As more organizations form as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (“DAOs”), the term itself is expanding to encompass a broad range of activities. The diversity of this activity is not only a reflection of the utility provided by blockchain and smart contract technology in building robust systems of decentralization and autonomous operations, but also the preexisting desire of numerous communities and organizations to implement an effective form of decentralized organization not bound by conventional limits on trust, geographical restriction or physical limitation.
Some current and future considerations regarding DAOs:
Working in DAOs is flexible
a. No more long recruiting processes to find value-aligned contributors
b. Scaling up/down for DAO objectives is easy
c. Work output > Time input
But the nature of DAOs, with the bottom-up workflow, has drawbacks too:
a. It's hard to get people to consistently work on useful stuff
b. Not being sure who's the right person for the job
c. Onboarding process takes forever
A new model could work - called "Role-based Workflow"
a. What is a role in DAOs? i.It gives an individual certain access to do things - but it's not mandatory
b. This workflow enables granular, role-based access control i. Members can self-select specific roles in servers ii. The roles become accumulated stamps of approval that members can earn iii. You prove yourself trustworthy and competent in specific roles
c. Roles are usually most well-defined in Discord i. Also now available in various applications: spreadsheets, Notion workspaces, Treasury management apps, and DAO tools ii. Those above takes time. Structuring a role-gating process in work management tooling wins efficiency
Role-gating
a. Work is broken down into projects and tasks. The tool defines which role grants you certain work access
b. DAO operators can control who should get access to what work by the roles
A key to using Roles is to make them 'granular' and 'ranked'
a. Granular - a clear and precise Job Description (e.g. design, frontend development)
b. Ranked - You put "levels" in the game. Using gradual reputation-building helps you determine trust levels. (e.g. Smart contracts)
How to set up the role-based workflow?
a. Create tasks, bounties, and projects
b. Gate them to the appropriate level
c. Allow contributors with those levels to claim those workflows and start the work
How can contributors step up ranks?
a. Set the tasks for different levels to understand which roles make the most contribution
b. DAO operators know who to go to for specific tasks via the role center
Further development for roles in DAOs
a. Globally recognizable roles – contributors’ vetting process can be standardized
b. Vision alignment will be represented through roles. High involvement, high efficiency
c. Combining multiple roles (i.e., proficiency role from guild X + vision alignment role from DAO Y = role Z)