Post-DAO pilot report

2019

Author(s): Ruben RusselCover art: Fernando TrouwEnvironmental illustrations: Julian HenriquezDecember 2019Version: 1.0

Genesis 1.0

First! We show gratitude

Glossary

A brief introduction

Our expectations

The results

The learnings

Member reflections

Further readings

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3

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Contents.

Con t en ts | Page 1

First!We show gratitude.

In the beginning of 2019, little wasknown about DAOs in Curaçao. Now atthe end of 2019 there have beenvarious DAO themed events and aDAO pilot organized. For this we wouldfirst like to thank every single DAOpioneer on Curaçao that had thecuriosity and will to venture into theunknown until it became known,without you, this pilot couldn’t havetaken place. In addition, we would liketo show our gratitude to the DAOstackcore team for building a blockchain toolsuch as Alchemy.

Not less to the Genesis DAO communityfor their support of this Pilot, and to eachfacilitator and spectator for theircontinuous effort to introduce anobjective technological tool, with such anabstract usage. This report was typedwith ten fingers, yet in it we tried toreflect dozens of individual and collectiveDAO experiences of the last six months of2019. So, bear with us!

P r e fa c e | Page 2

From brickto code... orso has beentold.

Glossary.  G lo ssa r y | Page 3

Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) :

Web3 :

On-chain :

Off-chain :

Blockchain :

¹ "Non- hierarchical digital organizations that perform and record routing tasks on a peer-to-peer, cryptographically secure public network, and rely on the voluntary contributionsof their internal stakeholders to operate, manage, and evolve the organization through ademocratic consultation process." (Hsieh & Vergne, 2018).

In the simplest of terms, a time-stamped series of immutable records of data that ismanaged by a cluster of computers not owned by any single entity. Each of these blocks ofdata (i.e. block) is secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles (i.e.chain). (Blockgeeks, 2019)

An inclusive set of protocols to provide building blocks for application makers. Thesebuilding blocks take the place of traditional web technologies like HTTP, AJAX and MySQL,but present a whole new way of creating applications. These technologies give the userstrong and verifiable guarantees about the information they are receiving, whatinformation they are giving away, and what they are paying and what they are receiving inreturn (Wood, 2018).

All events that are recorded on a blockchain network.

All events that are not recorded on a blockchain network.

² "An organization whose decisions are made electronically by written computer code orthrough the vote of its members. In essence, it is a system of hard-coded rules that definewhich actions an organization will take." (Universa, 2017). 

³ "an entity that lives on the internet and exists autonomously, but also heavily relies onhiring individuals to perform certain tasks that the automaton itself cannot do."(Buterin,2014).

Due to its recent creation and usage DAOs definitions vary, here are a few

Abriefintroduction.  

A b r i e f i n t r odu c t i o n | Page 4

Curaçao is a small island in the southern Caribbean, with a population of around 160,000 people and justlike many other small island nations in the Caribbean, Curaçao experiences many socio-economicproblems. These were highlighted by the recently published Curaçao DAO viability report. Which couldstem from the way economic organizing is realized i.e. the use of centralized decision making inorganizations that are tasked with the realization of the welfare of all of the citizens of the island (2019,Caribbean Blockchain Network). The findings within the aforementioned report further highlight that, due to the dominant (centralized)method of organizing in Curaçao, various shortcomings were identified, such as lack of transparency andaccountability, and corruption and the problems that are a consequence of those shortcomings e.g. socialmisrepresentation, nepotism and populism. Furthermore, it was mentioned that DecentralizedAutonomous Organizations (DAOs) could be a possible technological solution which could structurallymitigate these experienced shortcomings. Not to mention the many other benefits such tools can bring. It is with these insights and active participation in DAOstack’s Genesis DAO & GenDAO community, thatthe ideation of a DAO experiment focused on the island of Curaçao was initiated in the first quarter of2019. The following months the idea was quickly set to be realized with the help from DAOstack’s coremembers, Caribbean Blockchain Network’s active members; a selection of Curaçao citizens and withmoral & financial support by the Genesis DAO. After the Curaçao Blockchain Week that was organized during the last week of April 2019, a Facebookgroup was created for attendees, who showed interest in experimenting with a DAO. This experiment wasbranded as CuraDAO on May 15, 2019 by the Facebook community and was officially launched July 8,2019 & Funded on July 26, 2019 by the GenesisDAO. The CuraDAO pilot started with 40 members (Reputation Holders) from which 7 were facilitatingmembers. This report acts firstly as, one of the mentioned proposal deliverables for the GenDAOcommunity. Secondly, as a rich summary for all CuraDAO pilot members and other CuraDAO pilotspectators. Thirdly, as a possible guide for other (island) nations wanting to implement DAOs and, lastly, asa possible source of educational information for other global communities that are interested inorganizing themselves with DAOs.

