Cointime

Download App
iOS & Android

Left-Curving DAOs

For the past twenty one days I have been obsessed with a decentralized project called Higher. If interested in the origin lore you can read more here.

fake ad but who knows

  1. We launched a channel on farcaster
  2. A community token was created and airdropped to channel members
  3. 2M $higher was donated by core members for farcaster rounds
  4. We created a party wallet and raised $70k for LPing and grants
  5. Artists have created/minted for the first time bc of higher
  6. Artists have made more than multiple yrs prior because of higher
  7. Web tools have been created
  8. AI tools have been created
  9. A fashion brand has sprouted
  10. Zora did a mint w rev splits to the collective
  11. Founders of established projects have cosigned the project left and right
  12. The channel sits at around 14k members and the token at 100M mcap

Decentralized. Autonomous. Organization.

As a seasoned member of many failed decentralized orgs, some recurring patterns include:

  • intense adoption mania
  • followed by intense attention exodus
  • leaving a handful of core contributors
  • slowly petering out into obscurity due tolack of resourceslack of positive feedback loopsor lack of progress
  • lack of resources
  • lack of positive feedback loops
  • or lack of progress

This is not uncommon for crypto natives of all interest profiles. DAOs have been relegated to punching bags in many circles. Over intellectualization has been long standing, and auctions lose traction quicker and quicker. Yet, we continue to improve the technology and add to the populace.

Memecoins

Conscious of the shifting meta to “over intellectualize memecoins”, what I am interested here is left curving daos and decentralized brands via memecoins.

When asked about a cast of mine that said, “everyone's talking about memecoins when the real convo is about daos” this was my response:

The motto we’ve been working under is - left curve it left curve it left curve it.

Additionally:

Left curve = instinctually make it simple.

Mid curve = purposely make it complicated.

Right curve = purposely make it simple.

When extending these frameworks toward decentralized autonomous organization, what seems the simplest organizer, is ERC20s as the dao membership, not nfts.

Nouns Builder, Party DAO, and Safe multisigs are all thought of as daos. Higher’s market question however is, what if they were instead financial group chats to work on the ‘real’ dao - the token?

Decentralized Brands

The core idea in this experiment is that using an erc20 as the dao provides:

  • more wealth effects
  • more overlap in crypto users
  • less friction in permless media/infra/tooling/networks
  • less friction in ‘financial group chats’

At higher, the only thing we all agree on is ↑ as the unicode symbol. Font choices, color ways, media profiles, tooling priorities, all the way down to motivations and tag lines, are unique to the individual members of ‘higher dao’.

For example, above is the creative direction currently most resonant to me. Through collaboration with other Higher members (Dom, Isaac, Paff, and Ilya) we have arrived at a fork of Virgil’s famous off-white quotation marks.

I currently work on fashion, media, memes, zine’s, and broader creative direction for higher. What is crucial to note here, is for higher. Not at higher.

This is warranted delineation of roles due to the permless nature of the ‘dao’. Above we have another member of higher, marc, who is working on web tooling for higher.

And lastly we have maty, who is making custom goods for higher.

For being the operative word, due to the structure of this decentralized brand.

To ‘join’ higher you buy $higher. Or:

  • sell mints on zora in h
  • build something cool and see if ppl will pay for itor higher co provides a grant
  • or higher co provides a grant
  • swap other memecoins for h
  • etc

The token acts as:

  1. Dao membership (skin in the game)
  2. speculative proxy for the brand (memecoin, ‘stock’ trade, etc)
  3. ecosystem reward (grants, mint rewards)
  4. brand identifier

In this line of thinking, owning 1H (even .1) makes you a member of Higher. From there it is decentralized-autonomous-organization all the way up.

