The Sovereign Web3 Contributor: Navigating Alignment, Incentives, and Getting Shit Done

Transcript

the next speaker that is excellent uh the next speaker is going to talk about the Sovereign web 3 contributor navigating alignment incentives and getting done uh ladies and Gentlemen please put your hands together for FES testing testing okay awesome um hi so I'm talking about my favorite topic which is contribution in web 3 um I got into web 3 about two years ago and the status that I was in was more um not fun employed but like looking towards getting much more sovereignty in my professional Direction

um so I had kind of explored freelance work and working as a freelancer from a 9 to five was daunting but I also had the opportunity to learn what that really meant how do I take control of the projects that I want to work on how do I really rely on myself uh for the things that I do um and what sort of impact does that have and so I was able to use that uh experience really when I entered the Dow space um but what I found and what was kind of propelled this conversation was I think that I go like this the why um I have many people who are really interested in contributing to

web 3 or maybe those that have had experiences that maybe weren't so great um in this particular environment we do have kind of um not a need a dependency on onboarding uh people don't really know where to go and how they fit in um they want to add value but they may come to a Discord and say like hey I just I just want to help um and then also you know being interested in working in the web3 ecosystem there are a couple of things that that you would actually need to do um and so for many of them you know we are in this decentralized kind of ecosystem where for the first time you enter a space in which you really

kind of Choose Your Own Adventure um and so for us to kind of understand how the evolution of contribution has landed us I I think I'd like to take us a little bit step back so contribution like digitally has evolved from web one to web 3 and so with web one it was primarily those that people wanted to consume information or had like Niche groups in which they would really be more transactional so they post things they would find things things like that and then Web Two they were much more like actively engaged and you know that's where we started like the real growth of digital communities and blogging and content creation but what we also saw though too is that content

creators were really feeding the machine and it was the machine which are these social platforms that were benefiting from the contribution so what I found was interesting in terms of web 3 was this idea of ownership through also through collaboration I mean I think that being an active participant was one thing that we could easily kind of transcend to but this idea that you were also a stakeholder that you had a choice or decision-making um opportunity to really decide the direction of your community and for that that was new and that was interesting and that was also very exciting but when we talk about the idea of sovereignty

yes you can enter a Discord you can participate in any way that you can but the value that you acrew and give to your community might not be from what you're expecting maybe it's the community that you've actually been in isn't one that is the greatest fit so I wanted to kind of shift this idea of like what does it actually mean to be a sovereign contributor so then it comes down to this idea of like self- custodial ship we all heard this idea of like not your keys not your cone slogan um but we need one for for contribution when we look at in terms of dii like self- custody so it's like all right I understand that I need to take ownership of my assets but like what about ownership of you and

your type of activity we don't really have that narrative uh in in web 3 contribution and so that's something that we do need because the narrative that we do have when it comes to web 3 contribution is the idea of community and collectiveness um n and you know these are all synergies that are dependent in like coordination these are all synergies that are dependent on a healthy culture of an organization but when it comes to you feeling a part and adding value to your contribution to your organization or doubt using this example it might not have kind of the the reciprocal benefit that you expect or others as well and so what we really

do need is have this kind of conversation as to we're glad you're here but how do I add value and how do I acove value for my organization and so I think that's where it first starts it's like you as an individual kind of take the reign as a Choose Your Own Adventure if you will in terms of your da uh contribution there's no handbook or standardization um when it comes to contributing in Dows or web 3 um I was kind of Lucky when it came to freelance I was able to go on like YouTube and understand you know what it really was meant to be a freelancer what does an entrepreneur do how do I succeed as an entrepreneur there are no certain handbooks for that as well and so like I said before there's this dependency on

like all right well I want to participate I really like this idea of you know working in Dows but I don't know how I fit in you know I'm not techsavvy um but I think that because we're so early every Community has the opportunity to kind of shape the way that contribution actually fits them but also that standardization or manual of that organization shouldn't be Dow dependent it should be Collective based on the individuals as a contributor so the idea of freedom in web 3 is is is definitely thrilling right like I said before not your keys not your coin the self- custodial ship this idea that you can enter a Discord

and participate in any way that you'd like um but that's not how our original World works right we we live in a world of hierarchical structures maybe um pulling from my example when I used to work um in a particular environment they were always telling me to stay in my Lane so for the first time when I worked in Dows um or contributed to Dows if you will nobody told you to stay in your lane you can participate in any way that you want wanted to you can even listen in to meetings if you wanted to if you were a little bit nosy like I was or you can add value and say Hey I want to do this because I think it would be really great for the da or submit a proposal or participate in governance so what we are doing is actually participating in I in

ideas and activities that are quite new but not new to the world but maybe new to our experiences and so those are some of the obstacles that you know although we do see decentralization and trustless um the human Centric approach to this idea of sovereignty and a web three Sovereign contributor is something that needs to be explored on a group level but also as an individual right so those are things are like asking yourself like why do I want to be part of this community who can I ask for for help if I need any help how do I add value um and so those things really the buck stops with you and so when participating in in web three as a dow contributor or

