For “web3,” one goal is to clean up some of the messier, more emotional human processes by placing them on the blockchain. A “smart contract” is a contract that is written straight into code, and the actions that it takes are both public and irrevocable. “Smart contracts” Supporters feel that a “trustless” system like this can bring individuals together to work on projects they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to.
Man Got Fired by DAO
Decentralized autonomous organisations (DAO) can be formed if enough people collaborate on the same project. DAOs are described as “a safe method to collaborate with internet strangers” by the Ethereum network, which hosts many of them. Remember when hundreds of people raised $47 million in a matter of days to buy a copy of the Constitution? They used a DAO to accomplish this.
It all started with a meme: ConstitutionDAO, cryptocurrency, and crowdfunding’s future.
Issuing governance tokens is one method of running a DAO that has been proven successful. Participants in Uniswap’s cryptocurrency exchange platform can vote on “development ideas” using tokens they received as part of the company’s token distribution. You can get the gist of the concept by imagining Instagram allowing users to vote on the features they would like to see added.
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a web3 startup that built a DAO. On Twitter, look for a user whose username ends in “.eth” to see whether they are an ENS client. As with web domain names, ENS handles might mark the beginning of an identity layer for web3: like going in with your Facebook account, but for crypto. About 300,000 people have signed up for the initiative thus far, which is a small number in the context of the wider internet.
ENS was one of the first cryptocurrencies I learned about last summer when I first started getting into the crypto realm. As far as I was concerned, I had no intention of becoming a trader or investment. Instead, I wanted to learn enough about crypto products to be able to ask better questions and craft more engaging articles as a result. So I opened two cryptocurrency wallets, one with Coinbase and the other with a business called Rainbow, and deposited $100 in ETH, the currency of Ethereum, into both of them.
People Raised $47 Million In a Matter of Days
The seemingly low-risk exploration was about to turn into something far more.
A few wonderful people at Rainbow got in touch after I tweeted about my ENS sleuthing and inquired as to whether or not I’d thought about registering a name. However, after taking a look at their website and learning more, I can see why. As of the time of this writing, my cryptographic identity was nothing more than a random string of letters and numbers. Casey Newton.eth would suffice. That name, along with platformer.eth, I bought for $5 a year because I thought it was a great deal.
Since then, I’ve done nothing with my new web3 identities because there’s nothing else to do but log into cryptocurrency exchanges.
On November 1st, a few months after I purchased my.eth domains, ENS launched a DAO. Even by web3 standards, the organisational structure of ENS is perplexing. True Names Limited, a Singapore-based non-profit, is leading and supporting ENS, according to my understanding. ENS is a decentralised protocol that runs on its own without the intervention of a central authority.