The Social 3.0 DAO Era Brought by FWB: Reshaping Social Connections, Rebuilding Society

Original Author: Chelsea Jiang

This year, the curiosity and passion of mainstream society for the digital economy ignited by NFTs has gradually developed into more discussions about DAOs, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.

DAOs provide a way to empower the social 3.0 era through the digital economy, returning to the collaboration between people. After the financial system was innovated through DeFi, combined with the economic value capture methods provided by NFTs that differ from traditional consumer goods, DAOs ultimately re-equalize human social collaboration.

Since the birth of Bitcoin, which disrupted the monetary system, the digital economy has once again given rise to a collaborative system that is about to change social systems—DAOs—extending the transformation of the economic system initiated by Bitcoin into society, forming a digital society of social 3.0.

At this point, the last piece of the puzzle is complete, and Web 3.0 officially embarks on its journey.

Web 1.0: Social 1.0: A Game for the Few

Since the birth of the internet in 1989, it has changed the way information is disseminated, opening up an online lifestyle after human reality, providing a medium for information transmission and social interaction. Social 1.0 broke the traditional media of text, books, newspapers, and oral transmission that had been controlled by a few authorities for two thousand years, creating social platforms primarily based on web pages.

Due to the early technology and resources being held by a very small segment of society, the flow of information remained unidirectional (although a few forums could provide channels for communication, content publication was still limited to those who controlled the information dissemination channels), and the content was confined to academic and technical discussions. Additionally, in Web 1.0, the high economic burden of the early internet meant that the reach was still very limited.

The World Wide Web, born in 1989, marked the beginning of the internet era, also known as Web 1.0. The forms of social dissemination that existed in the Web 1.0 era were still hijacked by traditional social organizations, using the internet platform to transfer the original audience online. Thus, in the Web 1.0 era, the original organizations that held the power of discourse continued to use the internet as a medium to disseminate information.

• Information Flow: Unidirectional

• Information Audience: Very Few

• Information Content: Academic, Technical

• Information Interaction: None (Few Forums)

• Information Equality: Unequal

Web 2.0: Social 2.0 Platform Era: UGC and the Influencer Economy

In 2004, the establishment of Facebook, now renamed META, defined the form of social platforms.

In 2003, Myspace created a new social platform where everyone could communicate, share, and socialize. Until the establishment of Facebook in 2004 (which has recently been officially renamed META), the era of internet Web 2.0 began. Social 2.0 gave internet participants a voice, known as UGC, User Generated Content, which initiated the now-familiar era of self-media.

The rising FAANG, China's BAT, and Douyin/Kuaishou platforms serve as the media platforms for the vast majority of people's social lives. These platforms created new social monopolies, replacing traditional social organizations and enjoying the dividends of the platform economy in the Web 2.0 era.

With the proliferation of the internet driven by a new generation of communication technologies into the lives of most people, the self-media era truly brought about the era that Andy Warhol foresaw, where everyone could be famous for 15 minutes, shaping a new influencer economy.

The power of discourse spread from authoritative institutions at the top of the social pyramid to individuals across various social strata who could use platforms to voice their opinions, but the platforms also replaced the original authoritative institutions as the controllers of discourse. The product of the self-media era is the influencer economy, capturing economic value within the traditional consumption economic system through e-commerce platforms.

• Information Flow: Unidirectional

• Information Audience: Most

• Information Content: Social, Entertainment, Shopping, Economy, etc.

• Information Interaction: Comments, Replies, etc.

• Information Equality: Partial Equality (Depends on Platform and Individual)

Web 3.0: Social 3.0 DAO Era: Decentralized Personal Voluntary Collaboration

In 2013, Daniel Larimer, the founder of Bitshare and EOS, first proposed DAC, Decentralized Autonomous Corporation, as a traditional collaborative organizational model within the context of digital assets. Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, redefined it as DAO, Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which became an autonomous community that could be organized by anyone.

In the context of blockchain, DAOs continue the innovation under the economic system of digital currencies. The success of MakerDAO and Uniswap DAO proves one thing: decentralized organizations can create value just like enterprises in traditional economic systems, even producing more innovations that create new value systems.

