The roller coaster ride continues over at CommDAO! Besides hatching an entire lexicon of new Comm-words or “Commspeak,” Week 2/14-2/20 saw continued rise in membership in the Discord server, increasing numbers of followers on Twitter, anticipation of new directions, lineup of angel investors, and more formal development in several areas.
First, we can note that Project Lead Devin Outfleet has brought much more focus on CommDAO’s 1st primary protocol, the tokenization of AirBNB vacation rental real estate through a corporate arm known as Community CRE (Commercial Real Estate). Understanding and navigating how this body will function exclusively from the DAO will continue to be a top priority. Will US citizens be able to fractionally invest on the CRE platform or do we face obstacles with accredited investor requirements? Where does cryptocurrency enter this picture? These are some of the questions that have been voiced. Devin has begun to create a pipeline for how he foresees this process unfolding, at our website: https://thecommunity.wtf/how-it-works/ Members who want to engage on this front should step forward and offer expertise and specific strategic angles for how we can innovate in this new area of immense potential. If you see a way we can do something better, let us know! This is an open-source effort. Now is the time for all hands to be on deck as the brainstorm surges. We have plenty of space for self-motivated creators to join our efforts.
Second, we have created a form whereby members can register within our website database here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/945672482621366332/946162957543436368/unknown.png This is important as Discord is confusing to many and may eventually falter as an effective forum for The Community DAO. Decentralization means there is no single-point-of-failure in the organization. We want CommDAO to operate in multiple arenas. Ultimately, it is an idea that lives on in the minds of all of its members but preserving real ways to connect outside of Discord is of vital importance. Also, this gives us a way to do email blasts of the Commlink here, each week, and also for sending out tips in regards to property launches etc. If you want to be an active part of CommDAO and have not done this yet, please fill out the form now.
Third, the demand for a baseline, first-tier Commtoken continues to be heard. This is a beautiful, organic development of a tokenization scheme for us. We have a very simple utility for this coin: the allocation of a digital marker or counter for services rendered in lieu of fiat pay. Commtokens will not initially be backed by hard money. They will start as more or less like seashells or glass beads. Ambassadors will receive them. Writers will receive them. And so forth. In time, these baseline tokens may be spent on things such as a stay at the Commhouse or for refreshments at the Commteen, for example, or they may be held. As the fortunes of CommDAO rise, Commtokens would be likely to develop as an actual store of value, possibly surfacing on crypto-exchanges etc, with a degree of liquidity.
In addressing this demand, we have initiated the first open call for submissions for a token design in the history of DAOs! See guidelines below, and send us up to 3 of your best original designs for a future Commtoken: https://thecommunity.wtf/commtoken-artwork-submission/
If you ever wanted to get in early on “making money” literally, ha ha, why not have your design be on the face of the coin that we choose to use?
CommToken Artwork Submission
Submit your CommToken Logo Design to win 10,000 CommTokens!
Deadline is Sunday, March 6, 2022
Rules:
Create a logo for the new CommToken.
700 x 700 pixels minimum; 72 dpi
Each entry should also include a 250-500 word explanation of concept
Submissions are limited to 3 per person
Examples:
Stats
Twitter Followers: 801
Total Members: 357
Twitter Spaces: Tokenizing Real Estate 101
February 14, 2022
Future calls cadence
Monday mornings - Twitter Spaces
Fridays - Discord
Operational goals
Turn a profit while building an international web3 community of 1,500 members
Getting ready to launch the Community DAO
Have been building the DAO for two months
In order for us to release tokens/NFTs and buy a house, we need:
A house under contract
Talk to a realtor and homeowner selling a home, tell them that we have a liquidity pool of 300+ investors, and we want to put the house on hold for 30-60 days to give us time to aggregate funds.
Once we collect funds from our investors in ETH or another crypto, we would convert crypto to USD and use that money to buy the property.
If we don’t raise enough money, we will return all of the funds back to the investors.
