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Difference Between DAOs and Startup Societies
Difference Between DAOs and Startup Societies

27 Mar 2023

Difference Between DAOs and Startup Societies

What is a DAO? DAO is short for decentralised autonomous organization. A DAO has a community of members. Members are typically required to deposit cryptocurrency into a shared asset pool that they manage using governance tokens. A member’s voting power is usually proportional to the value of the assets they contribute to the pool. The organization is decentralised and autonomous in that there is no central or external authority controlling the DAO and its asset pool; all actions are determined by member proposals and votes. The processes of publishing proposals, voting, and transferring assets are all managed using smart contracts on the blockchain. DAOs are crypto-native communities focused on delivering economic benefits. Uniswap, the decentralised exchange, is managed by a very big DAO.  What is a Startup Society?  The phrase “Startup Society” describes a social model inspired by software startups. According to Balaji Srinivasan, “a startup society is a new community built internet-first, usually for the purpose of solving a specific social problem in an opt-in way.” Members of startup societies choose to join because they are united by shared values or a sense of moral purpose. Startup societies are likely to be founder-led initially, so they are not necessarily decentralised, but they may likely use blockchains. What is the difference between a DAO and a Startup Society? All DAOs are decentralised, but many Startup Societies may have some degree of centralised leadership. DAOs are typically narrowly focused on providing economic benefits for members. Startup Societies may be united by goals and values that transcend simple economic benefit.  DAOs are about blockchains and economic benefits, while Startup Societies use blockchains and may offer economic benefits, but are about a shared value in the sense that members are motivated by what Balaji proposes to call “One Commandment” - a clear value.  An Edge Case Example - Startup Society or DAO? Let’s consider a group of “sneakerheads” - people obsessed with shoe fashion - that has no centralised leader and is based on a blockchain. The group initially provides economic benefits to members by having the group allocate its shared asset pool to stock in sneaker companies. They have more social cohesion than your typical DAO because they all enjoy talking about shoes and have what you might call a subculture.  Then, horrified by working conditions at big brand shoe factories, they decide as a group to adopt a new model of providing economic benefits. They will create socially responsible profit by funding fair trade with artisan cobblers that generates a modest profit for members who stake to support the platform operation and growth. Members get shoes and/or money, cobblers get membership in the group and a voting token, a new market and buyers willing to pay a fair price. Each member gets one “membership vote” and up to four extra votes depending on the size of their stake.  Is this group a DAO, or a Startup Society? The answer is…yes. You could call it either one or both. As you can see, the line can become blurry. But at Jur, we would definitely call it a DAO that has evolved into a Startup Society. Perhaps there is no need to get caught up on the label. But if a DAO wants to evolve in the direction of a Startup Society, it may be helpful to start using the term to evoke greater possibilities, open minds, and broaden horizons.  Learn more about Startup Societies, Network States, and DAOs in our Discord Community.

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<strong>How To Prepare Your Startup Society Pitch</strong>

23 Mar 2023

How To Prepare Your Startup Society Pitch

Tim Draper, Ed Hesse, and Trent Mc'Conaghy will select five winning pitches for the Startup Society Founders’ Awards. Each winner will receive $2,000 USD plus 1,000 $JUR to support their startup society. Anyone can enter but to win, your society proposal needs to be clear, attractive to others, and realistic to achieve. Let’s talk about how to set up the basic structure to support a winning pitch: To enter, you will fill out a form to describe your startup society concept (which takes less than 2 minutes). In order to craft a winning proposal, you should focus on addressing the following questions: Why would people want to join your society? Does it have broad appeal with values that are common to many people? Or perhaps your society would only appeal to a narrow niche, but your citizens would be passionately committed. Is your goal useful and achievable? How could your society benefit citizens in a way that is realistic? When someone asks “what’s in it for me.” the answer should be something that is meaningful to them and something your group could really deliver.  As you consider your answers, try to imagine what someone could say that would get you excited about an idea like yours. Remember a time when you felt inspired reading about a similar vision? Strive to capture and share that creative energy.  You can also join the Jur community on Discord to talk about Startup Societies in general and get reactions to your specific idea. An Awards Committee will evaluate your concept and assign a score of 1 to 5. The ten highest-scoring proposals will be shortlisted for evaluation by the judges. Each founder on the shortlist will get support from the Jur team to refine their pitch for the judges. The judges will score the pitches on three criteria: desirability, feasibility, and viability. In other words, do people want a society like this? Can the goals of their society be achieved? Do the goals bring substantial benefits so that their society will endure?Pitch your Startup Society now!

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Understanding Polkadot Crowdloans: What Are They, How They Work, & How To Participate

06 Feb 2023

Understanding Polkadot Crowdloans: What Are They, How They Work, & How To Participate

Polkadot Parachain Auctions Polkadot Crowdloans are used to increase projects’ bids in Polkadot Parachain auctions. Parachains are parallel blockchains that connect to the Polkadot Relay Chain. To connect to the Relay Chain, projects must lease a parachain slot by staking DOT tokens. Slots are offered in an auction process. Projects that stake the highest amount of DOT tokens win the opportunity to lease a slot for a defined period of time by leaving their DOTs in the staking module. Projects can acquire DOT with their own funds and stake them to bid, but there is also another option: the crowdloan.  What is a Polkadot Crowdloan and how does it work? A Polkadot Crowdloan is a mechanism that allows anyone to support a project’s parachain auction bid by locking DOT tokens in a crowdloan module. DOT tokens staked through crowdloans can be added to the project’s own staked DOTs to increase the total staking bid for the auction. Parachain auctions last one week. Crowdloan campaigns also have specified start and end dates which are defined by the project. If there is a crowdloan open when an auction period closes, the DOTS staked in that crowdloan can be applied as a bid for the auction. Once a crowdloan campaign period ends, if the project has not won an auction, the staked DOTS are returned to their owners. However, if the project’s stake is sufficiently high to win a slot during the campaign period, all the DOTs in the staking module will remain locked for the entire duration of the lease.  Why participate in a  Polkadot Crowdloan? Projects usually offer a direct reward for participation. The most common form of reward is a payment in project tokens, often made at the end of the staking period. Crowdloan participation is also a way to signal support for a project that you believe in. Crowdloans offer projects and their supporters a way to support the Polkadot ecosystem, win a parachain slot, and start a flywheel of reciprocal support. The individual supports the project and Polkadot and the project reciprocates with project tokens, encouraging and helping the individual to participate in the project.  How to participate in a Crowdloan? Some projects may offer dApps(decentralised applications) DAPPs or access to centralised exchange features for participating in crowdloans, but the least expensive way will usually be to use the Polkadot.js browser extension with the Polkadot.js UI wallet. You will also need to buy some DOT, which is easy to do with fiat or crypto on Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken and you can also buy DOT with USDC on Kucoin and Bybit. Once you have purchased DOTs and sent them to your Polkadot.js address, you can use the Polkadot.js wallet to participate in the crowdloan. Navigate from the top menu to Parachains, select Crowdloans from the second Menu Bar, then locate the project you want to support and click contribute. Your wallet can support multiple accounts, so you will need to specify the account you want to use. Then select an amount of DOT between the minimum and maximum shown on the screen. Make sure that subtracting your contribution from your total balance will leave at least 1.1 DOT in your account. You must maintain a minimum balance of 1 DOT and there will be a small transaction fee.  It is easy to install the Polkadot.js wallet (only available for Firefox and Chrome). Once you have one of those browsers set up, just download the extension here and then follow the prompts on the screen to add an account and store the key.

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