“Nothing about us, without us.”-Michael Masutha

Importantto know.

Impo r tan t t o know | Page 5

Limitations

CuraDAO facilitator

This pilot has a couple of limitations that the reader should be aware of. These are the following:

 

This DAO pilot uses DAOstack technology, Alchemy DAO which is built with smart contracts

running on the Ethereum¹ blockchain network. Both of these have their own respective

technological limitations. These are technologies and tools that are quite new and are in constant

development.

The time period which was chosen for this pilot was ~ 6 months.

Among the different participants, there is educational inequality when it comes to the concepts of

DAOs, Blockchain technology, cryptocurrency and a strong understanding of socio-economic

issues.

The initial amount of DAO holdings (funds) of this pilot were 10 ETH (~$2000).

5 of the 7 facilitators were not geographically located on Curaçao. This required the use of digital

communication methods towards participating Curaçao citizens.

Curaçao, like many other nations, still does not have any of the shelf legal frameworks in place for

cryptocurrencies, let alone DAOs.

The CuraDAO was officially launched on DAOstack’s Alchemy on 8 July 2019 with 40 members(Reputation holders). Previous to this a Facebook group was created with plans for it to become acommunication platform for existing and new CuraDAO members. Furthermore, 7 CuraDAO members & Catalysts² individually appointed themselves as CuraDAOfacilitators. These facilitators are Norvel Roosje, Runy Calmera, Ruben Russel, Luuk Weber, FernandoTrouw, Patrick Rawson and Doug Kent. They were tasked with the onboarding of new members, DAOeducation, Alchemy proposal creation guidance, community relationship building around meetings andincubation and organization of events to make CuraDAO a digital organization that can eventuallyoperate and sustain itself.  Out of the 7 facilitators, the most active Facebook group members wereFernando Trouw, Luuk Weber, Runy Calmera & Ruben Russel. The most active on Alchemy was mostlyevery facilitator.

¹ Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality.

² A catalyst is  a condition, event, or person that is the cause of an important change.

Ourexpectations.

The expe c ta t i o n s | Page 6

“My expectations for this DAO experiment were that I was aware of the benefit,opportunities & alternatives that DAOs can create even in such a short period. Yetdue to the accelerated launch process and lack of quality community relationshipbuilding, General knowledge and information asymmetry within the members. The fullpotential wouldn’t be harnessed in the planned trajectory. For this reason, I expecteda low amount of interaction and commitment by the participants.”

Ruben Russel

“I expected to learn a lot during the CuraDAO pilot about theneeds of the local ecosystem and how DAOs operate. I also

hoped to discover the sweet spot for decentralized organizing.”

Luuk Weber

“My expectations for this DAO was based on experiment and observation.I wanted to see whether all members of this organization other then the

facilitators were going to be involved and actually collaborate to achievethe goals set by the community at the beginning of the launch process”

Fernando Trouw

In this section, the facilitating members express their expectations about the CuraDAO pilot.

Patrick Rawson

"I expected the CuraDAO pilot to be a large educational effort to begin totransform a small group of island participants into decentralized designthinkers. I see the seeds of a social activist movement married to innovative,experimental blockchain technology use, that could one day grow to unite,empower and enrich the island's inhabitants.”