Today, we are not in the position to issue tokens or ownership shares of the property. We would have to rely on an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of how many tokens each investor put in, their ownership shares, and their dividends.
Other considerations
The Community DAO needs to have a wallet to which investors can send ETH.
We will use Aragon to set up a DAO.
We need to have separate governance over treasury from individual property tokens.
DigiShares
DigiShares - a white-label tokenization solution
Red Swan uses DigiShares to tokenize skyscrapers.
Red Swan has 30,000 U.S. and international investors.
With DigiShares, our investors would be able to log into our private platform to see the properties we have available and buy into these properties with as little as $50.
Once investors buy into a property, they will have their own investor dashboard where they can:
view the performance on their property
view offers on their share of the property
sell their share of the property on our internal private secondary market
property tokens cannot be sold on external secondary markets, such as OpenSea
Onboarding fee: $10,000-$20,000
Property tokens will be regulated security tokens providing protection to the investors.
In the U.S., only accredited investors will be able to purchase properties.
For non-accredited investors, we have a grant program and a scholarship program for people who want to get involved but don’t have the required capital.
For non-U.S. investors, there are no restrictions.
Investors have to submit a driver’s license and go through a background check in order to purchase a property on our platform.
No requirements to be a member of the Community DAO. The above requirements are applicable only when purchasing a property.
Properties on the DigiShares platform can be purchased with USD in addition to crypto.
Our minimum to register on the platform will be $50.
Currently, the platform supports only U.S.-based properties.
Marketing
We should put money into marketing and pay someone who has brought in results before for other projects and can bring us results.
We need to look into a couple of proposals we have received.
Operations
We will have a hybrid of centralized and decentralized operations.
The centralized side of the organization will be responsible for:
Keeping the website up
Attracting investors
Marketing the project
Working with sponsors
Working with deal finders to get the best properties on the platform
The centralized side of the organization will take on the role of asset managers and fund managers.
The centralized operations will be funded by collecting a 2% - 10% fee from each deal. The money will cover:
Legal costs that go into each deal
Overhead expenses
Centralized team
10%-20% of profits from each deal will go into the DAO treasury
All DAO members will vote on how we can better our investment platform or another DAO-related spending.
Protocols are a hybrid of smart contracts and regular off-chain software.
Legal
We will be registering as a legal entity in Wyoming this week.
This will allow us to start collecting funds and purchasing a property.
We don’t need to register with the SEC. We just need to comply with the SEC rules.
Startup costs
DigiShares licensing software costs: $18,000 plus a monthly fee (the first 6 months will be free)
Legal representation: $10,000
Will cover organizing documents for a security private placement memorandum
Total: $28,000
Onboarding timeframe: 8-12 weeks (legal preparation)
Reflections on the history of the Community DAO
In the beginning, it was just a web3 community.
Later, we started to look for an “impossible goal”:
A goal that cannot be achieved on your own, you need a team behind you.
A goal with legal hurdles to make other people scared to pursue it
A goal with some financial hurdles
Tokenized real estate was the outcome of the “impossible goal” thesis.
Competitors
Our competitive advantage
We are structured as a DAO. We will have a decentralized aspect to our organization.
We will be moving a portion of our funds into a decentralized treasury where anyone who actively holds tokens on our platform can vote.
We are focused on extremely high-quality properties throughout the U.S. and around the world.
We want turn-key properties in prime locations that go for $600,000+.
We will also be doing smaller, less expensive single homes, but that’s not going to be our primary focus.
We will be the first ones to list our properties on Airbnb. However, we will likely do long-term rentals as well.
We will start with mastering the Airbnb property management game before moving into long-term rentals.
We will hire third-party property management organizations to oversee the properties.
The Community DAO will focus on building and educating our community on web3 and tokenized real estate.
The Community DAO will also focus on working with sponsors and deal finders who can bring us the absolute best property deals around the world to put on our platform so that we can introduce these deals to our investors.
