Core contributor to web3 policy and DAOs

This is an experiment to educate the public about DAOs.

I've been providing legal and tax advice about blockchain and digital assets (web3) predominantly via law firms and recently via my own company (also a legal practice). This has been a niche area of speciality with a lot of risk and uncertainty so contributing to global policy development over the last 5 years has been just as critical as doing the work. All the confusion and legal uncertainty that does surround DAOs, notwithstanding how important the innovation and the movement is, has endeared the "DAO-first" model to me and as a result I take a "DAO-first" approach to a lot of my thinking and the way I'd like to contribute in the world.

One of the reasons I started my own law firm was to enable the freedom of a distributed law firm model where I was able to consult and educate various law firms about blockchain and digital assets. The demand is already too overwhelming to keep up with and I'm not sure innovative start-ups should have to repetitively bear the cost of expensive and still somewhat uncertain legal advice.

So I'd like to recognise or launch a DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) and release a token. Many people also want to do this and don't know where to start. The DAO would initially focus on areas of effort that I already have underway: web3 policy advocacy based on deep legal and tax experience in blockchain and digital assets.

I'd like the token to represent a person's alignment with the DAO's values for as long as they hold the token - whether they intend to actively participate in the DAO or not. The token should also represent an entitlement to cast votes on proposals or sign support for policy documents as well as an obligation to collect sentiment and feedback from the members before submitting a proposal for voting on or a policy document for signing support. These are common features of "governance tokens".

Being a values-based token to coordinate policy development, I lean towards it being distributed for free (i.e. someone should not have to pay to have access) which is often referred to as an airdrop or a type of fair launch. This would mean the need to self fund but if someone cannot self fund then a commercial case must be made for up front contributions or donations to financially support a person allocating time to the cause, and remunerating core contributors, for a period of time until the funds run out. A free distribution model means a lost opportunity to raise capital but not necessarily a lost opportunity to define an economic proposition from which a commercial return can be earned from network efforts.

There are economics, legal, tax, hr and operational questions involved in launching and operating a DAO. Instead of solving it in private, I'd like to do as much as possible in the open.

The trouble is, I already try to conduct myself as transparently as possible, contribute open-source submissions to policy consultations around the world and have a global network of people I trust and consult with before making recommendations to clients, government and policymakers. In some ways, I've already created the beginnings of a DAO but is this something separate or part of my existing business (a pty ltd company)? Why don't I just issue more equity in my company? The simple answer for me is that I don't think I identify with private company profit models anymore and traditional equity is not composable with blockchain technology nor natively digital or global.

The DAO would initially be centralised because I take responsibility for financial decisions and settle documents before they are made public and sourcing talent to contribute and make up an initial governance council before a sufficient size community can vote in representatives based on a voting process.

The ultimate goal is to support minimum standards as web3 develops. One day we may be able to economically value the impact achieved from capital invested or value contributed to the world because of the policy advocacy over the last few years and years to come. Until then, here is a place for an interesting experiment and education journey into web3 with DAO-first thinking. Welcome.