Web3 Freshman Year
August 3rd, 2022

My first foray into Web3 began early this year when, after several months of binging on newsletters and podcasts, I finally summoned the courage to take my first steps into the BanklessDAO (bDAO). Admittedly, after some not-so-productive past experiences of internet rabbit holes, I was reluctant to jump into an online community of any kind, much less one full of crypto-obsessed strangers. The more I considered it, however, the more encouraged I felt that the DAO presented a great opportunity to move forward on three big intentions I had set for the year.

First, I wanted to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct my financial life with cryptocurrencies and related tools. Second, after all the reading I had done about the future of work, I wanted to gain an experience of becoming a contributing member of a DAO. Third, I wanted to begin building relationships with other people similarly interested in the space. In many respects, taken together, I wanted to make this year one in which I began preparing to thrive in the future rather than continue to hide from it.

Now 6 months down the road of first, tenuous steps, I am pausing to assess how I am doing with each of these intentions before entering my second season as a DAO contributor. In doing so, it occurs to me that something of the experience reminds me of being in college. And now that I have a full season (semester?) under my belt, it is time to sit down and create a report card, of sorts, to measure my progress and help prepare for the 2nd half of freshman year.

Let the Grading Begin

Relative to the aspiration of navigating my finances with crypto I believe I have the basics down. I know how to buy and sell BTC, ETH and ERC-20 tokens on exchanges and turn proceeds into cash. I have stored funds in hot and cold storage wallets, both of the custodial and non-custodial variety. I have sent tokens to and from various wallets and kept secure track of my seed phrases. I know how to connect my wallet to metamask and swap tokens there.

Perhaps most importantly, I have attained a level of awareness necessary to pay just enough attention to crypto twitter to feel informed about things to be on the lookout for. As one, critical example, after 6 months of holding ETH on Celsius, I picked up on various warnings about their business practices and was able to move my coin out a month before the company’s meltdown.

I still have much to learn but am pleased with my progress. Grade: B+

On to subject #2, competent navigation of and contribution to a DAO. Honestly, as season 4 approached, and even after 3 months of lurking, I was so confused by Discord that I wondered if I would ever find my way to making a meaningful contribution. The best approach I could come up with was to follow the advice of others who suggested I join a couple guilds and make a point of attending weekly meetings. Possessing some education, skills and experiences relevant to each, I joined the writers and project-management guilds with fingers crossed that opportunities would arise.

In the Writer’s Guild I set a goal of being a regular contributor to one of its weekly newsletters and getting an article published. I accomplished each of these goals, joining the front-end team of the DAO’s “Weekly Wrapup” Newsletter and submitting an editorial, ”The Secret Sauce of DAOs”, which was published in early June. Coming in at just over 3,000 words I put as much time into that piece as anything I have written, am proud to be published for the first time, and happy to have checked the box of that goal.

In the Project Management Guild, its first season as a guild, the roadmap of opportunities to contribute were less clear. Initially I had an aspiration of teaching a workshop on Liberating Structures and facilitating an Agile retrospective for another guild. Though neither of these opportunities materialized, I was happy with the way I showed up for the majority of our weekly meetings and the consistent, quality attention I brought to the asynchronous conversation in our discord channel. By attending meetings, and staying attuned to the work of both our talent and education work streams, I believe I was able to share input at key moments in ways that helped move the guild forward.

Earning My Way

Part and parcel to my desire to contribute to the DAO I also wanted my work to be rewarded. When I first joined the DAO in January I purchased 35,000 shares of $BANK (bDAO’s native token) in order to be a Level 1 contributor. Though I was happy to make that investment, as I approached Season 4 and gained a better feel for the ethos of the DAO, I wanted to use the opportunity to earn my way into the community. Accordingly, I created the goal of earning at least 35,000 $BANK, which felt like an ambitious goal at the time.

One of the highlights of my DAO experience so far has been Coordinape, a technology platform for DAO members to fairly reward each others’ contributions. I have been fascinated by Coordinape ever since learning about it for the first time a year ago. Honestly though, while I remember thinking how revolutionary it sounded, at the time it did not even occur to me that I would one day participate in it. Now, fresh on the other side of giving and receiving in several Coordinape rounds, I’m happy to share that thanks to it and my newsletter contributions I have reached my 35K goal for the season.

I still have a lot to learn and room to grow as a contributor but feel proud of the progress I have made. Grade: B

Now onto my last intention to begin connecting with other people similarly interested in DAO life and the crypto economy. In comparison to the other intentions this one feels harder to assess. The closest thing I created to a specific goal here was to establish a reputation for being a consistent, positive presence and for following through on what I say I’m going to do. While I believe I have made strides here I don’t think my time in the DAO, or body of work, is yet sufficient to qualify for a reputation, per se.

Six months since my first steps “in” I must say that I’m wrestling with some nagging dissatisfaction on the relationship front. As inspired as I have been with the community as a whole, and many I have connected with individually, it still feels like there is something missing here. As reasons I can point to a couple of things.

First, though I have been steadily working, much of that time is still going toward playing catch-up. Some days that means fumbling my way through new (to me) technologies like Discord and Notion. Others it means reading or listening to podcasts to get my Web3 feet under me. As a result many days feel more like wandering around campus than leaning in as a fellow builder. I am still discovering who I am in this new world, have yet to put my best foot forward, and am not yet relating as openly and confidently with others as I’d like to.

Second, no matter how proficient I get at meeting new people and working “async” over the internet, I continue to favor the physical world as an interface for human connection. Among the people in the DAO I feel the greatest affinity with it feels like there is a gap waiting to be closed by an in-person gathering.

Creating some quality connections. Still lots of opportunity improve here. Grade: C+

A “Cool” New Take on bDAO

Last week on a Tokenomics call Icedcool, the DAO’s Tokenomics coordinator, shared his enthusiasm for recent experiences of meeting former bDAO members at conferences. He spoke of a common occurrence of people approaching him to say, “I loved my time with BanklessDAO. If there is anything I can do to help you guys, let me know!”. He explained further that such people are growing in number every season and spreading throughout the Web3 ecosystem. As he talked an analogy arose for me that cast a new, contextual light on my time in the DAO.

“The people you are talking about, and their enthusiasm for supporting the DAO”, I said, “remind me of college alumni, and their relationship with their alma mater”. Shortly after that another participant on the call remarked, “this DAO as university analogy is interesting. I hadn’t thought of it like that before.”

Looking forward to Season 5, BanklessDAO will continue to be many things to different people, all in service to our vision of helping the world go Bankless through education, media, and culture. Subsequent to seeing the emerging potential of the goodwill of bDAO alumni, and taking the time to create my first report card a week later, I feel even more encouraged by the possibilities of orienting to the DAO as an experiential learning university.

Albeit at a very different age and stage of life, much of this reminds me of my first experience of a university, attending college over 30 years ago. The core intentions, it seems, are much the same, and all in service to preparing students, whatever our age, for the future. Learn the foundations for how to navigate our economic lives. Begin figuring out what we are interested in and good at and make a contribution. Meet good people we can learn and stay connected with both in and beyond our time in school together.

Something like that.

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