Tokenization of real estate
Fractional ownership of a real estate property
Investors send ETH to a shared bank account that we can all use to purchase a property.
For a house that costs $50,000, we will mint 50,000 tokens specifically for that property.
Each investor will receive a proportionate number of tokens to the amount of money they put in.
For example, if an investor puts in $5,000, they receive 5,000 tokens.
Later, if investors want to sell 10% of their share of the property, they can sell their tokens to another investor on our internal exchange platform.
Blockchain allows us to collect funds from a large pool of people in an autonomous and automated way.
Sending money using crypto is:
significantly less expensive than sending USD, especially when wiring money internationally due to the high banking fees.
much faster. Crypto gets delivered within minutes vs. days when sending USD.
Tokenized real estate sector is an $80 trillion market.
Tokenization is still very new. It is not clear how regulations apply to this space. Everyone is still figuring it out.
As of right now, not all countries are open to tokenization.
Potential future ideas: place QR codes in various places throughout the property. When someone finds them and scans the code, they receive an NFT.
We will be using ETH because every protocol in the DeFi world is built on Ethereum.
We don’t have the resources to build out real estate tokenization on other protocols.
More people around the world own ETH than any other crypto, next to Bitcoin.
Gas fees are extremely high, which is why we are looking to potentially pay dividends in xDai.
Next steps
Register our legal entity
Set up the DigiShares software
Have our first property by June 1st
Twitter Spaces: DAOs, governance & decentral-everything
February 16, 2022
Participants
Justine Jade
Liza Boston
Olumide Gbenro
Founder of Alphas DAO
12 people in the DAO
Super exclusive access, have to own an NFT metacard to participate and have governance in the DAO
1 NFT metacard = 1 ETH
The mission of the DAO is to get fractional ownership of blue chip NFTs
20% of the money raised through the sale of NFTs goes into treasury to buy blue chip NFTs and upcoming NFTs that the members think will become blue chip. The goal is to hold them long-term.
The DAO voting will be done through Snapshot.
Devin
Founder of Community DAO
Hybrid of decedentralized and centralized operations
The goal is to build a community of 10,000s of investors and allow them to invest in real estate for as little as $50
Tokenize fractional shares of real estate
Bring the community the absolute best deals on the market
Issue dividends from the ownership of the properties
The DAO will have a security token offering.
The centralized team will make 2%-10% on any property that successfully gets purchased
Token holders will only be able to vote on the properties in which they own tokens, not all Community DAO properties
All token holders will be able to vote on how the DAO treasury funds are spent to better our investment vehicle
Centralized leadership of the operations leads to strong profit mechanism (key takeaway: the importance of centralized team when running a decenralized organization)
Legal structure
Centralized team will be a Delaware corporation (Master LLC) which will include Delaware Series LLC
Each subsequent LLC will represent one property
1 token will represent one share in the property
By purchasing a token, the buyer becomes a member of the LLC
Voting
One token = one vote
The governance and voting will take place within DigiShares
Example, Red Swan is the white-label platform of DigiShares
The DigiShares team will develop all of Community DAO’s smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain
Because CommunityDAO will be operating as a regulated security, not all decisions will have to be made on-chain.
The tokenization of shares will be done on-chain.
Raamayan Ananda
Founder of Veme
An NFT/DAO launchpad, shifting focus from social to communal
Working on the user interface design to make funding and launching a DAO simple and easy
allow communities to participate on different levels, educate themselves and learn throughout the process of onboarding
have built a lot of different protocols
Remixing content
unlocking the Web 3.0 creative commons by turning all content into licensable NFTs
We are creating an entirely new diverse economy where people with different skillsets all around the world can engage and participate.
To build something purposeful and meaningful, teams need to trust and know each other.
Not everything has to be autonomous and automated. Otherwise, we lose the human factor (connection)
We’ll see a lot of hybrid models of centralization and decentralization.
