“My salary acts as my business card, my car represents my honor, and my house is the synonym of my name, what a pity…” DJ DOC, famous for their witty and humorous satire of social phenomena criticized the materialistic Korean society through his song ‘I’m a Guy Like This’ in his 2010 album.
Ever since we were little, we have expressed our identity by leveraging aspects in our life that are not directly related to us such as which school I go to, which conglomerate I work in, or which neighborhood I live in. Twelve years later, I am represented by the following keywords “a salary man from IB, a large securities firm, who graduated from a famous overseas university” rather than ‘Professor Jo’; and looking back, I certainly expected others to think highly of me given my background.
Amid economic inflation due to COVID-19, the young who were deeply hurt and disappointed in people have gradually moved away from a centralized society to a decentralized one. Each day, people are living with a new ‘identity’ or developing an ‘alternate character’ in a decentralized society that is indifferent towards one's race, birth, or educational background. Ironically, a decentralized society allows individuals to pursue a more ‘authentic self’ life by focusing on true ‘abilities and values’ rather than how successful they are.
In order to pursue a more ‘authentic self’ life and work with people that share the same values, I arrived at the blockchain ecosystem that aims towards a decentralized society. The blockchain ecosystem has transformed the financial market through DeFi over the past two years, and technologies such as NFT have taken the entertainment market to the next level through new value-creation.
I was able to grow individually as a member along with the achievements and growth attained in such a short period of time. However, rapid growth meant adverse side effects such as security incidents caused by hackers' protocol attacks, work ethic issues triggered by rug pull schemes by developers, and most frequently, conflicts within the project team. Ultimately, finding the right people to work with is essential even in a decentralized environment.
The form of organization that truly decides and defines the work culture was the first-ever-seen ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO)’, not a traditional company. People from all over the world including the US, UK and Japan shared a common vision within the DAO and worked from different time zones. In order to achieve the organization’s goals, personnel administration such as (1)decision-making, (2)contribution measurement, and (3)equitable distribution of performance are essential, but hard to manage given the physical distance.
For example, when it comes to the direction of a project, individual opinions are collected, agendas are presented, and decisions are executed through voting; if the results clash with opinions of the members, the progress of the project naturally slows down due to their passive effort and support. Free riding of DAO members was also one of the main tasks to solve as a leader. Distribution of contribution and achievements was determined by the number of votes, so members that were discontent with the results often left the DAO. As the leader of a DAO, I aimed to empower each and every member by entrusting responsibility and authority, but it was challenging to get results that could satisfy everyone.
In theory, DAO seemed to operate in an efficient system, but there were countless tasks to be solved in the process of applying it to reality. Many DAOs were frustrated by conflict between ideals and reality, leading to continuous creation and extinction of the organizations. This led me to question, “What is DAO in the blockchain market, and what leads to its repetitive process of creation and extinction? How is it different from existing companies?”
DAO(Decentralized Autonomous Organization) refers to a form of organization created by individuals that share a common purpose and interest. In contrast to self-employment, corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies that are regulated by the law, there are no such regulations in DAO and all decisions are carried out via governance voting among the members. In other words, DAO is a form of organization characterized by transparency, fairness and flexibility. Given its ideal organizational culture envisioned by the MZ generation, blockchain ecosystems are unable to let go of the concept of a DAO despite successive failures.
Through ten years of experience in telecommunication and securities companies that are known for their conservative culture, and two years of experience in a DAO, I have realized that there is a huge contrast in the attitude and management of people. For example, “Manager Jo, finish what I have told you by the end of the day. Your salary is 6M KRW. You must obey in order to get paid.” It seems that the organizations have no choice but to have a rigid company culture because existing companies dictate in a slightly overbearing manner.
In contrast, the mindset of a DAO organization I experienced was “Determine your contribution towards the success of the project on your own. All you have to do is finish before the deadline set by everyone. You will be compensated for your work once you and the rest of the members reach consensus. Work flexibly, your success is ultimately the success of our project.” It is a goal-oriented culture where members can communicate freely and openly about their work.
DAO has given me a lot of responsibility and authority in the work process, so it has not only inspired me to achieve my own results, but also increased my overall work satisfaction. Although problems arise during the growth process, DAO members complement each other’s gaps and stimulate members to become more objective and honest about themselves through feedback.
During this process, I was able to think about what I am good at, what I lack, how I prefer to work, and my sense of values. DAO has led me to better understand my ‘authentic self’. Despite its complicated operation, the benefits of the DAO culture are crystal clear and it is pursued by many young people given its advantages. I have no doubt that over time, people who support DAO culture will become major members of society, and DAO will eventually become a form of organization that will be present among our lives.
The advantage of decentralization appears to be the possibility to explore various forms of ‘authentic self’ rather than trying to fit into a uniform standard. DAO is an organization and culture where one can understand themselves better, and discover one’s ‘authentic self’. The popularization of DAO over time is inevitable since ‘responsibility and authority’ and ‘fairness and autonomy’ that is valued by Millenials are in line with the culture and organization form of a DAO. In addition, DAO will provide answers to its members regarding how to operate the organizations on their own through trial and error, naturally establishing itself in our society. I am beyond excited towards the formation of DAO, the new form of organization that will lead to the creation of new values.