The Evolution of MetaCartel & Leveling up 🌍🌶

[JamesW]

The world is getting weird

Globally, times are changing quicker than any other time during our lives and the MetaCartel is no different. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” - is 100x more relevant during these times.

The evolution of MetaCartel

Nations around the world are printing money, focusing internally, and prioritizing their citizens over anything else - MetaCartel is a digital nation and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be doing these same things. When MetaCartel began, there was a natural focus on bringing more people & projects into the DAO, more membership, more grants, more signal! Since then, we’ve grown to almost 100 DAO members, hundreds of community members and countless projects supporting MetaCartel - Given this huge growth & the changing global landscape, perhaps we should spend time focusing inwards at our DAO members, their needs & the sustainability of the MetaCartel.

I’ve been on a mission the past few days talking to a number of contributors @pet3rpan, @META_DREAMER, @vengist, @Yalor, @jamesyoung, @burningfiat discussing this internal focus and talking through where we’re all currently at.

One of the core learnings from these conversations has been around rather than MetaCartel strictly looking at external grants to fund, how do we look to deploy DAO funds internally to existing DAO members as well as learn more about the current state of the DAO & it’s members. These goals were centered around:

• Gathering context from DAO members - getting to a consensus on what DAO members think of the current state of the web3 ecosystem & our role in that ecosystem. As well as their personal views on wider world & how MetaCartel can maximize impact.

• Supporting existing MetaCartel initiatives and encouraging DAO members to continue to experiment.

• Keeping up the level of MetaCartel operational work, that has been almost completely unpaid to this point.

• Understanding where the web2 communities are falling down, where we can best help them evolve during the current forced digital revolution.

• Any other internal efforts focused towards maintaining, improving & evolving the MetaCartel.

Deploying DAO funds internally is something that to date has been far and few between, this has been purposeful and the focus on keeping almost all internal transactions of the MetaCartel being transactions of trust, rather than transactions of capital is one of the core tenants of the MetaCartel. The culture & the trust is what we rely on, allowing us to stay objective & equitble, without the expectation of financial upside. As a personal anecdote, when I first got involved with the MetaCartel at ETH Berlin, I’m entirely sure, if there was a pool of capital DAO members were being paid, it would have driven me to do less work, not more. What drove me to devote 110% of my and Axia Labs (@Callum) time to the MetaCartel, was the impact, not the finances. However, with changing times, we must also adapt, and when looking at the world & it’s finances, I don’t know if they’ll ever be a more applicable time to have this conversation.

Community is king

The MetaCartel is a community and community is something we should all be able to lean on during these times of need. Understanding how we can help each other during these times, financially, mental health wise, building stronger communities, etc. should be our primary driver. Ensuring that we can continue to lead the Web3 space in terms of community strength & signal, and that on the other side of this global pandemic, we’re positioned better than anyone else to maximize impact

The current world narrative paints a disconnected next few months, lets make sure that the MetaCartel can drive against this, connecting existing DAO members, more tradional web communties & the wider web3 ecosystem. Numbers don’t matter, Humans do.

What’s next?

• Discussion - This is a huge topic, and a single forum post after a handful of conversations will never do it justice. Gathering input from as many DAO members as possible, collecting thoughts in this forum then discussing these ideas & next steps on the next weekly call.
• Development of an internal MetaCartel funding grant - TBD with community discussion.
• Have a read through this post from Peter about MetaState.

The MetaCartel has found itself as the leader of decentralized digital communities globally, during a time where digital communities are exploding due to necessity. We have an opportunity to lead the world during this time of crisis, lets look internally to drive this innovation

[rika.sukenik6]

I love how impact oriented Metacartel is. I think it would be valuable (and fun!) to have a design thinking session around the various Metacartel stakeholders and their needs. If there’s interest, I can lead it.

[niran]

MetaCartel’s current financial model isn’t sustainable, right? Members join with an upfront deposit, but there are no ongoing membership fees to sustain operations. I would support reimagining the “tributes” as a refundable membership fee, and introducing ongoing membership fees to fund recurring operations expenses. The tributes would be spent on any one-time expense that supports MetaCartel’s mission (grants, member growth, etc.). This is a pretty common model for social clubs, which seems like a more useful model than states.

[coopahtroopa]

Keen to see X amount of budget allocated monthly towards internal affairs.

Largely agreed that incentives need to be properly maintain and believe starting small with say ~$1000/month delegated to ops and social glue is helpful.

The way I see it, the MC ecosystem has never been more vibrant. Providing someone with bankroll to keep in tune with different projects and provide status updates to everyone is one of the many areas where paid ops could be beneficial. More generally - finding MetaCartel composability is quite powerful.

Echoing James thoughts, I do believe a “bankroll delegate” makes a lot of sense. I personally would nominate either Waugh or pet3rpan for this.