Protocols and investments that do not require people to know each other and are hands off can operate in the autonomous trustless ecosystem
Things that require human trust and engagement will require community networks
Veme is in beta phase
Working with artists and artist communities to set up launchpads for them
NFT smart contracts (pre-raise a DAO by selling NFTs)
Handling the decentralized/technical side of setting up a DAO for the artists
Prefers to use the term “smart contract-enabled organizations” rather than DAO to help people understand what is happening
The overuse of the word DAO can become problematic, a buzzword
There needs to be a spectrum of understanding
Closing remarks
How does the group stay in touch and support each other’s projects?
How do we share best practices among ourselves?
The space is ripe for learning and aggregation.
Community, Anarchy, And Disruption
by HouseDOC MikeG
Out of This World 2.20.22
I have always been a bit of an anarchist at heart and enjoy disruption … someone who enjoys pushing back on the dictates of those high above us and in control. It’s natural to me. Experiences in the business world only reinforce my belief that desired Results are often a product of Disrupting the status quo. And disruption is inherently uncomfortable to current power structures as it threatens their control.
In last week’s Out of This World column, I offered glimpses of how I view the Metaverse. This week, I reflected on the nature of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO’s). Particularly, DAO’s model of building community through anarchy.
Community. Anarchy. These words are oxymorons to me on first glance. Won’t the chaos inherent to anarchy disrupt a community’s work efficiency and ability to generate profit? Or, conversely, might an anarchy-based system bypass antiquated traditional corporate power structures and strengthen a community’s ability to achieve its goals?`
Community can be defined as ‘a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common interests, goals, and values’. We all can think of multiple examples of communities in our local, national, and international regions (e.g. school boards, local governments, religious groups). Typically, a community has some form of organizational structure allowing it to promptly respond to needs of its members, as well as react to external events. Often these are top-down structures.
So, how do community and anarchy fit together? Anarchy can be defined as ‘a state of disorder due to the absence or non-recognition of authority’. States of anarchy will disrupt traditional systems under which we all live.
Won’t anarchy, then, ruin groups? Won’t greedy individualists overrun the group’s common good for their own benefit?
Well … potentially. But the same bad behavior can occur in current business systems that I deem non-anarchy based. So I argue that anarchy and community are in no way mutually exclusive. As we all know, bits of anarchy exist even within the most well-defined power structure. Our job, as members of the Community DAO, is to harness these bits and ride them to achieve our goals!
Community and anarchy can be SYNGERGISTIC. What benefits might anarchy provide to a community? Looking at a non-anarchic system, large decisions are often private and made by a small group. Think of business or educational administration. These top-down management styles often lead to employee disenchantment, less productivity, and ultimately less profit and leisure for the group.
As we are witnessing in the Community DAO, community and anarchy might take on entirely different meanings. Anarchy will provide an organic framework through which the most motivated, dedicated, and effective workers rise to the top of the decision-making tree.
In my view, a DAO should be a place based on members’ shared intentions and fruit from there. For a group, shared intentions are necessary to positively harness chaos in anarchy. While traditional business models may reward negative back-stabbing behavior as a means to profit, DAO’s depend on maintaining trust with the network (see Dow Dao’s business model demonstrating how networking leads to profit in DAO’s; networking is secondary to profits in traditional models). Kindness within our group is key to our success. Kindness can be extended in many ways; through thoughtful digital communication, by joining work on a project, or even meeting in real life at a Community DAO held property!
So, with proper intentions, I believe embracing anarchy will provide that magic spark that will make our organization and each individual member achieve unimaginable goals.
Here’s wishing we all have an inspired, productive, and disruption-filled week
Jkey’s Top Thread for the week…
On Decentralized Science
1) What will be larger than web3 gaming?
Decentralized Science
Science touches every industry
Funding models are from the 60s
Scientists are historically disempowered
2) Decentralized Science (DeSci) is at the intersection of 2 trends:
Scientific community efforts to change how research is funded and knowledge is shared.
Crypto-focused community movement to shift ownership & value from industry intermediaries.
