Title
Rewards and Compensation 3.0
A guidebook for DAOs and Web3 native organisations
Description
This research project focuses on providing a guidebook for rewards and compensation that will help DAO people and web3 organisations.
- To aid their thinking and decision-making in selecting approaches to compensation/rewards.
- To signal, communicate and set expectations among DAOs, members and the rest of the ecosystem.
- To move the needle by creating new building blocks, tools, and articles building on this public good research.
It is NOT a single best practice approach as we believe best is contextual and can be ever-changing.
It is NOT a guide on how to best quantify the value but rather deals with measures of quantification.
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Manifesto/Vision
All Aboard! WAGMI! We will define the building blocks, so the great unknown lands of decentralisation feel more comfortable and humane.
Problem
We do not have a comprehensive understanding and language for rewards and compensation in DAOs, therefore,
- We lose time repeatedly and at scale with the topic being discussed in each new DAO, but the conversation rarely progresses beyond a shallow understanding.
- We utilise gimmicky gamification that is fun only for a short time and then leads to disengaged communities.
- And results in mismatched expectations and misunderstandings, leading to contributors participating less because they assume their work is not valued or feeling exploited and leaving disgruntled.
- We might be stalling the next phase and maturity of DAOs
Solution
We are set to undertake a research project and provide the ecosystem with a deeper understanding of the topic, clear framing of the existing challenges for contributors and DAO leaders alike, and a shared language and mental model to define compensation and reward mechanisms.
We aim to deliver this research as a public good on composable “compensation and rewards” primitives, taking a holistic approach that includes practices across human history and Web3.
Product
The insights from our research will be delivered as a guidebook, which will help DAO people and web3 organisations
- To aid their thinking and decision making in selecting rewards and compensation mechanisms for their DAO.
- To communicate and set expectations on rewards and compensation with DAO members.
- To move the needle by inspiring new building blocks, tools, and articles building on this public good research.
The guidebook will consist of three parts.
- PART 1: A map of primitives used for compensation and rewards classified mainly on
- Value Creation Accounting (measuring the value of contributions)
- Rewards and Compensation (distributing or attributing said value)
- PART 2: Considerations when choosing the primitive(s) to use
- PART 3: Case studies from the ecosystem (including learnings from using different systems).
To help visualise, the primitives can be bounties, salaries, access to services, and reputation, whereas considerations can be viability for the DAO, sustainability, safety of the individual and aspiring to build a particular culture. As the research advances, we’re expecting a growing list of primitives and consideration angles, and it will be our work to disentangle all the options and requirements into a usable, clear framework.
IP - The Intellectual Property produced as an output of this research is envisioned as a Public Good, and will be released under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Validation
RnDAOs research on “Top Challenges in DAOs” showed that defining, discussing, and even thinking in a structured manner about compensation and rewards remains a key challenge. As an ecosystem, we still lack a clear and sure way to communicate and set expectations. "The great resignation” helped DAOs have more fans, hopeful that DAOs create a new way to exist and work. However, DAOs are in their infancy and still have numerous challenges. The risk is that if we do not correct the course on DAO “compensation and rewards” practices, we will end up with “the great disappointment” - A more disruptive event.
Progress
We have set the project and defined the initial approach, which is currently in the initial stages.
Differentiation
Instead of a tool-based approach, we want to deliver the actual primitives - the building blocks o provide a public good with all can use and create diversified approaches that are fit for them
Team
Gaia Dadabit Point of Contact & Socials: Gaye Gaia Soykok web3 DAO fren helping companies on venture buidling and emerging technology adoption. Freelance or Contract. fractional | Linktree
Background:
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Focused on venture creation, productisation and adoption
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Mostly in DEFI, DAOs, and WEB3 since '18.
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DAOs related RnDAO, Stack DAO(2b), RaidGuild, VitaDAO, Daoist, WIW3(2b)
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Ex-head of Emerging Technologies, Ex CPO at an early stage startup
Danielo Socials:
Background:
- Ex-head of Governance at Aragon and advisor and contributor on DAO design and governance to multiple DAOs since 2018.
- 8 years organisation design facilitator and innovation management consultant, clients including BCG, Google, The UNDP, Daimler, and numerous startups.
- Visiting lecturer at Oxford University, Tedx Speaker, Harvard Business Review published author, member of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufacturing and Industry.
Shahar Socials:
Background:
- Currently project, product leader, and ecosystem developer in Common Sense-makers pod at DAOstack. Enjoy developing and experimenting with collective sense-making tools and in general, trying to heal our epistemic environment.
- Spent the past year on research and protocol design at DAOstack - including game theory, mechanism design, value flows, value detection and rewards in decentralised collaborations and DAOs.
- Academic background: Ms in mathematics - Model Theory and mathematical logic, and education. Past projects included designing and teaching courses in mathematics, space, and game theory for youth and students.
We also have a pool of contributors
Grant Request $
$9K
Funds
We are setting up our project in a streamlined fashion, and are seeking a portion of the Milestone 1. The rest of the funding will be raised from different ecosystems, DAOs and sponsors.
Milestone 1: primitives (1 Month) = $17,678.57
desk research into primitives
Survey setup and synthesis
project lead work admin, radiation and management
Milestone 2: considerations (1 Month) = $17,346.94
desk research into considerations
User Research & DAO Rewards & Compensation case studies
Survey setup and synthesis
Interviews with experts *4 (organisation, anthropology, etc
Project lead work admin, radiation and management
Milestone 3: integrate (1 Month) ($10,000)
Enhance Primitives and Categorise (synthesis of previous 2 months research)
Writing
Project lead work admin, radiation and management
Milestone 4: polish (1 Mont) ($6,071.43)
Help
Contributing to the survey in Milestone 1 and mention of MetaCartel as supporters of the public good,
Additional Resources
RnDAO Overview