“I expected to have a decentralized organization, with nomanagement, no bureaucracy, no boss, that collaboratesand creates projects for Curaçao.”

Runy Calmera

“One of my expectations for CuraDAO was that we, as members,would have had more effective collaboration and communication.

Hence, without those two, the O-part of DAO would not be realized.”

Norvel Roosje

Theresults.

The r esu l ts | Page 7

CuraDAO goalsThe goals for CuraDAO,  created & written by Luuk Weber are:

 

Improve the collaboration environment in Curaçao by empowering individuals and

organizations to co-create projects with a positive socio-economic impact.

Create positive shared values, methods and rituals that promote collaboration, honesty, and

responsibility.

Research the effectiveness of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations and better

understand the collaboration and innovation ecosystem in Curaçao. 

 

These goals were broken down into Objectives and Key Resources.  

Which highlight that between the given timeframe only 61% was achieved. This document was

updated by Luuk Weber & Ruben Russel.

Create Value

Healthy Organization

Research DAOs and Curaçao 

CuraDAO activityIn the following part, the Alchemy DAO activity and Facebook group activity results will bepresented per month. 

#1 July

CuraDAO on Alchemy:No proposal activities.The CuraDAO receives 10ETH from the Genesis DAO for the CuraDAO pilot.

The r esu l ts | Page 8

#2 AugustCuraDAO on Alchemy:

CuraDAO Facebook group:In July we saw quite a lot of Facebook activities, particularly coming from CuraDAOfacilitators Runy Calmera, Fernando Trouw, Ruben Russel, Norvel Roosje and Luuk Weber.This was during the first month of CuraDAO. Many facilitators were working on educationalcontent, answering community questions and shaping a narrative.  

Runy Calmera shared various posts and videos around what he believes CuraDAO couldwork on.Fernando Trouw arranged a couple of online CuraDAO community meetings for CuraDAOmembers.Norvel Roosje shared a couple of interesting links such as Metamask for mobile use.Ruben Russel created a four series introductory video on how to navigate, propose, voteand stake using Alchemy Earth.Luuk Weber shared the CuraDAO pre-launch results.About 30 ~ 40 views on each post that was shared in the Facebook group and manydiscussions in the comment section.

This is the first month during which we saw activity in the CuraDAO Alchemy Dapp. In total,six proposals were submitted by two CuraDAO members & Facilitators, four passed and twofailed. Furthermore, the total voting & staking participation this month was only done bythree facilitators. Many of the proposals resided around the issue that the CuraDAO’s Contribution Rewardcontract proposal voting period parameters were accidentally set to seven hours instead ofthe initially intended seven days. DAOstack lead developer & CuraDAO member Doug Kentproposed to adjust this through the Scheme registrar. 

CuraDAO Facebook group:    

This month there was also a meetup event organized by CuraDAO Facilitator RubenRussel to help build a narrative and new members to understand the workings of Web3applications such as Alchemy. Results can be viewed here. 

#3 September  

 The third month in the CuraDAO pilot the following activity was recorded: 

CuraDAO on Alchemy:

Two proposals were created by Facilitator Runy Calmera to create a “how to receive ETHthrough WordPress guide for Curaçao” one passed with five votes for and two against outof forty. The other proposal failed because it was deemed obsolete by the proposer due tomiscalculation of the costs. The voting & staking participation rate on these proposalswere predominantly done by facilitators two were members and mark the firstengagement of non-DAO savvy members. Furthermore, a joint proposal was submitted by CuraDAO facilitators Norvel Roosje &Luuk Weber to create and host a CuraDAO website. This proposal passed with 5 votes forand 0 against out of 40. This proposal gave birth to curadao.io the current online face ofCuraDAO. The 5 voting & staking participants for this proposal were all facilitators. 

