Since 2019, I've been investing and building across the blockchain and DAO ecosystem. Here are some things I've learned:

Doing good: Many projects in the ecosystem are focused on leveraging blockchain and DeFi for creating positive socioeconomic value. Projects such as ACRE DAOs, Popcorn and DoinGud are great use cases.

Human Interaction: In spite of all the good willed projects coming out of the ecosystem, most fail to encourage authentic person to person relationship building. You can’t discount the importance of human interaction and relationships.

Ethics: Let’s be honest; this ecosystem is riddled with degens who are capitalizing on gamified structures to make themselves rich. I don't think cut-throat business practices have a place in Web3.

Comprehensive Understanding of Business: Sure, your engineers can code smart contracts. However, does your team have an understanding of the complex employment, IP, corporate and ethical legal framework where these contracts operate? The answer is usually no. This is an integral part in the process. Many DAOs and projects fall short, creating greater weight on the ecosystem as a whole.

Government: Many people in the ecosystem are complete anarchists. I'm in favor of working with governments to leverage the impact of blockchain innovation.

Tooling and Design: How can we onboard the next billion users with fragmented tooling and non intuitive interfaces? The answer is that we can't. We need to focus on designing products so easy to use that even your grandma can participate in on-chain activities. DAOs need better tooling to help them facilitate community management, participation, and growth.

Organization and Leadership : One of the biggest drawbacks to DAOs in particular is lack of structure. Thousands of people in a Discord channel won't be as productive as a few well aligned team members. DAOs need structure, organization and clear leadership in order to be successful within their communities and between their communities.

Education: When BrikPay was launched, we set out to be the first company to bring useful smart contracts to the residential construction industry. Our goal was to give both contractors and homeowners security during home renovation with a data powered escrow contract. We underestimate the amount of education needed to onboard contractors / builders and to help them understand the value of the technology.

The same is true for the ecosystem as it stands today.

My vision is a world where we can leverage blockchain innovation to make society more equitable and accessible to all. Though we have a long way to go, I remain a hopeful optimist.

Pasquale Scaife