When asked which animal is the strongest, the typical response highlights a creature at the top of the food chain, such as the lion or other large predators. Our societal vision of success, deeply linked to physical and individual dominance, shapes our perception of strength around traits like being carnivorous, speed, and a terrifying roar—symbols of a predator’s ability to hunt, feed on others, and protect its kin.
Yet, despite this fierce reputation, lions often find themselves behind bars. Threatened and confined in reserves, they are decimated by human expansion and suffer from the loss of their natural habitats, rendered powerless and dependent in the face of human dominance. Such a powerful symbol of strength that it attracts envy through its power and draws death by the potential threat it represents.
This raises the question: what really measures the strength of a species? Is it the power of its roar, the speed of its pursuit, or the length of its canines? Or perhaps, the real test of strength lies in a species’ adaptability to various geographical environments and cohabitation contexts. In the ability to overcome the terrible selective pressure that, like a universal law, selects the individual and often the group, the collective, the most suited. Why then do we continue to glorify species that rise as masters of individual domination? and forget those who are truly admirable for survival?
Even though we are affected by microorganisms on a daily basis, and pests are a host of animals that are generally hated, even sometimes the subjects of local eradication attempts, they are the most resilient. Indeed, our world is primarily parasitic, with bacteria and viruses—the true pariahs and hybrids of nature—continuing the unconscious conquest of their survival, the weakest condemned to not continue their lineage. These microorganisms, in perpetual adaptation and evolution, represent the ultimate form of biological resilience, posing one of the most significant challenges to human survival. Not to mention the spores and fungi that also show fascinating properties and have inspired beautiful writings on Bitcoin.
Let us now consider the species that have proven most fit to survive the ultra-domination of man over his environment and his intended or sudden geo-engineering. Among them, which are the most effective, adaptive, and prolific? Rats, often considered mere pests, have shown remarkable resilience; a fine balance of an organized society, a developed intellect, and a resistant organism. Their often underestimated flying equivalent, yet faithful allies of man during the last century's wars: pigeons. The very ones that ironically inspired Darwin for his theory of evolution.
Considering this perspective invites us to rethink our criteria for strength and success, challenging the traditional admiration for the individual and authoritarian power of the lion to recognize instead the silent and enduring power of the most adaptive and, de facto, more resistant organisms.
Twilight of the Idols, let’s embrace raccoons
As we embark on creating new organizations and systems intended to serve the global human community, we must carefully consider the criteria that define them. The feudal systems of the past—as well as those potentially looming before us, akin to the families in Dune—that dehumanize individuals and reduce them to servitude, are by nature misaligned and therefore potentially more unstable. Authoritarian and imperialist regimes have always ended up being overthrown by the power of competing authoritarian forces, wars, and, on rare occasions, by the emancipation efforts of small groups of more agile and resilient individuals advocating for universal or collective political projects. Unity is strength, and our survival is for now doomed to be in society and by definition demands a certain “organization”.
Similarly, social animals are societies and organizations. In the context of creating a new organization to be resilient in the face of multiple frames of adversity, it seems good to turn to these "pest mammals." They are an excellent example of resilient structures and should be good models and inspirations for creating robust organizations.
Thus among these so-called pests, a supreme “rat” stands out, the raccoon. Known for its autonomy and adaptability, this species has thrived for over 25 million years. Often called the "washing rat" due to its meticulous food cleaning habits, this omnivore with sharp claws embodies opportunistic survival, effortlessly adapting to diverse environments—a trait that some scientists believe makes it even more ingenious than the fox.
As early as 2015, Antonopoulos compared Bitcoin to a sewer rat, highlighting its antifragile and dynamic nature. Despite countless obstacles, regulatory challenges, and disparaging criticisms, variously qualifying it as blockchain technology or a speculative bubble, Bitcoin has continued to reappear. For over 15 years, it has withstood numerous economic, technical, and moral challenges, demonstrating resilience comparable to that of the raccoon in the natural world.
Thus in a world where fierce lions such as GAFAM attempt total and hierarchical domination, pointing towards the re-establishment of a certain feudalism, Bitcoin has managed to impose itself using the same robust architecture of the internet, that is to say, a distributed, peer-to-peer architecture, making each computer a monad of its network hosting its entire history and the crystallization of its decentralized consensus. This famous Nakamoto consensus is the cornerstone of the organization of the Bitcoin institution, and gives it technological and social robustness on a regalian and vertical monopoly to which no one had ever been able to provide a global, dematerialized, and common alternative.
It thus creates one of the first decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) governed by immutable rules depending on its consensus unlike other open-source organizations like Stallman's free software world or the Open Source or Linux community. Let's forget for a moment the image of a private company or a public administration that the term “organization” usually evokes. Like all organizations, DAOs are tools designed to coordinate human activity. Beyond their great diversity, they present a similar key characteristic: the ability to facilitate the collective management of common goods, including cultural and immaterial works, natural resources, economic and industrial production, and social systems.
