The future of work is DAO, and PermaDAO practices how to earn over ten thousand a month!

Is the Future of Work DAO?

If you are involved in the crypto space, you encounter various novel and dazzling concepts and grand narratives claiming to be disruptive every day. Since I entered the crypto industry in 2022, the most prominent narrative has undoubtedly been DAO. DAO, or Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is a native organizational form of Web3.

a16z published an article on its official website, arguing that with the development of cryptocurrency protocols, the future of work for the masses is not corporations, but DAOs, and the future of income is "X-to-earn."

In the future, ordinary people are likely not to work for companies. Instead, people will earn income in non-traditional ways through contributions, playing games, learning new skills, creating art, curating content, and more. The traditional way of making money is "working for money," but the future of income is "X-to-earn"—earning money by playing games, learning, creating, contributing…

This shift in the way we work may seem unbelievable, but it is not without precedent; it is akin to the idea of companies hiring employees in the 1800s, which seemed crazy at the time. Today, that craziness is represented by DAOs.

What are the Advantages of DAO?

From the perspective of enterprises, the traditional work model, as mentioned earlier, is an employment relationship between companies and individuals. Companies believe that only by binding employees can they tap into individual resources to contribute to corporate development, while individuals rely on the company's platform to showcase their value and time in exchange for compensation, creating a strong connection.

As time progresses, we subtly feel that this Web2 corporate paradigm focuses on internal company organization while neglecting external stakeholders. More and more traditional companies have many "peripheral stakeholders" as they grow, such as Xiaomi's fans, App Store developers, creators on Toutiao or Douyin, or drivers for ride-hailing services… These participants contribute to the company's development from the outside, but companies find it challenging to maintain alignment with these stakeholders through incentive measures. Therefore, in the information age, the traditional corporate employment model as a means of resource coordination is rapidly becoming outdated.

From the perspective of individuals, limited by the scarcity of personal time resources, individuals bind everything to the development and future of a single company. Aside from earning time-based compensation, most people cannot share in the corporate development dividends; the income model remains at the lowest level of exchanging time for money. However, the resources and skills accumulated by individuals cannot be reused or expanded outside their current employer, either due to strong connection constraints, lack of time, or simply not having the freedom to leverage personal advantages for compounded returns. Thus, in a situation where we possess specialized skills and limited time resources, companies are no longer suitable for helping us coordinate personal activities and obtain income, or rather, they do not provide individuals with the freedom of choice.

With the development of blockchain technology, DAOs will become the resource coordination layer of this new world, needed by enterprises and even more so by individuals. Below, we will focus on exploring the paths and practices for individuals within DAOs.

The main difference between DAOs and traditional corporate organizations is that DAOs can establish a more symbiotic relationship with their stakeholders and participants. So, what roles can individuals play to contribute within a DAO?

As shown in the diagram, in a DAO organization, individuals can contribute as token holders, network participants, bounty hunters, or core contributors, making work more flexible, fluid, and enjoyable than our accustomed 9-to-5 routine. For example:

• Token Holders: By holding the DAO organization's tokens, they gain value appreciation and dividends from the organization's growth, as well as participate in DeFi and other passive income streams.
• Network Participants: They can truly experience the specific applications or projects of the DAO organization, such as earning money by playing Axie, StepN, or other P2E games, or earning tokens or rewards through chatting, socializing, and contributing computing power via their phones.
• Bounty Hunters: They can earn money by completing clearly defined tasks at an agreed price or duration. For instance, individuals with professional skills or specialties in development, events, translation, and design can provide services to multiple DAOs simultaneously and earn income by completing specific tasks.
• Core Contributors: Core contributors are what we typically understand as employees today—those who focus full-time on a project or organization, forming the core team of the DAO. In the future, working for this team and working for a company will not be significantly different—DAOs will still have core contributors whose interests are directly aligned with the health of the organization.

Compared to closed organizations, DAOs resemble open economies, rewarding contributions based on the value provided by individuals, regardless of its source. This means that everyday actions contributing value to the network could potentially translate into revenue opportunities. In future DAO activities, the openness of the cryptocurrency economy will allow individuals to participate in multiple DAO organizations, matching and obtaining different income streams and ownership returns.

In this new future of work, jobs will become more transient and dynamic—the transition costs between jobs will be lower, and work will be broken down into more atomic units. The entire world will unify under a single labor model, making opportunities more apparent. We will discover new opportunities based on our on-chain history, ownership, and reputation, and we will be matched to places where we can contribute and "work" with the best comparative advantages.

My Practice

Since the future of work is DAO, how should we as individuals proceed?

After gaining a preliminary understanding of DAOs, I embarked on my exploration of the DAO path with three questions.

• Is there a way to transition from being a speculator to becoming an industry practitioner?
• Is there a truly viable DAO organization where I can contribute and enhance myself?
• Is there a DAO job that can provide stable income to kickstart my digital nomad career?

Initially, I was optimistic about the Korean project Terra ecosystem, particularly the Anchor project, which offered a stablecoin yield of 20% annually. I calculated that an investment of 300,000 yuan could yield a stable monthly income of 5,000 yuan, which seemed much easier than working a job. Who would have thought it would collapse in an instant?

In May 2022, I started playing StepN, a project that allows you to earn money by running. I recouped my investment in thirty days, increasing from one pair of shoes to five, and then to synthesizing shoes on the BSC chain, only to ultimately fall victim to my own FOMO.

Later, I returned to airdrops, hoping to catch a windfall like the tens of thousands from UNI or FORTH in 2021, but airdrops had become highly competitive, and the immense uncertainty left me exhausted.