3) Modern scientist pain points:
Funding: Scientists spend half their time writing grant proposals.
Funding is tied to the h-index, measuring published impact via headlines over critical research.
Access: Knowledge is trapped behind paywalls & inside private databases.
4) Decentralized Science (DeSci) aims to:
Enhance scientific funding
Unleash knowledge from silos
Eliminate reliance on profit-hungry intermediaries like publisher conglomerates
Increase collaboration across the field
5) The DeSci landscape is a mix of loosely connected #DAOs.
Some target specific aspects of scientific research e.g.
Funding: @sciencefund_io
Access: @OpenAccessDAO
Incentives:@atoms_org
Pace: @ResearchHub
Others focus on specific fields.
6) BioTech is the largest field in DeSci with DAOs including:
Decentralized Biotech protocol: @Molecule_dao
Longevity research funding: @vita_dao
Phage research: @phagedirectory
Psychedelics x mental health: @PsyDAO_
Community-run lab services: @lab_dao
7) DeSci leverages web3 via:
Smart contracts: Scientists do peer reviews for free, yet academic publishers profit as intermediaries. Smart contracts can mediate directly between authors & reviewers, rewarded with Tokens.
Combat Censorship: store & access data forever
Incentives: Tokens / NFTs can be used to incentivize scientific communities to share, review, & curate resources; enabling new models of knowledge-sharing.
New funding models: DAOs & scientists are experimenting with token / NFT launches to fund research.
Verifiable reputation: Scientists' reputation (& ability to get funded) is tied to publishing metrics. Web3 incentivizes scientists to act for community e.g. peer review, mentor, & share data.
Ownership: DeSci systems each governed by specialized communities.
8) DeSci's open questions:
What's the movement united around? DeSci lacks a shared set of values.
Whose interests does DeSci solve? Modern science serves a mix of industries including academic publishing, higher ed, & biopharma.
9) DeSci challenges:
Scientific quality: Reputation, gov systems, & bridges between DeSci & traditional will be vital.
Diverse participation: Build with women & underrepresented groups.
Prioritize end goals: Web3 tools must integrate into daily work of scientists.
10) Get up to speed on DeSci! Follow:
11) Decentralized Science (DeSci) is disrupting industries profiting from peer-to-peer efforts of the scientific community.
#Tokens & #NFTS incentivize scientific communities to share, review & curate Resources.
On-Chain efforts reduce censorship & promote ownership.
From “Summarizing A Guide to DeSci: The Latest Web3 Movement” by @Shamburgularara for @ScribeDAO
For other top threads of the week, catch up with @jkey_eth here on Crypto VCs:
And here for general info on DAOs:
3 ways to Make $$$ with DAOs
DAOs are Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, already that's a mouth full but give me a minute, DAOs happen when a group of people with a common goal, Mission and Vision come together to achieve it in a decentralized way. We removed as many buzzwords as possible. A common meme definition is a group chat with a shared Crypto wallet.
Here are 3 ways to make $$$ from DAOs.
Governance token investing (High risk, Low Work input, Potentially high reward)
DAO Bounties (Low Risk, Medium to High work input, Potentially High reward)
DAO Contributing(Low Risk, Medium to High work input, Medium to high reward)
The question now is which is better? well it totally depends on you. We break each down below:
Governance token investing
What is governance token investing?
This is basically buying the governance tokens of DAOs you believe in and hoping they deliver on their promises so the token price goes up and you sell at a profit.
Photo by Precondo CA on Unsplash
Advantage
The biggest advantage of this is obviously the low effort you need to put and the immense upside if things go your way.
Another advantage is that if you buy at the right time, you could make quick profits when there’s a Community bull run.
Disadvantages
The obvious disadvantage here is that it could all go to ZERO. DAOs are not all about token price like most Web3 projects (at least most DAOs) and say no one should take the governance token as an investment.
Hence you can’t really hold the DAO accountable for a price tank if the community goal is being achieved.
