These are just my observations as an outsider getting ramped up on the DAO. Ultimately, we’re here to support you building out this community so I will defer to whatever you all think is best! This is intended to be a place to start discussion, not a directive.
I’ve spent the last few days deep diving into Bankless DAO trying to understand more about what it’s all about and how gm could help. These are some general thoughts that will certainly change over time.
bdao
Activity
So much is going on in the DAO. It’s honestly incredible. From the newsletters, podcasts and twitter accounts to the Bankless card, consulting, and DeFi indexes there is so many cool projects happening.
I’m learning some about the processes in place and it lives up to the DAO name. There is some centralization particularly around money (multi-sig, grants committee, etc.) but much of the work is distributed and entrusted to the community.
This is an oversimplification, but it feels like a community ran VC fund all aligned around a specific mission. Super powerful.
It’s really clear that bdao is a blue chip DAO and is on the cutting edge of DAO development.
Tooling
bdao’s needs are complicated and you use a number of different tools to manage it all. Most of which are Discord bots, some of which are separate products.
Discord and the bots have a learning curve but also work well. The number of channels make coordination possible because people are spread fairly thinly across different focuses.
Discourse seems to be used heavily for soft consensus but not too much else. For example, there was a ton of activity leading up to S4 but during S3 activity was limited.
gm.xyz
In general we see gm.xyz providing value to DAOs in three main ways (at the moment):
  1. Asynchronous, crypto native discussion amongst DAO members
    1. Token gated communities (roles are coming)
    2. Token weighted polls (will build if needed)
    3. Discussions are persistent, organized, and searchable. They’re easy to long after they’re over.
  1. Public, asynchronous discussions
    1. Easily sharable externally (e.g. Twitter)
    2. Discussions are long lasting and easy to find
      1. We can work on SEO if it’s needed
  1. Spam / safety
    1. ETH requirement dramatically reduces spam on the platform
    2. Profiles can be seen from DMs
      1. You can see if the person DMing you has a verified ENS name, what NFTs they hold, what communities they are apart of etc.
Additionally there are a few types of content we’ve seen be particularly successful on gm:
  • Requests for comments / building in public
    • Most posts that give people an insight into how the sausage is made and asks for their input gets a ton of interest and feedback. It’s incredibly useful for us and helps determine what we should focus on. It also gives the community some ownership over the product and can help drive buy-in / consensus.
  • AMAs have also been quite successful. We do weekly asynchronous AMAs. Questions are asked for two days and then the guest answers them on a single day. This creates long-lasting, valuable, and sharable discussion that is easy to come back to.
  • FAQs
    • Because discussions are persistent, easy to find, and sharable, it’s really easy to point users to answers and discussions that have already happened
My thoughts on bdao on gm
There are a few areas that I think could be a good fit, but I’m very open to feedback to all of this and we should definitely not try to focus on all of these at once.
I think in general governance and the ops guild are great places to start.
  1. Governance (soft consensus)
  1. Community Involvement
  1. Recaps / Summary of voice events
  1. DAO Best Practices
Governance
Reaching soft consensus on gm could be more reliable than Discourse. The community is gated by the token and we can implement token weighted polls so the consensus signal is much higher to what will actually happen on snapshot.
Community Involvement
đź’ˇ
I think there are a ton of other ideas here around the ops guild that we could explore. These are just a few that came to mind
Codifying Bylaws
I’ve talked with Joe about the GSE position and their (current) task to codify the bylaws. This project makes a ton of sense to me and I’m wondering if there are ways to work on it in public on gm.
  1. could be a great way to document the process (not the actual bylaws) to keep for the future
  1. could be used to get feedback from other DAO members
  1. could be great education for others on gm about how to run a DAO
“Storytime”
bdao is now a year old and there are constantly new members. I think tribal knowledge is not only interesting to a lot of new comers but also is really valuable in giving people context. The thought here is that old timers could talk about how things were and how things came to be. A few ideas:
  • Who were the first multi-sig signers? How were they chosen?
  • How did guilds come to be?
  • What was the first project funded?
  • How did certain memes / rituals come to be?
Recaps / Summary of voice events
bdao relies heavily on voice events. Community calls, working sessions, after parties, etc. are all voice. gm does not support voice (although it’s somethign we discuss and will certainly support one day) but I’m wondering if there’s an opportunity here to use gm to catch people up on what happened and allow them to ask questions and get answers.
DAO Best Practices
This is a little further out there, and maybe it’s already happening, but I think there’s a massive opportunity for Bankless DAO to democratize their knowledge of how to build a DAO to other DAOs. bdao is already a leader in the dao space, but the ops guild in particular could become a thought leader in how to run daos effectively. It would take some work to write the content out but it would be really valuable. A few ideas:
  • What are the hardest challenges in creating a DAO?
  • How is governance done?
  • How is the treasury managed?
  • How are funds distributed / used?
  • What tools are used?
  • What are some mistakes the DAO made?
  • How does the DAO balance centralization and decentralization?
 
Questions to you
  • What problems could gm help the DAO solve?
  • What type of content would be good to either move to gm or to start creating on gm?
    • What is needed to move governance discussions to gm?
      • Features? Certain people on board? An announcement?
  • How can we best help you succeed on gm?
  • Who are the big contributors in the community that would be helpful to talk to?
 