Amid this year's NFT boom, DAOs provided another way to collectively own economic value through communities. PartyDAO and PleaserDAO raised funds to collectively purchase and own assets in the form of NFTs, redefining the forms of asset purchase and ownership.

Until June of this year, the establishment of FriendwithBenefit DAO expanded beyond the mere transfer of economic value, pioneering a new Social DAO, a social type of DAO. From an initial full-time employee to now having 200 fixed contributors and 2,000 members, the Friends with Benefits community's admission is strictly reviewed and voted on by a committee, and requires holding a certain number of FWB tokens to represent community membership within the DAO.

Unlike previous DAO communities, the founders of FWB are not limited to the digital economy and did not initially carry economic or product goals. Instead, it is a gathering of individuals who appreciate each other, exploring the changes and impacts that web 3.0 may bring to everyone's life, making it a Social DAO.

DAOs represent a new paradigm for reaching people in Web 3.0, marking the next cultural phenomenon after NFTs provided creative talents with tools to capture economic value, shifting from economic capital to social capital, and opening the era of social 3.0.

• Information Flow: Bidirectional

• Information Audience: A similar group within the threshold of digital currency

• Information Content: Social, Entertainment, Shopping, Economy, Digital Currency, etc.

• Information Interaction: Communication, Work, Socializing

• Information Equality: Equal (Except for Governance Systems)

Friends with Benefits: Opening Digital Identities in Daily Life

Starting in September 2020, a social experiment evolved from a group chat to Discord, an online communication software where rules and permissions can be freely established, hosting a server with a hundred channels for discussing topics, generating a large amount of daily discussions about art, trading, music, games, and even food.

Friends with Benefits, created by the native inhabitants of digital currency, has seen the birth of the $FWB token, which represents not only economic value but also social capital. The ownership of the token serves as proof of community identity. The value of social tokens began to be recognized in September of this year when a16z led a $10 million financing round, certifying DAO as the next major track in the capital market.

At the same time, FWB successfully reached mainstream groups outside the digital economy, meaning that those who create value in the mainstream economy will see digital economy integrate into mainstream society, merging economic value and permeating into people's daily lives.

When people gather because they believe in a common mission, the world begins to change.

The release of the Bitcoin white paper in 2008 sparked discussions among tech geniuses about this technology that disrupts traditional financial systems, leading to the formation of Bitcoin forums, which became the birthplace of countless innovations, including Ethereum.

Tech geniuses brought new monetary models to the world through technology, changing traditional economic systems. As a social DAO, FWB began to focus on people, providing a way to reorganize communication, learning, and collaboration among individuals.

As an online community, FWB is the first DAO organization to provide offline meeting scenarios for community members. Unlike traditional offline forums in the digital economy, which usually discuss various technological developments or business activities, FWB's offline meeting opportunities resemble gatherings among friends. By connecting online identities with offline social forms, it permeates into people's daily lives, providing a new venue for creative individuals to capture economic value after NFTs.

After launching the social token, FWB organized collaboration among people from various industries and backgrounds worldwide to produce content and activities, genuinely impacting people's thoughts and lives. FWB has formed collective power and is about to open its fourth phase of life to everyone, reflecting value for people from any background/profession/experience, not stopping at mere contemplation but creating a new world.

Phase One: Social Experiment: Formation of Consensus, A Human-Centered Beginning

In the Bitcoin white paper, Satoshi Nakamoto proposed a consensus mechanism through Proof of Work (POW), defining consensus through the decentralized nature of blockchain. FWB, as a social DAO, returns to the foundation of consensus among the group, which is people. The majority of society remains in their established living states, completing their lives, while a small portion explores the next form of society. A group of people gathers together to form a consensus.

The search for value shifts from external economic value inward, returning to the essence of people, their value, knowledge, experience, and interests. As social animals, when a group of similar or different people comes together, it can lead to the collision of ideas or the beginning of the next great era.

Because ultimately, the change in people may stem from a friend's conversation, an accidental dinner, or a chance encounter after work. Like NFTs, it is the next form of creating economic value.