In the field of organization theory—a field that examines how organizations structure themselves, make decisions, and adapt to changes to achieve their goals—the pursuit of innovation, particularly in sectors like industry, new technologies, and computing, relies largely on empirical and statistical analysis. Thanks to this rigorous approach, we have identified flexibility, transparency, and the decentralization of power not only as beneficial traits but as essential preconditions for achieving short-, medium-, and long-term success.
Exploring organizational effectiveness uncovers that the most durable and adaptable systems often adopt characteristics radically different from those traditionally valued. History since agriculture and sedentarization has often favored rigid hierarchies and centralized control, equating them with stability and strength, just as the symbolic representation of the lion in authoritarian regimes. However, empirical evidence now shows us that these systems may not be as resilient or effective as previously thought.
Instead, models that more equitably distribute power, maintain the transparency of operations, and flexibly adapt to new challenges not only survive but thrive. These principles make these living digital protocols, these decentralized institutions, true autonomous and resilient forces that remind us of our friends, the raccoons, cunning masked rodents, who organize themselves to survive regardless of constraints.
Thus, the quest for the perfect organization—a perpetually adaptable and improvable entity—shows that principles contrary to those historically imposed are not only viable but superior. This marks a profound transformation in our understanding and implementation of organizational dynamics, pointing towards a future where strength is derived not from the power of a centralized authority but from resilient and distributed networks that reflect the most successful aspects of the world around us.
This practical evolution of engineers has been parallel to academic research conducted at institutions like Harvard, where studies over the past decades have criticized traditional hierarchical and authoritarian organizational structures. Theories such as lean management, agile management, and trust management have emerged from these critiques, advocating for more adaptive, dynamic, and responsive organizational models. Companies like Gore-tex or Harley Davidson have either thrived or been reborn thanks to the innovation of their very organization.
Research underscores the effectiveness of organizations that foster trust not through hierarchical control but through the autonomy of decentralized profit centers. In these models, efficiency is achieved by ensuring the transparency of information flow—creating a system of 'trustless control', where decisions are made based on accessible and shared data rather than through opaque command chains. Crypto protocols are the very illustration of these concepts and add a common, dematerialized logic to the organizational structure, placing the alignment of interests at the heart of its systems.
Design-driven organizations are now at full capacity
The advent of Bitcoin, followed by Ethereum, catalyzed significant advancements that led to the emergence of DAOs. These entities embody principles of resilience and adaptability, aiming to minimize dependence on trusted third parties and allow for total liberalization of intermediaries. Thanks to the deliberate architecture of distributing power, enhancing transparency, and proposing a dematerialized permanence, decentralized protocols have established a new standard in organizational design. This change was not just technical but profoundly philosophical, reflecting a broader reassessment of how organizations should operate and opening up a vast lot of challenges.
DAOs embody these principles by integrating new features or eliminating obsolete ones based on rational decision-making processes that align with the collective interests of all stakeholders. Such a model not only enhances organizational agility but also ensures that adaptations continuously align with the evolving needs and values of the community.
Anchored in the principles of decentralization that have marked successes such as Linux, Wikipedia, Bitcoin, and Ethereum, DAOs offer a compelling alternative to the traditional centralized models that still dominate our economic and political landscapes. These decentralized systems not only challenge the concentration of power held by technological giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon but also propose a more equitable distribution of power and resources, potentially mitigating risks related to sovereignty, externalities, and inequalities.
However, while DAOs encapsulate the ideal of a shared and open ecosystem where each participant has a stake both in the economic profits and in sovereignty over common resources, their operational effectiveness remains under examination. Therefore, for DAOs to transcend their current limitations and truly excel as future governance models, they must demonstrate robust performance under various conditions in addition to the ability to adapt and tackle new challenges: scalability, diversity, and strong competition.
This pursuit is not just a technical challenge but a profound cultural shift that requires redefining our values in terms of leadership and governance. As we continue to refine DAO governance models, we must embrace the continuum of centralization and decentralization, recognizing that the path to the optimal organizational structure is iterative and adaptive. We may never be able to horizontalize charisma, but we can horizontalize power. And the power we hold in our hands today is the ability to organize rules and enforce them without resorting to violence. As a result, cooperation becomes king, and marks the end of a zero-sum game, until now perfectly illustrated by a duel between two lions.
DAOs present a promising framework for democratically and effectively managing global common resources, and their success will depend on our collective ability to address their current performance and equity shortcomings. In doing so, we can fully leverage the potential of DAOs to foster a more resilient, transparent, and equitable global community. The collective is our only defense against authority, and the internet and decentralized protocols have provided the foundations for global and autonomous organizations.
Don’t Be a Lion, Be a Raccoon. 🔮🦝
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