Newcomers getting started with DAO start from "permissionless"

To understand why people join a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), the term "Permissionlessness" is a good starting point. Finding the most appropriate definition of an entry point is the master key to open unknown territory. I like the following definition of "permissionless":

A techno-social system is considered permissionless if, by following publicly stated procedures, participation in the use, development and governance of that system or infrastructure does not require permission from an authority.

— Kelsie Nabben and Michael Zargham

In my opinion, DAOs are inherently permissionless. Integrating/joining a DAO is not a hiring decision made by someone on you personally. As Nabben and Zargham say, it's determined by whether you follow a "publicly stated procedure". When you decide to follow this procedure, you have become a member of the DAO.

The reality is that we are still in the early stages of DAO membership. The onboarding process for most DAOs today is fairly simple and usually boils down to owning a token. Just like entering the subway system, you only need to show your subway ticket and you can enter. However, this simple token-based DAO membership is only a superficial phenomenon of joining the DAO through "complying with public procedures".

The "membrane" of DAO

Organizational integration in the future will be more permeable than it is today. Like all organizations, DAOs have boundaries that separate their inner workings from their surroundings. Nabben and Zargham point out that anyone can cross an unauthorized border without obtaining approval from some authority. You can participate as long as you follow the publicly stated procedures.

Generally speaking, when the simulator has been tested enough against the natural design, it will know whether it is going in the right direction. "Permissionless" simulates some basic components needed for life itself, such as the "permissionless" of DAO, much like the permeable boundary-membrane of a biological cell.

Membranes: the future form of integration into organizations

Cells have similarities to the public declaration process used, developed and governed by participating DAOs. In the image above, a special class of proteins called "transporters" are embedded in the cell's two membranes. These proteins act as a bridge between the inside and outside of the cell. There are many types of transporters, each designed to move energy and matter across cell membranes in a very specific way. Each type of transporter can be viewed as participating in a specific protocol for unit cooperation.

This is how cells maintain their boundaries while remaining open to their surroundings. This film is unlicensed. There is no external force to direct the traffic, and there is no artificial person in the cell to authorize what can and cannot enter. Things need only obey the "publicly" exposed interfaces of these transporters to join the cell.

Permissionless organizational structures thus run deep into the coding of life. It is an emerging, modular coordination design. It is also the key to the truly large-scale forms of human cooperation that are now emerging with decentralized autonomous organizations.

How to define DAO membership

We can now return to the question of what it means to go through this membrane and join a DAO.

Membership is not consistently defined across the DAO universe. For some, simply joining a Discord server constitutes a membership, while for others you need an unforgeable token that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course, each DAO should be free to choose how to define membership. But is there some general pattern that can account for DAO membership?

I believe there is a general narrative of DAO membership that builds on the permissionless concept proposed by Nabben and Zargham. Simply put, membership boils down to "the new entrant's agreement to abide by the public statement and to participate in the DAO's procedures". In other words, membership is a permissionless agreement reached by members, that is, an agreement to abide by the use, construction, and management of the DAO.

DAO membership and onboarding

The real question is what exactly this permissionless membership agreement looks like. Onboarding processes today tend to be as simple as owning a token or even just agreeing to the community terms and conditions on a Discord server. But the protocols that actually agree to use, build, and govern DAOs are more complicated than that. DAOs are complex systems that rely partly on technology, partly on sociology, and even partly on biology.

The procedures for complying with a DAO are much more nuanced than following the rules of a blockchain protocol. In order to comply with the procedures of these complex sociotechnical systems, members need to first understand them. This means that the training and mentoring process is absolutely necessary for newcomers to get comfortable with the DAO's protocol. The idea of compliance is meaningless without understanding and training in the process of using, building, and managing DAOs.

The onboarding of a DAO is closely related to the training and mentoring process. Because they are permissionless, the process for these training and mentoring looks very different from that of a traditional enterprise. There is no human resources department to check the recruitment process. Anyone who wants to join can join, as long as they agree to abide by the relevant agreement.

DAO internal membership development

The reality of this new type of joining organization requires a rethinking of its training and mentoring processes. The DAO will need to clarify for new members what constitutes a public commitment, and what form of contract the community may take. Clarifying these agreements would mean that all DAO members should share with each other how to use, contribute to, and govern the organization, agreeing on a fundamental understanding from the start. This understanding will have to be deepened over time as member responsibilities increase, and greater responsibility requires greater commitment to comply with the DAO's protocol.

In the process of members participating in DAO, the expansion of responsibilities means that the content of work involved will become more in-depth. Looks more and more like continuous personal professional development. DAO membership begins with a standardized and public onboarding protocol, which over time evolves into an increasingly personalized journey of professional and personal development. At every step, the agreement to use, build, and manage the DAO must be clear, public, and permissionless. It's not easy, especially as the responsibilities of members deepen and things get more complicated. This is the challenge before us now. Clear role articulation and a community reputation system are just some of the keys to broadening member onboarding and participation, but they don't meet the developmental needs of today's DAOs.

DAO is the embodiment of cybernetics

DAOs serve as a new kind of technical lair to house human communities and work. The onboarding process will continuously adjust the way individuals use, build and govern these systems according to the differentiated community value designed by the DAO at different stages of development. It serves as a kind of technological lair that enables the DAO and the community to function together as one cybernetic entity, partly through people, partly through machines.

Getting newcomers into a cybernetic system like this sounds mysterious today, and that's because we haven't tried enough. The blueprint for corporations and machines to work together often doesn't start out smoothly for people and the planet.

DAO Membership and Governance Mechanism

DAOs create an opportunity to transform this partnership by placing the governance of these technical systems firmly in the hands of community members. Using and contributing to DAOs are important functions, but governance is the concrete way to define the mission and operating parameters of these systems. Governance comes with great power and with it comes great responsibility.

The first step in assuming responsibility for the governance of a DAO must begin with agreeing to abide by its protocol. To do this, DAO governance needs to first understand these protocols. In other words, they need to be positioned, just like the rest of the DAO. In fact, directors need more guidance and positioning in the early stage, because their responsibilities are much greater.

If membership is achieved by agreeing to abide by the DAO's protocol, then a director has the same requirement, and by definition a person cannot actually be a DAO director without also being a DAO member. Both require compliance and understanding of the underlying protocol.

Linking DAO governance to DAO membership is a logical extension of this argument. This is different from the way corporations are governed by shareholders today. Requiring membership and positioning may prove to be too onerous for attracting capital into a DAO. It may also be more seriously questioned because of the token-based governance method, but these are an important part of the way DAO works today.

Regarding the relationship between DAO members and DAO governance, there are still many issues worthy of in-depth research. DAOs are an important new form of organization. They hold the future of human communities and human work in their hands. We now have a window to revisit fundamental assumptions about how we work with these systems and maintain oversight. We have reason to respect the way things have been done in the past, but we must also create a broader space for the development of these future human cooperative institutions.