Closing thoughts
Again, these are my thoughts as an outsider and someone with a vested interest in getting bdao successful on gm. At the end of the day, the community will only be successful if we are solving real problems for the dao and providing real values to members. I’m ready to do our part to make that happen and will follow your lead down the best way to get there.
bdao thoughts
bdao thoughts
bdao thoughts

bdao thoughts

đź’ˇ
These are just my observations as an outsider getting ramped up on the DAO. Ultimately, we’re here to support you building out this community so I will defer to whatever you all think is best! This is intended to be a place to start discussion, not a directive.
I’ve spent the last few days deep diving into Bankless DAO trying to understand more about what it’s all about and how gm could help. These are some general thoughts that will certainly change over time.
bdao
Activity
So much is going on in the DAO. It’s honestly incredible. From the newsletters, podcasts and twitter accounts to the Bankless card, consulting, and DeFi indexes there is so many cool projects happening.
I’m learning some about the processes in place and it lives up to the DAO name. There is some centralization particularly around money (multi-sig, grants committee, etc.) but much of the work is distributed and entrusted to the community.
This is an oversimplification, but it feels like a community ran VC fund all aligned around a specific mission. Super powerful.
It’s really clear that bdao is a blue chip DAO and is on the cutting edge of DAO development.
Tooling
bdao’s needs are complicated and you use a number of different tools to manage it all. Most of which are Discord bots, some of which are separate products.
Discord and the bots have a learning curve but also work well. The number of channels make coordination possible because people are spread fairly thinly across different focuses.
Discourse seems to be used heavily for soft consensus but not too much else. For example, there was a ton of activity leading up to S4 but during S3 activity was limited.
gm.xyz
In general we see gm.xyz providing value to DAOs in three main ways (at the moment):
  1. Asynchronous, crypto native discussion amongst DAO members
    1. Token gated communities (roles are coming)
    2. Token weighted polls (will build if needed)
    3. Discussions are persistent, organized, and searchable. They’re easy to long after they’re over.
  1. Public, asynchronous discussions
    1. Easily sharable externally (e.g. Twitter)
    2. Discussions are long lasting and easy to find
      1. We can work on SEO if it’s needed
  1. Spam / safety
    1. ETH requirement dramatically reduces spam on the platform
    2. Profiles can be seen from DMs
      1. You can see if the person DMing you has a verified ENS name, what NFTs they hold, what communities they are apart of etc.
Additionally there are a few types of content we’ve seen be particularly successful on gm:
  • Requests for comments / building in public
    • Most posts that give people an insight into how the sausage is made and asks for their input gets a ton of interest and feedback. It’s incredibly useful for us and helps determine what we should focus on. It also gives the community some ownership over the product and can help drive buy-in / consensus.
  • AMAs have also been quite successful. We do weekly asynchronous AMAs. Questions are asked for two days and then the guest answers them on a single day. This creates long-lasting, valuable, and sharable discussion that is easy to come back to.
  • FAQs
    • Because discussions are persistent, easy to find, and sharable, it’s really easy to point users to answers and discussions that have already happened
My thoughts on bdao on gm
There are a few areas that I think could be a good fit, but I’m very open to feedback to all of this and we should definitely not try to focus on all of these at once.
I think in general governance and the ops guild are great places to start.
  1. Governance (soft consensus)
  1. Community Involvement
  1. Recaps / Summary of voice events
  1. DAO Best Practices
Governance
Reaching soft consensus on gm could be more reliable than Discourse. The community is gated by the token and we can implement token weighted polls so the consensus signal is much higher to what will actually happen on snapshot.
Community Involvement
đź’ˇ
I think there are a ton of other ideas here around the ops guild that we could explore. These are just a few that came to mind
Codifying Bylaws
I’ve talked with Joe about the GSE position and their (current) task to codify the bylaws. This project makes a ton of sense to me and I’m wondering if there are ways to work on it in public on gm.
  1. could be a great way to document the process (not the actual bylaws) to keep for the future
  1. could be used to get feedback from other DAO members
  1. could be great education for others on gm about how to run a DAO
“Storytime”
bdao is now a year old and there are constantly new members. I think tribal knowledge is not only interesting to a lot of new comers but also is really valuable in giving people context. The thought here is that old timers could talk about how things were and how things came to be. A few ideas:
  • Who were the first multi-sig signers? How were they chosen?
  • How did guilds come to be?
  • What was the first project funded?
  • How did certain memes / rituals come to be?
Recaps / Summary of voice events
bdao relies heavily on voice events. Community calls, working sessions, after parties, etc. are all voice. gm does not support voice (although it’s somethign we discuss and will certainly support one day) but I’m wondering if there’s an opportunity here to use gm to catch people up on what happened and allow them to ask questions and get answers.
DAO Best Practices
This is a little further out there, and maybe it’s already happening, but I think there’s a massive opportunity for Bankless DAO to democratize their knowledge of how to build a DAO to other DAOs. bdao is already a leader in the dao space, but the ops guild in particular could become a thought leader in how to run daos effectively. It would take some work to write the content out but it would be really valuable. A few ideas:
  • What are the hardest challenges in creating a DAO?
  • How is governance done?
  • How is the treasury managed?
  • How are funds distributed / used?
  • What tools are used?
  • What are some mistakes the DAO made?
  • How does the DAO balance centralization and decentralization?
 
Questions to you
  • What problems could gm help the DAO solve?
  • What type of content would be good to either move to gm or to start creating on gm?
    • What is needed to move governance discussions to gm?
      • Features? Certain people on board? An announcement?
  • How can we best help you succeed on gm?
  • Who are the big contributors in the community that would be helpful to talk to?
 
Closing thoughts
Again, these are my thoughts as an outsider and someone with a vested interest in getting bdao successful on gm. At the end of the day, the community will only be successful if we are solving real problems for the dao and providing real values to members. I’m ready to do our part to make that happen and will follow your lead down the best way to get there.