CuraDAO Facebook group:   

This month another meetup event organized by CuraDAO Facilitator Ruben Russel tocontinue help build a narrative and new members to understand the workings of Web3applications such as Alchemy. The results can be viewed here. Other interesting shareswithin CuraDAO’s Facebook group were: 

The r esu l ts | Page 9

Runy Calmera sharing his gratitude to the CuraDAO members because of his passedproposal.An update on his “how to receive ETH through WordPress guide for Curaçao”proposal.Norvel Roosje updating the Facebook community that he submitted his CuraDAOwebsite creation proposal.A video created by Facilitator Fernando Trouw calling out all decision-makers in theCuraDAO to participate in the voting process.  A proposal idea shared by CuraDAO member on how to harvest water from the air inCuracao. A couple of CuraDAO members participated in the world clean up day on the 21st ofSeptember 2019.

#4 October 

 The fourth month in the CuraDAO pilot the following activity was recorded: 

CuraDAO on Alchemy:This month no proposals were executed on Alchemy. However, there were proposals thatwere proposed and in the queue such as by Facilitator & member Runy Calmera “Deliver 25Used Computers to a school for after school program”.  In addition, CuraDAO receives itsfirst 1.25 ETH donation on the 25th of October by an anonymous address.

 

CuraDAO Facebook group:

This month CuraDAO Facebook group was active with the following posts:  

A CuraDAO facilitator openly asked if anyone wanted to host an online monthly meeting.However, since there wasn’t any response this was eventually hosted by the facilitator.Runy Calmera used the Facebook group to share his “ETH on Wordpress” proposal resultsin a video format.The first CuraDAO website draft was shared with the CuraDAO Facebook community.Runy Calmera notified CuraDAO on his new proposal to “Deliver 25 used computers to aschool for an after school program”.Ruben Russel writes & shares a monthly community re-cap for CuraDAO.Runy Calmera updates the CuraDAO Facebook group on its financials.

The r esu l ts | Page 10

#5 November 

 The fifth month in the CuraDAO pilot the following activity was recorded: 

CuraDAO on Alchemy:

The proposal of Runy Calmera passes with three votes for and zero votes against out of theforty. A Moloch troll proposal was submitted to test the DAO resilience by a random addressthis proposal failed. Luuk Weber requests additional rewards (ETH & REP) for creating theCuraDAO website this proposal passed with four votes for and zero votes against. In addition,another proposal “Mapping out the ecosystem and creating ecosystem maps” by Luuk Weberwas passed with one vote for and one against.

Furthermore, the first non-DAO experienced person submitted a membership proposal“Reputation request Patrick Scannell” with the help of CuraDAO pilot facilitator Ruben Russeland passed with three votes for and zero against.

Doug Kent submitted a proposal to decrease his amount of voting power within the DAObecause of his self acquisition of accumulating so much voting power in a non-meritious way inCuraDAO. This proposal passed with four votes for and zero against out of forty-one members. The last executed proposal of the month November was submitted by DAO first-timers Youthfor Climate Change Curaçao with the help of a facilitator (Luuk Weber). This was amembership and project proposal and passed with six votes for and zero against out of theforty-two members. The voting & staking participation rate on these proposals werepredominantly facilitators and one by a non-facilitator member.

The r esu l ts | Page 1 1

The r esu l ts | Page 1 2

CuraDAO Facebook group:    

This month CuraDAO Facebook group was active with the following posts: 

Ruben Russel shares the published Caribbean Blockchain Network, Curaçao  DAOviability research report.Luuk Weber notifies the CuraDAO Facebook members to vote for his ecosystemmapping proposal.Patrick Scannell notifies the CuraDAO Facebook members to vote on his membershiprequest proposal.Doug Kent notifies the CuraDAO Facebook members to vote on his reputation decreaseproposal.Runy Calmera shares articles & a video recording about some ideas on “how we can helppeople get funding via the blockchain?”.Youth for Climate Curaçao notifies the CuraDAO Facebook group on their submittedproposal.Fernando Trouw shares the monthly CuraDAO re-cap of November. Check it out here. 

