News from Optimism is inspiring. You probably already heard about the airdrop and the launch of Optimism Collective — if you haven’t, here’s a link to the announcement.

Optimism is known for building a layer 2 technology that brings scalability and low-cost transactions to Ethereum. But their vision goes far beyond the technical substance of the project. Optimism Collective’s explicit goal is to “reward public goods & build a sustainable future for Ethereum”.

Optimism's mission is building permissionless and neutral technology – not necessarily tied to the purpose Optimism Collective now puts at the very heart of the DAO. Why such a gap between what the project does – its substance – and what it aims for – its purpose?

DAOs do not have to commit to altruistic and world-changing ambitions, but they frequently do. What could be the reason? Would they need missionaries more than mercenaries? If economic incentives are the linchpin of crypto projects, why do they so often set high standard values and missions?

These questions led me to consider the motivations for starting or joining a project. Are they different between DAOs and other organizations?

Let’s consider four main types of motivations:

• external rewards - monetary compensation like salary, equity, bounties, but also symbolic rewards like badges & honors
• fulfillment - intrinsic rewards that directly come from performing an activity
• sense of belonging - the relationship with the work collective we’re part of
• purpose - being connected to the mission, contributing to something greater than ourselves

Traditional firms have perfected external rewards.

DAOs augment them with tokenized rewards, which combine immediate compensation (like cash) with the ability to profit from the future value (like stock options). Being paid with the liquid token of a project also gives optionality: one can partially cash out to cover daily expenses while hodling some in the expectation of its future appreciation.

NFTs are the new badges & honors. Not only can they be used to acknowledge contributions, but they also serve as a signal for public recognition leading to new benefits such as airdrops.

Intrinsic rewards are often associated with work that leverages human intellectual, aesthetic, and manual skills: craftsmanship, art, scientific research, writing, coding…

DAOs invite everyone to pick or suggest what they want to work on. There is no manager assigning others to activities they don’t want to do. The ability to choose what one wants to learn and practice is more likely to lead to individual fulfillment.

A sense of belonging exists to a certain degree in every organization, and cooperativism might offer its ideal vehicle.

With DAOs, a whole new level of cooperation is unlocked, with deliberative spaces and collective agency over every aspect of the organization, including governance.

At the dawn of the age of DAOs, there was this delusion that organizations could be automated thanks to mechanism design, and that people would then mostly rely on economic incentives to engage with each other.

In true DAOs, culture, narratives, and personal bonds are combined with organizational design and augmented through automation. DAOs are not machines in which humans would be cogs. Quite the opposite: they are supersocial institutions.

Finally, let’s get to the matter of mission and values.

Many traditional firms pretend to have broader goals than just creating economic value. Coca-Cola wants to “refresh the world and make a difference.” Of course, in a sustainable way for the people and the planet. BP’s purpose is “to ensure that people from all over the world are leading decent and improved lifestyles.” Meta’s mission is “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” There’s no shortage of philanthropy at Fortune 2000 companies.

On the surface, DAOs appear to show a similar trend. Optimism is the latest case in point. They could be happy bringing scalability and low-cost transactions to Ethereum, and be fairly paid for that. But they want more! Reward public goods! Build a sustainable future!

The same zeitgeist rules on DAOs and corporations. As soon as basic needs are satisfied, the quest for meaningful lives and purposeful activities haunts every individual. Offering the opportunity to contribute to a generous purpose, a contribution to something admirable, to make “a dent in the universe” is also a way to attract talents.

Switching barriers for changing jobs have never been so low as with DAOs. Talented contributors are handsomely paid, their achievements are visible and celebrated, they can work from anywhere, and they don’t have to abide by exclusivity clauses or notice period. It’s not enough today to offer a good pay, an interesting job, a fantastic team. Purpose is needed, and purpose is served, in Corporate America as in DAOLand.

The true difference between traditional businesses and DAOs doesn’t lie in the discourse around values, missions, and purpose, nor in their motivations, but in their respective ability to make them real. Social washing and greenwashing are common at corporations because almost nothing truly holds them accountable for their commitments.

Statements about mission and values are mere signals. DAOs make them actionable, by transcribing them into their technical and social stacks. What sets DAOs apart is the way their high standards are enforced:  through open governance, transparent use of funds, mechanism design, and the social fabric of their communities.

This alone is a reason to see the future of work with Optimism.

Thanks to @akrtws @orishim @thegrifft @liviade for their insights and comments. Cover photo by Ralph Repo, licensed under CC-BY-2.0.