contributor in any sort of way you have to ask yourself those questions as well because in order for us to actually be effective nodes in this like beautiful ecosystem of effective coordination we all have to be effective nodes within this ecosystem of coordination um so I think a lot of the the narratives are around the technology as I mentioned before around these ideas of decentralization and coordination um but we also need to kind of remind ourselves that there are humans behind those avatars on the Discord so building relationships with one another is

actually very important um having allies within my Dows and that I can talk to about my struggles have actually helped me sustain working in them also within the bear as well so applying a human Centric approach uh to things as is also very important as an individual but also like checking with yourself as well to see whether or not the environment that you're in is actually valuable for you to be in whether it's mental or health or or you know whether it's just like Good Vibes for you um because what we've also heard is that I wish our organiz our da would do this or I wish that the you know ecosystem would provide this but we are all individuals and so if you're in an environment that might not

serve you or you don't add value or receive any value then you also have the opportunity to leave um and it's it's on Discord so you can really just close your computer on that end um so I just like kind of want to close with a couple of things um that I learned um through my Dow experience um and so just that like kind of that helped me so when I entered the Dow ecosystem I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do um which in most cases to begin with was governance but I obviously didn't start in governance because I needed to really see how I could add value to the organization so

what I did was actually leverage some of the skill sets that I had previously and some of the things that I've noticed within contributors is because everything seems so techy they don't actually think that they can bring their old experiences whether professional or in life into this ecosystem but actually you can you can leverage your previous experiences and skill sets within this ecosystem because majority of the activities that we do in Dows majority of them are non-technical so adding value to that will actually enhance not only your reputation and your Social Capital and the value that you bring to your organization but it'll also add value to

the organization as well and then you'll actually be seen other things that uh I've noticed though too is um identifying opportunities so there are tons of things that you can do within a Dao um and you really just have to find the ones that you can take up on and claim ownership on and actually continues to not every type of activity is the fun one but as you continuously build and as you continuously collaborate with other people it's really going to be a fun ride participation in governance so as a I guess self-described govern nerd I can understand how daunting it can be in

participating in governance but as a a stakeholder within this organization it's really important so understanding kind of what the goals are within your organization reading proposals asking questions because you are a part of a community will allow you really to participate in ways through governance that you might not have been able to in your real life what else proactiveness um nobody's going to tell you what to do or how to do it so it is really up to the individual to kind of put their hand up and claim ownership in what they're they're doing and then more people would be willing to work with you

or you'll be able to build a reputation towards that so that's actually like really really important um especially in in this particular environment and and celebrate your wins so you know we not many of us may have like suffered burnouts or disappointments when we are working or contributing to the Dow um but you know celebrating your small wins will allow you as an individual too to kind of celebrate that what you've accomplished in this particular new space as well because if you're happy then you're able to continue and do work but also add value to The Vibes of your of your

community and so finally uh within within Dows they're all made of humans so developing actual authentic relationships is really really important because out of it you might actually make lifelong friends so that that's it for my presentation thank you for listening [Music] um I don't see any uh questions on the screen but I was wondering if anybody had any questions no okay ah Adrian um if I were to do something

different what I would I do differently if I were to be a a contributor I think that the way that I entered contribution was trying to be as valuable as as possible so when I wanted to you know do certain activities I didn't really look at it from like in a human Centric perspective because I had come from a a 9 to5 I was looking at like oh I could do that job that would be really effective but I think the thing is is that like I I needed to kind of ride the wave and really understand the people that are participating within it because being effective in a community sometimes doesn't really matter right um it's also

understanding how the culture is like but I think that what I I would have probably done prior to that is rather than like oh I'm really interested in this Dow because what they're doing um and this is kind of how I could add value by doing these particular activities I probably would have gone through like a more human Centric approach to things like do I like The Vibes here how are the people what makes it fun because the first couple of months like I was in a lot of dows and I got burned burn out because I just thought that I was like okay we have to do all of this work to achieve all of these great things but I never really asked myself as like whether or not I'd like to um still do do these things do I like being here can I leave and then it

became a weird situationship when I didn't leave like early enough so so those are some of the things that I would do to change um so somebody had asked do you think better onboarding sessions would improve the way people can find where to contribute I mean the the the straight answer is yes uh but I think that the most prior to onboarding I think that Dows or collectives decentralized collectives uh really need to ask themselves why like why are they here what do they want to achieve and what type of members um do they really want to accept within their community and what sort of activities can those

members do to add value and receive value as well because by setting up those um kind of standards of like this is who we are and this is the why and this is like how we can achieve it together allows people not only a North star at achieving things but also allows themselves to see themselves where is most needed and so that will actually allow the transition of or the process of onboarding much much easier that's it actually so thank you so much