#6 December 

 The sixth month in the CuraDAO pilot the following activity was recorded:

 

CuraDAO on Alchemy:

One proposal was submitted by Tiarah de Doelder about creating a plant database forCuracao. This proposal passed with 3 votes for and 0 against out of the 43 members. The voting & staking participation rate on this proposal were only CuraDAO facilitators. 

CuraDAO Facebook group: 

 This month CuraDAO Facebook group was active with the following posts: 

Ruben Russel creates a poll for a date to host an online community call with the CuraDAOmembers to discuss recently passed proposals & other questions from new members.Luuk Weber creates a poll for a date for a CuraDAO year-end conference. Results: 19December, 2019.Runy Calmera shares with the CuraDAO members information about decentralizedexchanges.Ruben Russel notifies the CuraDAO Facebook group that there is a submitted proposalfrom Tiarah in the DAO.Luuk Weber shares the CuraDAO years-end event various times to keep the membersupdated & aware.Luuk Weber shares the Youts for Climate beach clean up event to round up attendees.Ruben Russel shares the last monthly community re-cap of 2019. 

The r esu l ts | Page 1 3

CuraDAO years-end conference

Youth for Climate beach clean up 

CuraDAO pilot in numbers (June - December2019):   

  

The r esu l ts | Page 1 4

Voting rate

10%90%

43Members

$ 1.120Total distributed

funds 

17Total proposals

on each proposal (10%)

( 6.21 ETH)

Thelearnings.  

The l ea r n i ngs | Page 1 5

“If you want to go fast, go alone. Ifyou want to go far, go together.”

-African proverb

Creating meaning/narrative (why a DAO?) 

In the quest of setting up any organization, not just a DAO it is imperative to enquire in acollective process understanding the issues or problems one is attempting to solve. Thisshould be the first step before even moving on to creating/using a DAO. Remember a DAOis not always necessary, it depends on what problem you are trying to solve. When this isclear, collectively create a general and compelling narrative that is shared and easilydigested. This can be facilitated through community gatherings (months ahead before any DAOlaunch) where people (or organizations) actively participate in discussions around theissues with the goal of understanding each person’s perception of the issues the group istrying to solve (i.e. creating a shared vision/narrative). Having a vision/narrative thateverybody understands and is united around is important for the organization, becauseit acts as the glue that connects people around a goal or set of goals, this generates afeeling of inclusiveness and adds to the identity of the organization. 

A simple & quick conclusion from these results is that there have been some awesomeinitiatives and relationships that started due to this DAO pilot. If these have beenimpactful can always be challenged. There is still a lot to learn when it comes to using DAOs effectively, for this reason, acouple of key learning points are structured and presented by the facilitators (Norvel

Roosje, Runy Calmera, Ruben Russel, Luuk Weber & Fernando Trouw). We hope these can help

other new & old DAO catalysts & leaders towards a DAO that can eventually lead itscollective self. These are the following:

Communication & Common goals: 

Communication is very important in small and large scale DAOs whether it is visual, audioor written it is needed to maintain a stable flow of information between peers. It leads tothe creation off-chain human trust through maintaining relationships, creating newrelationships and making sure the organization shares common goals.  There aren’t anycurrent scalable built-in communication tools in existing DAOs, therefore, manydistributed communities using DAOs - including CuraDAO - use the communicativeplatform that it’s members are already using e.g. Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook groups,Discord, Slack, google hangouts, Zoom & forums (which are mainly running on centralizedservers). However, there are some new web3 communication tools starting to shape such as 3box,status etc. These are still quite new and must be evaluated thoroughly to see if these

applications have the communication requirements needed for the community.   

