The lure of a DAO is so strong that most people will be fascinated by it when told that it's an organisation without a boss and where everyone has equal opportunities to work and earn. The reason is not far-fetched. Over 85% of today's global workforce lacks the motivation for work, with millions of people leaving their jobs every year in search of better opportunities.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people who hate their corporate jobs has seen a meteoric rise and in 2021 the last bull market saw a global spike in DAOs that were created to provide a seamless working experience for millions of people across the world.
According to Meeds DAO co-founder Patrice Lamarque, DAO is the future of work.
In Patrice's view, its fundamentals are strong in that it promotes transparency, eliminates conflict of interests and provides incentives.
I recently sat down with him for a discussion about Meeds DAO and the emerging paradigm a DAO has brought about in the last two years.
Patrice, it's great to talk about the changing landscape of work. I would like to start with you. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I have worked for over 20 years in the software industry, first as a software engineer, then as head of product, and also as CTO. I've always been driven by the desire to improve the way we work and collaborate.
My journey through various roles opened my eyes to the inefficiencies of traditional organizational models. This realization sparked my interest in innovative structures like Sociocracy 3.0 and, more recently, DAOs.
Why do you believe that DAO is the future of work?
DAOs are not just the future of work, they're actively exploring and shaping it. This is a topic I'm currently delving into through a series of interviews with 100 DAO workers.
DAOs are interest-based communities centered around a purpose. They all pursue a mission that attracts and inspires their members to engage. They have organizational structures where influence and power are widely distributed. They offer more equitable value redistribution models and a great deal of freedom of action for motivated participants.
The great crisis of disengagement with work that we are experiencing is a sign that we need to rethink our relationship with work and value creation.
Can you tell us about the founding of Meeds DAO?
Several years ago, I noticed that in many companies, a significant number of employees were making daily efforts that were so micro they were invisible and impossible to value. This was especially true in traditional work structures where an annual review is conducted to assess 12 months of work. I was also troubled by the fact that a single manager was asked to decide whether each employee's investment deserved a raise or a bonus. All of this lacked objectivity.
Back in 2019, upon discovering blockchain technology, I had the idea that we might be able to tokenize engagement. After an internal experiment and discussing it with others, Meeds was born to generalize this idea and make it applicable to a larger number of organizations.
Meeds DAO began as a non-profit organization that designed a web3 protocol around the mission of rebalancing relationships between organizations and individuals.
The core principles of Meeds DAO include transparency, fairness, and the use of decentralized technology to create a more rewarding work environment.
By automating the collection of signals within an organization’s digital environment, Meeds DAO can track and tokenize various engagement behaviors. The tokenized rewards provided by Meeds DAO are tangible and can be redeemed for a variety of perks, ensuring fair compensation for fair work.
How is Meeds DAO tackling the web2 work culture and orientation?
Instead of relying solely on a top-down approach where workers are completely dictated to what to do, Meeds DAO promotes a more incentive-based and inclusive approach. By offering a clear and weighted menu of incentives, the organization provides clarity on what is important to it and what it is ready to value. I believe this is a fantastic way to express the company's culture, values, and goals.
This approach is likely to elicit authentic engagement and can easily be integrated into a traditional organization, coexisting with employee salaries or freelance contracts. What I mean is, it's not strictly necessary to be a DAO to adopt Meeds. An increasing number of companies have transformed the potential of their community into a DAO by focusing on the mission, like Bankless, for example.
What is WoM and how does it work?
The WoM was originally for the Work Metaverse when we published our whitepaper, back in 2020. But now I like to simply explain it as the World of Meeds ;-). Indeed, the WoM is the protocol that Meeds is developing to host millions of organizations for over 20 years.
To benefit from fair and equitable rewards, a worker only needs to join their community's Hub and participate in rewarded tasks and projects.
But for an organization to be able to offer a Hub to its community, it must own a Deed NFT, which is like an entry pass in the WoM for organizations.
Deed NFTs are minted by members of Meeds DAO, but they can also be exchanged or rented. This openness allows for an open and fully decentralized marketplace.
Furthermore, the protocol performs a scoring of engagement within each of the Hubs and rewards the organizations that achieve the best scores with MEED tokens that it can redistribute to its contributors. This universal engagement sponsorship system is quite unique and we are opening a waitlist open to any type of organization wishing to have early access to it.
What is the biggest challenge facing DAOs and what is Meeds DAO doing to solve it?
One of the biggest challenges facing DAOs is the engagement and retention of contributors. Keeping everyone aligned with the mission and fairly compensating contributions is a complex task. Meeds DAO addresses this issue by offering a clear and weighted menu of incentives, providing clarity on what is important to the organization and what it is ready to value
In addition to this, coordinating volunteers on a large scale is a real headache. That's why the largest DAOs adopt a structure in PODs, Guilds, or SubDAOs that allows them to gain efficiency without compromising too much on decentralization. Meeds provides clarity and manages initiatives at all levels and for all types of organizations.
Any parting words?
Yes, I would like to thank the entire community of Meeds DAO builders who work every day within its hub to build a better future for the world of work.
We look forward to welcoming more organizations and individuals to our community as we continue to explore and shape the future of work by providing a transparent, fair, and rewarding environment for all contributors.