Where do you live? 

It's a simple question. I live in America - New Jersey, to be specific. The most densely populated state in America. It’s worth noting that this doesn't mean we have the most people, but the most people per square inch. It's also one of the most expensive states to live in; the 4th most expensive, to be exact. Only behind Hawaii, New York and California. You can check those metrics here. 

So what does this mean for my fellow New Jersuits and I? Well for one, everything costs more. That's the obvious part. But let's talk about how that affects the people who live here. Being the most densely populated state means that we have some large families here. Most people I meet have multiple siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. More mouths to feed. Housing is also more expensive, and since most people can’t afford to outright buy a house, or have bad credit (this is another set of issues on it’s own) and in turn can’t obtain financing, they’re stuck renting. Which usually costs more per month than a mortgage payment on average, for less space and comfort. More mouths to feed + less comfort = more stress. More stress leads to increased mental illness and crime. More crime and illness leads to overcrowded prison systems, and people having to live without the care they need, both physical and mental. That’s only the beginning of it.

Speaking of crime, we’re also home to one of the most crime ridden port cities in America: Camden, NJ, which is truly one of the most marginalized places in America. Where once it was a bustling business community centered around RCA Victor and the Cambell’s soup factory - it has since fallen into decay for a myriad of reasons including corruption, which led to investigations that put two of it’s Mayors behind bars.  It is now consistently in the top 100 most dangerous places to live in America.  Many times in the last 20 years or so it was in the top five, and even the number one slot. So not only is the dollar worth less here, sometimes it takes blood to get one. It might take a lot of blood to feed your family.

I know a man (bless his heart), who once tried to prove Camden wasn't that bad by camping out in a tent in one of the most dangerous areas. Within an hour he got the ever-living-shit kicked out of him and was robbed of quite literally everything he had on him. We shouldn’t need hindsight to figure out why that was a bad idea. Was it his fault? A little bit. Was it the robbers fault? Sure, they share a bit of responsibility; it was their boots that were kicking the shit out of him. But the issues that plague Camden (and many other low income cities in America) are far more systematically driven.

Being a port city, drugs are a large part of it. I don't think I need to teach anyone about the crack-cocaine epidemics that swept minority communities through the 80's and 90's. North Camden used to be known as 'Heroin City', and South Camden 'Crack City.’ Because of this, the war on drugs has quite literally torn this city apart. If you have ever seen HBO's "The Wire,” you'll get an idea of how gruesome it gets on those streets. Now to be fair to Camden, things have improved a bit since the early twenty-teens. In multiple metrics, I've seen Corpus Christi, Texas higher on the list. And Trenton, NJ (our capital) seems to share a fair amount of the criminal activity. But that doesn't mean crime has just stopped. One metric says that on average, 1 in every 63 people are still victims of violent crime in Camden. That's smaller than some Italian families, which NJ is also incidentally full of. My friend is #150 in his family, and his sister is #250. Yes, they have been counting. That means at a family reunion, almost 4 family members would be a victim. These are just numbers though.

How many Black American deaths are not reported each year due to mistrust of the police, or cover-ups and what have you? Probably far too many to count. I'm sure all of us would be left breathless and shocked if we could see the real picture. Imagine not wanting to report your child's death because you know the police will not do anything about it. And it's not just Camden where this occurs. It's Detroit, it's St. Louis, it's Baltimore, etc. It’s an embarrassing amount of cities to name.

Okay, so you’re probably wondering, where am I going with this? What does this have to do with CityDAO? Well, imagine if the residents of these marginalized communities had an incentive that made them want to care about their city? Imagine if when they walked out of their door in the morning, they didn't see a battlefield. Imagine that they actually felt at home on the streets; that they had neighbors who would do right by them, and police who would treat them like first-class citizens. Imagine if there were corporations that worked for the benefit of the community. Imagine if they saw *value*.

I think that's a huge problem with the world today. People do not walk out their front door to a world that they’re proud of. They see violence, disparity, and hopelessness. All of this and much more are the bricks that form an insurmountable monolith to the shattered American Dream. It's because they have no say. Now more than ever, I think people of all races and walks of life are seeing that our voices are not being heard. You look at the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, and the possible 50 year step backwards we could take if Roe v Wade is overturned. These are things that are horrifying to a person with average levels of empathy. But Ghislaine Maxwell and a laundry list of the country's elite are allowed a trial behind closed doors, because of their privilege - one that many people think will lead to nothing more than a slap on the wrist, for truly some of the most heinous crimes you can commit. The judges who sit on the Supreme Court are blind to the effects that overturning this monumental piece of legislature (Roe v Wade) would truly have on the country. They're so disconnected from the reality that we the people live in. It doesn't make sense to let them hold so much power in decisions like this. The Ghislaine Maxwell trial is a bit extreme, but I think it perfectly illustrates just how far the void between us and them is. A social chasm that feels truly insurmountable to anyone who can't afford a private jet to Maui for the weekend.

The most exciting part of the DAO movement to me, is the possibility of autonomous government. For too long I believe we have let those who do not have our best interests at heart pretend to listen to us, and then misuse their platform to further their own agenda. The pictures of Chris Christie and his family sunbathing on the beach the same weekend the NJ Government had closed it due to “government shutdown” comes to mind. Such a silly thing, and yet, it’s still an abuse of power; a mockery to the people of NJ who don't have the authority to enjoy a beach on a nice weekend, because the government shutdown.

Smart Contracts won’t just shut down for a weekend, in case you are wondering.

With something like CityDAO, I think it gives an opportunity to hand a bit of control back to the people. Nothing is a perfect soma for the disease that has infested the political and social landscape of this country, but initiatives like this are the start. Imagine if everyone who lived in a city truly owned a fractionalized part of it. Imagine if they held a little piece in their wallets that had real time value, real time voting power, real time perks and benefits to those who held onto it. Initiatives in the city would no longer be left up to a faceless council of unopposed 'electees.' The DAO governance structure would give people the ability to truly make decisions that affect their city. Is there a pothole on the corner of 5th and Jefferson? Put a proposal into the DAO. If enough people in the city think it's worth the funding, then it gets fixed. If not, it gets pushed to the next round of voting. Perhaps there are votes every week, where the top three or five get passed, and the rest get pushed to next week. And the more proposals are passed, the more action is taken to truly bring value to the city.

Truthfully, I know the concept is broader and much more complex than that. There would be real-estate and business proposals, educational and medical proposals. Everything would have to be organized efficiently. And everyone would only have so much of a stake, directly influenced by how many tokens they own. Some people might have to sell some of their coins if they're in a pinch, and that could change the balance slightly. Again, there are a lot of nuances to something like this. For example, how many tokens does each resident get? Is it an even share across the board? Is it affected by your income or the property you own? If you have debt, would that affect it? What about if you commit a crime? And would people even understand how to use their tokens? Would there need to be classes to teach those, who don't know anything about blockchain technology, how to responsibly and effectively allocate their tokens?

These are all questions that would need to be answered, and I'll tell you I don't have the answers. I'm 27 years old and can barely afford my own apartment. No way can I decide how the tokenomics of a city should play out. But if I can at least imagine all of this, then surely a team of people who are far more educated than I would be able to come up with a half-decent solution. One that puts a place like Camden, NJ in a better position. And then maybe, when the people of Camden, NJ walk outside their doors in the morning, they'll see something that's worth spending the extra dollar on. Even if it won't get them as far as it would in another state. Because it would be their home, and that might just be worth putting every penny into.