 

Furthermore, it guides the organization to think about what is important for its long-termsurvival. It is important to know that this is a continuous process. If agents in the DAOdon’t understand what they stand for it will be harder to unite around creating long-lastingsolutions solve the problems it wants to solve. It is only in relation to the narrative that theaspects of the tool (e.g. a DAO) should be highlighted. This is more off-chain work (relationship building, collective purpose creation) than justunderstanding the technologies the organization tends to use.  Once this is collectivelyshaped, it is also important to establish a (formal or informal) onboarding process so thatnewcomers can understand this vision/narrative and know, how and where to contribute. In the case of CuraDAO, while CuraDAO states clearly on their website what their missionstatement is e.g. promote sustainable development, research DAO use cases for Curacaoand embody a healthy organization. It is unclear whether the whole group (e.g. allmembers of the DAO) adheres to this mission, the organization itself is unclear about whatthese goals mean, that is, "what does sustainable development mean? "and "how will theDAO promote sustainable development?" etc.  It is therefore stressed uppon to create astrong premediated narrative which is easily explainable for new members. Note: Existing organizations that already have a strong vision/narrative that theyorganize towards or around can explore ways to adjust their narrative using technologytools such as a DAO.

The l ea r n i ngs | Page 1 6

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Moreover, collectively shaping the communication guidelines within a community thatuses a DAO  is also of importance to minimize misunderstandings which can lead toconflicts. Creating some continuous flow of updates to keep everyone up to date in atransparent manner (monthly/weekly/daily summary) is also recommended to keepeveryone engaged with what is happening within and without the organization. Unlessparticipants desire subtle anarchy. In the case of CuraDAO, communication was at a minimum there were attempts to getonline meetings going at the beginning of the pilot, but that eventually abated. In addition,Some members of CuraDAO did create monthly articles on medium so CuraDAOmembers and spectators can be aware of what happened each month. CuraDAO usedFacebook groups as a communication platform. However, through realization, it isrecommended to move away from a Facebook group to a platform that better facilitatescollaboration and active discussions. Aim for more active discussions and facilitate roomfor project ideation, knowledge sharing, historic social event documentation and generalchatting.

Effective impact & Goal metrics: 

Once a group understands what problem it is trying to solve and concludes that a DAO isthe better organizational approach to solve this issue. Then the community can startthinking about what will be seen as an effective impact and goal metrics. Effective impactand goal metrics allow the community to measure the effectivity of the actions it has takenfor achieving the goals it has set in the narrative building process. It allows theorganization to look at the impacts of the projects in the context of the goals it set. So,questions like: "How did a project or action contribute to the goal of the organization?","How are the members affected?", "Were there any negative consequences?", if so, "Howcan we mitigate those in the future?" etc. In the case of CuraDAO, it did not have any detailed impact or goal metrics in place,therefore it was impossible to measure whether meaningful decisions were made and ifthe projects it was funding or supporting, actually contributed to the achievement of themission that was set. A couple of internal measurements that were used are the number ofproposals and rate of participation (meetings, votes & discussions). 

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Organizational structure: 

Since DAOs can be seen as programmable distributed organizations they can be very modularwhen it comes to an on-chain organizational structure. Unlike traditional organizations thereare options to have a strong hierarchical structure or a flat, more equal & distributed structureor a fusion of both. The organizational structure can depend on the problem that thecommunity is trying to solve.  When it comes to DAOstacks Dapp (decentralized application),Alchemy there is an on-chain decision-making structure which consists out of reputationdistribution. However, in CuraDAO the off-chain organizational structure was the distinction betweenFacilitators and Participants. Where the Facilitators took on a role to help the CuraDAOpioneers understand what CuraDAO is, how Alchemy works, and answer any relevantquestions or assist new members. This structure was chosen due to the informationasymmetry between a few members and the mostly non-web3 savvy members. With the ideato distribute the knowledge about using Alchemy and DAOs until this wasn’t concentrated in afew members. This structure was created by the initiators of the CuraDAO pilot. Moreover, theCuraDAO pilot did not make use of any existing legal organizational structure even though thisis currently possible through a BBLLC - DAO framework in Vermont.