DAO
Comments

All Comments

Recommended for you

  • White House: US and Iran on the Verge of Reaching an Agreement

    On April 21, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated in an interview with Fox News on the evening of the 20th that the United States and Iran are on the "verge of reaching an agreement." McEnany remarked, "The US has never been closer to achieving a truly good deal." However, she did not disclose any information regarding the current status of the negotiations. McEnany noted that even if an agreement is not reached, President Trump has multiple options and is not afraid to utilize these measures. Previous actions have demonstrated that Trump is not just "bluffing."

  • Kelp DAO Attacker Transfers 30,800 ETH to Special Address

    On April 21, news emerged that, according to monitoring by PeckShield, the Kelp DAO attacker transferred 30,800 ETH to a special address starting with 0x00000, possibly indicating a destruction action.

  • Trump: 'Midnight Hammer' Completely Dismantled Iran's Nuclear Dust Base

    On April 21, U.S. President Trump stated that the 'Midnight Hammer' operation has completely destroyed the 'nuclear dust' base within Iran. As a result, the cleanup will be a long and arduous process. The fake news media, including CNN and other corrupt media networks and platforms, have failed to give our great pilots the credit they deserve, instead always attempting to belittle and undermine them. They are losers!!! (Dongxin News Agency)

  • BTC Drops Below $76,000

    Market data shows that BTC has dropped below $76,000, currently priced at $75,999.63, with a 24-hour increase of 1.68%. The market is experiencing significant volatility, so please ensure proper risk management.

  • Japan Officially Allows Export of Lethal Weapons Through Cabinet Resolution

    On April 21, according to Kyodo News, the Japanese government officially revised the 'Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment' and its operational guidelines during a cabinet meeting, which will, in principle, allow the export of lethal weapons. (Xinhua News Agency)

  • Trump Claims Iran Will Negotiate

    On April 21, during a phone interview with CNN, U.S. President Trump stated that Iran "will negotiate" and expressed confidence in potential talks set to take place in Pakistan. Trump remarked, "They will negotiate; if they don't, they will face unprecedented problems." He also expressed hope that both sides could reach a "fair agreement" and emphasized that Iran "will not have nuclear weapons." Additionally, he defended military actions against Iran by stating there was "no choice" and claimed that they would ultimately "wrap things up."

  • Amazon to Invest Additional $5 Billion in Anthropic

    On April 21, Amazon announced on Monday that it will invest an additional $5 billion in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, bringing the total investment to as much as $20 billion. Anthropic develops the Claude chatbot and programming tools, and plans to invest over $100 billion in Amazon's cloud technology and chips over the next decade.

  • Three U.S. Carrier Strike Groups May Deploy Simultaneously in the Middle East

    On April 21, according to CCTV, the U.S. military is expected to deploy three carrier strike groups simultaneously in the Middle East in the coming days. Currently, the USS Lincoln strike group is stationed in the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz, participating in maritime blockade operations; the USS Ford strike group is located in the northern Red Sea; and the USS Bush strike group, which is taking a route around Africa, is heading north from the southeast of Africa and is expected to enter the Arabian Sea—this carrier may replace the USS Ford in its mission. In the short term, the U.S. military may have three aircraft carriers in the Middle East.

  • BTC Surpasses $76,000

    Market data shows that BTC has surpassed $76,000, currently priced at $76,039.83, with a 24-hour increase of 1.67%. The market is highly volatile, so please ensure proper risk management.

  • Trump: Bombs Will Explode if Ceasefire Agreement Expires

    On April 20, according to PBS, U.S. President Trump stated on Monday that if the ceasefire agreement with Iran expires on Tuesday, there will be a large number of bombs exploding. Trump made this remark during a call with White House reporter Liz Landers, focusing on the issue of the Iran war, while a U.S. delegation was preparing for further peace negotiations. When asked whether Iran would still participate in the talks scheduled to take place in Islamabad, Trump replied, "I don't know. I mean, they should show up. It's arranged. We'll see if they come. If they don't, that's fine too." When asked about his expectations for the negotiations, Trump stated, "Very simple, Iran absolutely cannot have nuclear weapons."