Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Fueling a Gaming & Cultural Renaissance

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are arguably crypto’s financial flash mob. Some of the most successful versions of DAOs are in non-fungible token (NFT) gamification. This next step in traditional gaming allows users to earn income by playing exciting video games. GameFi lets participants trade in-world resources for financially rewarding outcomes, combining traditional gaming with blockchain tech. Virtual economies in gaming have been available for seemingly decades. World of Warcraft gold or Fortnite character skins have had real-world financial value within their virtual economies.

But these markets have operated within closed, centralized marketplaces that restrict users from freely exchanging fiat currencies with one another. That’s where DAOs come in. Community members influence the significant decisions of the organization, and the direction of the game will be decided by those with a stake in the organization. Here’s a few instances of DAO successes within the gaming industry — and a few others for good measure:

Hashflow

Hashflow is merging the futuristic worlds of DeFi and GameFi to launch the Hashverse, a story-driven, NFT-powered DAO. Hashverse plans to set the standard as the first gamified decentralized exchange (DEX) governance. Hashverse’s storyverse, offering an array of worlds and characters, is being created in tandem with the leading Hollywood creative agency Superconductor. Set in a dystopian world with centuries-long conflict, futuristic cities, and advanced technology. Hashverse is set to combine the best features of player-based gaming with an easy-to-use decentralized governance platform. It works by granting users the ability to stake tokens, complete quests, and gain experience points (XP) and digital rewards while shaping the protocol’s future through a vote-escrowed token model (veHFT). In-game items such as base characters and loot items will be represented by NFTs, which participants can earn and trade.

Collecting NFTs will allow users to upgrade characters, unlock new quests, and level up their XP while earning additional Hashflow tokens (HFT). Also, leading NFT marketplace Magic Eden will assist with all technical aspects of character collection including minting, whitelist creation, marketing and alike. All artwork will be created by world-renowned artist Luca Nemolato with the collection being one of the first hosted by Magic Eden on the Ethereum blockchain - most collections are usually on the Solana network. The artwork and further details about the collection (i.e. supply, whitelists) will reportedly be revealed gradually over the coming weeks.

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity, inspired by another NFT project CryptoKitties, is a separate industry-leading company that has had success gamifying non-fungible tokens and operating as a DAO. One major difference between Axie and traditional games is that the Blockchain economic design unlocks the possibility to have user-owned economies which reward players who are able to reach advanced levels of skill. The Axie universe has a user-orientated and owned economy where players can truly hold, buy, sell, and trade resources they earn in the game through skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem.

Whereas traditional NFTs focus on simply owning unique pieces of digital artwork which can be traded later when their value increases, Axie Infinity has allowed people to “play” with their NFT creatures – which includes breeding more, purchasing land and upgrading their so-called “Axies.” The results of these successes have made Axie Infinity arguably the largest “play-to-earn” platform on Earth with a market cap of over $3 billion. Active users have reported success in earning anywhere between a couple of hundred dollars to $4,000 per month. The Axie decentralized autonomous exchange has a mission of reinforcing its Infinity ecosystem and supporting builders to increase their impact.

PleasrDAO

Decentralized autonomous organizations are not just thriving in the gamified sphere. PleasrDAO has become the leading authority in acquiring culturally significant NFT art pieces with a charitable twist. Since the collective purchased its first artwork, PleasrDAO has evolved and elevated its mission to collect pieces that represent and fund groundbreaking ideas and causes that have been memorialized on-chain as non-fungible tokens. PleasrDAO members are experimenting with revolutionary new concepts like fractionalizing artworks and sharing the iconic pieces with those contributing to the community. Furthermore, beyond just shared ownership of these pieces, the PleasrDAO is planning to apply creative innovations within DeFi to add value. In a way, it is a platform for collective experimentation at the nexus of community ownership, DeFi, and digital art. Essentially, the PleasrDAO’s goal is to purchase, then fund culturally significant pieces which then create something fundamentally additive to the soul of the piece before sharing it back with the community. Dubbed as an art-collecting empire, the PleasrDAO is experimenting with novel concepts in digital and community art ownership.

Friends with Benefits

Holders of the Friends With Benefits token are also collectively funding and governing community endeavors so groups can co-own and co-create projects together. There are individual hubs for different cities, so users can hook up with similarly Web3-minded people in their individual regions. The more FWB tokens a user holds, the more interaction and opportunities to connect become available. The group has used its funding to expand offline. Friends With Benefits has used its community funding to host parties in Los Angeles, Miami and New York. The Washington Post reports that “At one point the group discussed a futuristic dream of one day taking over a defunct liberal arts college and hosting a festival. When it was discovered that a friend of a friend worked in admissions at the arts academy, after some negotiation with the school and local town officials, FWB organizers landed the venue, and FWB Fest was born.”

The use of DAOs in crypto is seemingly endless. They are offering a unique way for individuals and organizations to grow and build decentralized communities that do good for the group utilizing blockchain technology. Today I have covered just a few examples of how DAOs are being utilized for community benefit. The landscape is evolving and is expected to change as rapidly as decentralized organization governance becomes popular. With the development of the Metaverse, it’s clear that DAOs are the future structures of workplaces, games and business organizations. They’re reclaiming ownership from the clasps of faceless corporations and enabling a more democratic, people-friendly business model for community-oriented projects. ¡Viva la revolución!