These explorations did not make me a practitioner, nor did I earn money; I was left with a lingering sense of unwillingness to give up in the crypto space. I realized that none of these were the true path of DAO; there was nothing substantial to do, and I was merely drifting like duckweed with the market, becoming a wandering gambler.

Initial Encounter with PermaDAO

At the end of June 2023, by chance, I stumbled upon a recruitment notice for PermaDAO and boldly ventured in, initially intending to see what skills crypto practitioners needed. I inadvertently saw the message "contributions can earn rewards" and practiced it in the marketing guild, reading the rules, onboarding, and completing tasks on Notion. I documented two records, and by Friday, I actually received 0.1 AR tokens in my wallet.

After running through the entire contribution process, I began to understand some concepts and projects, such as PermaDAO, Arweave, evervision, everpay, Permaswap… As I delved deeper, I discovered that PermaDAO had gathered a group of partners building the Arweave ecosystem. Although we were located around the globe, we could coordinate various guilds through Notion in an orderly manner, pushing daily work forward, frequently holding meetings to discuss community issues and proposals, and continuously evolving the operational rules of the entire organization.

After two weeks of trying, I felt that PermaDAO could answer the three questions I raised in my exploration of the DAO path. This DAO was genuinely doing things, focusing on work rather than token prices, which solidified my determination to treat this as my career.

Review of DAO Contributions and Achievements

I started as a newcomer in the marketing guild. Every day, I promptly carried out tasks across various WeChat, Telegram, Discord, and Twitter platforms, capturing screenshots and accumulating points. During this time, although I was kicked out numerous times, I stubbornly aimed to share good articles and new updates from the community with more people.

Subsequently, I proactively communicated and participated in more community work. I maintained the marketing Notion backend, served as a Mod on Discord and Telegram, and even tried writing a tutorial on everpay transactions, which also opened up my contributions in the content guild.

My consistent contributions over several weeks allowed me to become the rotating leader of the marketing guild, providing services for everyone. I participated in community projects, airdrops, and testing activities, providing feedback on product bugs. During this time, I also conducted a live class in Teacher Dayu's digital tribe community, specifically introducing how to contribute within the PermaDAO community, which likely helped several partners join the PermaDAO co-building team.

Looking back, I am grateful that I could focus on doing the right things at PermaDAO. After nine months of contribution, as my contributions deepened, I can now achieve a monthly income equivalent to nearly 10,000 yuan, not only accumulating a substantial amount of $AR tokens through time but also receiving corresponding $HALO airdrops (HALO is the governance token of PermaDAO and Permaswap). More importantly, I have met a group of like-minded friends here, a group of DAO enthusiasts who focus on how to build the community better rather than discussing token prices, and I have gained a subtle understanding of the Arweave ecosystem projects on a daily and weekly basis.

In fact, I believe there is an even more crucial point: PermaDAO answered the three questions I initially struggled to find answers to.

PermaDAO establishes a platform for strangers to co-build, bringing together interested individuals who want to work towards common development; it has created a "compensation" system from onboarding, contribution, to reward acquisition—a DAO contribution system that can truly be implemented and executed long-term, allowing me to transition from a speculator buying and trading tokens to becoming a practitioner in the crypto space, genuinely paving my path of DAO contributions.

Looking back at the DAO diagram above, since the future of work is DAO, moving from the outer circle to the inner circle is where our true value is presented, and it is also the future path of our personal "work."

Feelings on Contributing to PermaDAO

At this point, you may be wondering, is working for a DAO really feasible? Can a monthly income of over ten thousand be replicated? Is there an opportunity to earn more? Is DAO suitable for everyone? I cannot guarantee accurately, but I would like to share a few personal feelings.

Clear Goals. Anyone doing anything has a purpose. PermaDAO was born for the co-construction of the Arweave ecosystem and needs and hopes for more partners to join in working towards this goal. However, it is not a charity organization, nor is it a project that indiscriminately distributes airdrops. Here, you need to genuinely come with the initial motivation of contribution and development, and then find a guild that suits your skills and level to contribute. The guild will distribute the rewards you deserve each week based on individual achievements. If you want to make quick money or exploit the system, sorry, this goal may contradict the community's value orientation. You will find that your efforts and returns do not match, and you will not continue to work here long-term. Therefore, it is essential to clarify your goals.

Earning Money is a Natural Byproduct of Doing the Right Thing. In a DAO, we must acknowledge the importance of profit-seeking in human nature, which also brings vitality to the future work model of DAOs. However, only by prioritizing the work itself can we ordinary people avoid being blinded by profit and have the possibility to hold onto good things, allowing them to fully demonstrate the effects of time compounding. Thus, only by doing the truly right thing will money naturally come to us, and there will be opportunities for the $AR tokens we hold at $5 to multiply sevenfold over time.

Unexpected Path Gains. Looking at the diagram, it dawned on me that contributing in a DAO is essentially using time to accumulate tokens, accumulating for the future!

Conclusion

The above is my personal exploration of the DAO journey, outlining the logic and reasons why the future of work will inevitably move towards the DAO model, as well as the roles individuals can participate in within future DAO organizations. Coupled with my contributions in PermaDAO, I have explored a feasible path in DAO, answering the two questions posed at the beginning of the article and the three questions I raised in my DAO journey exploration through process and results.

DAOs show emerging hope, but they are still in their early stages, and there is a long way to go before realizing the future of work. The future of work is emerging, and it will develop in unexpected and fascinating directions. We stand at the forefront, seizing the opportunities of the moment!

Finally, if anyone is interested in joining PermaDAO to explore the DAO path of contribution and rewards, feel free to contact me to help you onboard and start your contribution journey.

Onboard: https://onboard.permadao.com/
Tutorial: Join PermaDAO