Since a DAO is a decentralized tool that we (humans) can organize around it is important tofind a balance between flexibility and structure on-chain & off-chain.  Flexibility becausethings are changing all the time, which means an organisation, must be able to take on thesechanges. Aspects such as social, technological, economic, legal, political and other global orlocal factors in which an organization operates within are changing all the time, soorganisations should be able to adapt when these changes happen. Structure because it makesit possible to reach organizational goals and avoids internal and external confusion which leadsto inefficiencies and less contributor productivity. Unless it is confusion the organization wants to

reflect through radical on-chain and off-chain decentralization .

Thus, it is important to use measurement standards whether existing or new. Some examples,OKRs & KPI’s (including collective accountability). Take the time to collectively work thesethrough. Moreover, when implementing metrics, don’t forget that the organization will need torevise its metrics from time to time. Make sure the metrics still measure what they intended tomeasure. This could be seen as obvious for people that have been part of goal-drivenorganizations but nevertheless needs to be continually stressed upon for the new and the old. Note: Some goal metrics can be measured in numbers but we can’t forget that numbers areunemotional.  

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Onboarding process: 

Once a community that uses a DAO has the Narrative, Communication, Goals metrics anda preferred Organizational structure set. The community can start to think about how tointroduce new members which feel aligned with the purpose of this organization (if theorganization is inclusive and open for new members). This can be done in an informal orformal way depending on how the organization is structured. A couple of methods can beapplied such as introducing new members at a community meeting (physical or digital),using a buddy system (a new member is onboarded by an existing member (usually afriend) and help your self onboarding guides (videos, blogs & academy).  With CuraDAOs pilot predefined structure (facilitators and pioneering members) theonboarding was facilitated by the initiating members. This was achieved throughintroduction guides, explanatory video guides and a couple of members were onboardedusing a buddy system. One of the important learnings when it comes to onboarding non-DAO savvy individuals is to make it personal. This is where someone that is alreadyaffiliated with the culture, tools & vision helps the newcomer to get acquainted. This isbecause onboarding videos, blogs could help people individually onboard e.g. reputationrequest phase, sign up to socials and communication channels, but they don’t guaranteecontinued and active involvement of those individuals.  A couple do's and don'ts have been collected by the facilitators when it comes toonboarding non-web3 users: 

Do's

Give a small introduction to cryptocurrencyand decentralized tech (it’s advantages andshortcomings). Make sure to emphasize theimportance of the private key.Try to explain Web 3.0 within a context thatthey can understand, for example runningFB where the ad revenue goes to theaccounts (steemit).Make onboarding personal, guidenewcomers through the process.A common understanding of the narrativethis can make the members moreindependent and self-organizing.Make the link between the tool and thebenefit to their or our day-to-day lives clear.

Don't

 

 

 

Have an incomplete onboardingprocessFocus only on the functions of the toolinstead of the chosen purpose for it.Rush, give each other the time andspace to learn.

The l ea r n i ngs | Page 20

Collectively maintaining engagement (voting, staking,discussions, meetups & meetings): Like in any human organization maintaining individual & collective engagement has been achallenge, especially when the impact of the goals created through the use of a narrative isnot measured and felt throughout the organization. In this case, when it comes to using a DAO as an organizational coordination tool the basicchallenge of maintaining engagement will continue to be present with this tool. Inaddition, with the new possibility of creating network-based borderless organizations, thisbecomes a challenge beyond the walls of a building or department. Keeping a communitythat is geographically scattered (if this is the case) engaged it becomes even moreimportant to collectively foster a feeling of belonging which will in return reflect in moreactive engagement.  To foster this feeling of cohesion, it is up to the whole community tocreate a feeling of belonging and collectively maintain this (distribution of power comeswith the distribution of responsibility) for one and other. When it came to the community engagement (voting, proposal creation, attendingmeetings, staking) of CuraDAO the results were rather low. The majority of communitymembers that were actively engaged were the facilitators and some members with arelationship with these facilitators. The facilitators were tasked to encourageengagement, this clearly was not done right nor effectively looking at the overall voterparticipation rate & the number of proposals per member. What became clear was thatputting the emphasis on "how" to use the DAO isn't what keeps people engaged everyday.People are not interested in the features of a DAO, they are busy with their own problems.For this reason, the importance of collectively understanding the "why" will increase theengagement with this tool in our day-to-day life.  