Phase Two: Social Capital: The Economic Value of Social Capital, Screening Community Members

Your social capital may not directly equate to the economic value of the tokens you own; it is not just external property but is generated by you and your social relationships, creating value in society, forming your social capital.

FWB DAO issued the $FWB token and successfully reflected the social capital brought by this social DAO in the economic value of the token by requiring community members to hold a certain number of $FWB tokens as a threshold.

The decentralized governance of the DAO allows people to genuinely participate in the formation, governance, and production of the community, with a transparent process that grants community members the right to participate. The governance process is determined by the community, and token holders directly own the community. The community's consensus, identity, and sense of ownership are captured through the token's economic value.

Members are both users of the community's products and part of the team shaping the community. This attracts more people who want to participate.

Phase Three: Social Identity: Forming Community Collaboration Mechanisms, Producing Content and Activities

FWB redefines decentralized collaboration, reshaping the way people cooperate, lowering information barriers, and removing intermediaries. As a member of this community, as long as both parties agree voluntarily, they can quickly start creating value together.

In this online community platform, Discord, different sub-forums have formed based on various themes, and the entire community has exceeded 2,000 people who can choose topics of interest for discussion. Among them, about 200 contributors are divided into seven directions based on products, responsible for weekly editorials, membership and rights, product design and development, city subDAOs, and event operations.

Digital Identity Redefines Socializing

The FWB community has developed a new digital identity verification application, Gatekeeper, which is freely available to everyone, redefining social interaction. The offline life of FWB requires verification of online on-chain identities, redefining the content of identity, extending online digital identity behaviors into offline daily life, thus expanding the definition of identity to encompass both offline and online identity behaviors, reflecting the digitization of social capital.

One can imagine the future where various data recorded on blockchain wallets (there are reports that Discord is already in beta testing to associate publicly recorded data on the blockchain with Ethereum addresses), including financial assets, transaction behaviors, and participation in activities, truly forming a character profile that can be applied in social, work, and learning contexts in human life.

The true digital identity of individuals, their interests, backgrounds, and experiences will disrupt the fragmented, scattered, and broken data storage of traditional society, removing rigid, homogeneous, and fixed information lacking personal color, greatly lowering the threshold for people to get to know, understand, and interact with each other, rapidly reducing communication costs and friction.

People can quickly find their kindred spirits without missing out like the tale of high mountains and flowing water.

At the same time, different DAOs have begun to attempt mutual cooperation as communities, already starting to collaborate and create value collectively, amplifying the power of the community to achieve true value.

Reforming Education to Redefine Learning

The community also plans to launch FWB University: learning and training about Web 3.0 in the near future. The learning institution formed from this social DAO may reshape the way of learning.

People prefer to learn from those around them rather than from textbooks, and not from fixed frameworks defining learning content, but exploring under the guidance of self-motivation and interests—not just learning, but on the path to becoming geniuses.

Phase Four: Social Local: City Autonomy, Continuing to Open the Community

Unlike Web 2.0, which breaks the constraints of time and space, allowing people in different times and places to connect, FWB's next step is to connect you with your neighbors, forming a community in your city.

Currently established city hubs include London, New York, and Los Angeles, which will build their local teams and begin offline daily activities in their local communities. At the same time, to welcome more people to participate in this community, FWB has lowered the number of tokens required and launched a scholarship program to reward those who create value for the community.

FWB is also beginning to penetrate people's daily lives in local communities, where you and your neighbors become true community members through FWB, and continue to lower the threshold to welcome people from all over the world to join this community.

Just like the previous Bitcoin forums, gathering a group of smart people will lead to the next great product or invention.

After technological innovation comes the evolution of civilization.

This time, FWB's DAO has reopened the era of social 3.0, where a person can be not just an observer but also an administrator, a creator, or a user. A person's identity is no longer fixed but fluid and changing.

In this community, you are not merely looking up in a one-way manner; the relationship between people returns to equality. No matter where you are, who you are, what university you attended, or where you have worked, DAOs truly break the original social structure's hierarchy, returning to communication centered on people, removing your identity, status, and assets, asking who you really are and what value you can provide.