SAFEST WAY TO INVEST IN DAOS (NFA (typical lol)
In our opinion the safest way to invest in DAOs is to buy tokens of Investment DAOs and HODL.
Why?
Investment DAOs pay “dividends” to their holders after a successful investment
Find investment DAOs here:
https://voice.softr.app/#all-daos
DAO Bounties
DAO Bounties are one of the more common ways for People to make money off DAOs as they are less risky since you don’t need capital or to be physically present, all you need are your abilities.
Photo by Crawford Jolly on Unsplash
What are DAO Bounties?
DAOs are creating their own micro-economies, issuing bounties to members to complete tasks to achieve their mission. Basically a DAO needs to perform a Task, they post it as a bounty, you do it, you get paid.
Advantages
The advantages of this is that you are not putting in any capital at risk or don’t have any commitment. You could do bounties as a side project or full time depending on the number of hours you’re looking to put in.
Also its all about your skill and if you’re good enough you’ll make a lot. And with the new DAO Bounty economy on the rise there’s more than enough to go round.
Disadvantages
Wasted work is by a mile the biggest delima of bounty hunters, imagine after performing a Bounty you don’t get paid cause of someone else did it better. Don’t get me wrong, its fantastic that the better person won, as it should be, but also can be quite disheartening if you’re on the “losing” side. Fortunately some bounties do offer consolation prizes and we feel it will only get more popular as DAOs grow.
To get your feet wet in the DAO Bounties world and start making some money, check here for some bounties: https://voice.softr.app/earn
DAO Contributing
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
This is by a mile the safest option but also not the option for someone looking to make a quick buck but instead for someone on a mission to have an impact, do what he or she loves and is playing the long game.
Advantages
The advantages of being a DAO Contributor is the shear joy, networking and learning that takes place in DAO Discords and the potential of building and having ownership in a potentially life changing project.
To be a DAO contributor you just need to be active in the DAOs Discord and help get shit done.
The upside to this is that as a DAO contributor you get issued Ownership tokens(AKA Governance token) on a frequent basis for your work, depending on the DAO and agreement between you and the DAO. As a contributor you get to shape the product and the community, this way you have control of how the DAO Turns out, there by increasing your potential upside.
Disadvantages
Its a long process to get to DAO Contributor Nevada. Depending on the size f the DAO, Sometimes you might need to be active for a while before you’re 100% recognized and acknowledged by the DAO.
Also it can be a Bumpy ride, there’ll be times when your stake in the DAO hits All time Lows and you still have to build, which can be extremely though as motivation will be low, But come out of this phase successfully and the grass i greener on the other side.
If you want to start contributing to DAOs check out Voice:
https://voice.softr.app/
There’s one other way to make $$$ from DAOs which is applying for Full time roles in DAOs: https://voice.softr.app/jobs
If you don’t want to feel lonely on your long journey to DAO Nevada, join our Discord its filled with other people who are working on their own DAOs, Noobs in the space and people who are in the process of achieving DAO Nevada: https://discord.gg/P24Drm3EXa
Happy new week to you.
In every successful project, there exist a group(s) of persons working tirelessly for it to continually see the light of the days and as well, stand the test of time.
We have got ambassadors that have seriously contributed to the growth and development of The Community DAO.
To honor their efforts which include, promotion of The Community DAO on different social media platforms, we wish to feature them in our weekly article, telling a bit of who they are and where they come from.
The arrangement/ranking of names in the table below is according to the weight of their contributions and the quality of posts made by them during the first stage of the ambassador’s program.
But before that, permit me to mention the ambassador program strategy members whose efforts in organizing and establishing a benchmark for the ambassadors.
We have the likes of Danoskie, Icon and Ebedossantos. More grease to your elbows.
DigiShares and Real Estate Tokenization
What Banks Charge for Wire Transfers
‘Cattle, Cowboys and Crypto’: Wyoming Real Estate Opens to Crypto Investors