Luuk Weber personal learnings

Fernando Trouw personal learnings

Runy Calmera personal learnings

Ruben Russel & Norvel Roosje personal learnings aremerged within "learnings" section of this report.

Individual facilitator learnings

Memberreflections.

Membe r r e f l e c t i o n s | Page 2 1

“In my opinion, my expectations weren't fully realized. Yes, it is Distributed andAnonymous. The latter inhibits the overall support for good communication. I alsoexpected new members to be attracted by the Blockchain use of the DAO. Initially,

that seemed to be the case. Then it became obvious that a prospect member's heartfor the community was key to feeling at home in the DAO. I expected better

attendance to the meetups, proper moderation of those and a vibrant pilot. The factthat most of the founding members do not live in Curaçao, and those living here have

busy daytime jobs, contributed to a slow pilot.” 

-Norvel Roosje, CuraDAO member/ Facilitator 

In this final section,  a couple of members express their experience being part of theCuraDAO pilot.

“Basically, I found it was easy once it was moving. However, I didn’t reallyunderstand what CuraDAO was all about and had a hard time understanding

what was expected by all the members. Furthermore, I didn’t know about al theCuraDAO rules/parameters.  I will be more creative in my next proposal.” 

 -Tiarah de Doelder, CuraDAO member

“I would describe it as a very interesting concept with awesome potential, but stillvery difficult to navigate for the average user due to the steep learning curve and

difficult to use security measures. If those challenges are overcome however, Icould totally see it used as a participatory group-based decision-making tool that

could inform regional policy.”  

-Patrick Scannel, CuraDAO member

“CuraDAO could be an effective tool, an organization that gives the people on the islandcollective control over monetary resources. However, for this tool be effectively applied it

is required that everyone in the organization understands why they are in it and whatissues they can collaboratively solve. This latter part is a process that takes time in the

same way as it takes time for any organization to understand its purpose and orient itselfaround tangible objectives it can achieve. I feel in CuraDAO we skipped over this crucialpart, what we were left with are just autonomous people in an organization, operatingfrom their own unique perspectives and then trying to achieve the goals set by just a

select few within the organization. It’s like having an ant colony in which selfishcollaboration is the method for survival, this never works out well.” 

 -Fernando Trouw, CuraDAO member / Facilitator

Membe r r e f l e c t i o n s | Page 22

“CuraDAO is a breakthrough work environment within the Caribbean. It is a pleasureto work in the First decentralized work environments on Curacao where we can make

big things happen for the Island!” 

-Romain de Jong, CuraDAO member 

“I believe that having a model based on consensus with regards to non-profitvalue creation truly was of great benefit for the community of Curacao, thetransparency of fund allocation and having a rather open non-hierarchical

decision-making structure made it so that what is commonly perceived to bebeneficial gets selected past the cut off filter.

 Cons: The only critiques I have about this structure is the fact that it is rather

scary to people who have no idea what the entire concept of a DAO etc is. At themeetup has been brought forth by numerous people that the tech bump deters a

lot of people from being more actively involved.” 

-Oneisey Rosini, CuraDAO member

“Don't be a prisoner of the past,become a pioneer of the future."

 

“For me, CuraDAO has been a great experience. Curacao, in general, is a countrywith a lot of potential, but also with a lot of challenges. But in my opinion

organizations like CuraDAO is exactly what we need not only the technology butalso the people in the community which use creativity and new and creative ways

to solve our problems. and that for me is the perfect combination for a betterCuracao"

 -Ruthgen Martis, CuraDAO member

- Farshad Asl

Fur t h e r r ead i ngs | Page 23

Furtherreadings.

Find out more:   www.curadao.io

 

Join the community:  CuraDAO Facebook group 

View the CuraDAO:   CuraDAO 

Caribbean Blockchain Network DAO report:

Curaçao DAO viability report  

 

DAOstack technologies: daostack.io

 

The Genesis DAO: GenDAO