Many applications of DAOs have arisen in the last few years. We have seen investment DAOs, philanthropy DAOs, protocol DAOs among others rise up as popular applications of the decentralized autonomous organization. Social DAOs are an interesting application of decentralized autonomous organizations that is bringing together communities in Web3.
Social DAOs bring together like-minded individuals such as builders, creators and artists to create self-organized communities. These self-organized communities that a social DAOs create are based on a common shared interest amongst its members. Most social DAOs derive their value from exclusivity, collaboration, and interpersonal networking. Here is a look at a few emerging social DAOs that have gained traction as of recently. These DAOs each have their own focus in Web3, but all share the elements of what constitutes a social DAO.
BubbleDAO
BubbleDAO is a social DAO focused around in person events, including dating focused events, which recently launched at the end of April. BubbleDAO states its mission is to bring together an inclusive community of individuals in Web3 through hosting IRL events. The organization’s first event was hosted April 30th in NYC and attracted over 200 members and interested members, from a community of builders, artists and crypto focused investors.
They plan to launch a membership NFT, a common structure for social DAOs, in addition to a planned future token launch when BubbleDAO goes on-chain. In the meantime, they are planning upcoming events that are released on their socials including Twitter and Instagram.
GoldenDAO
GoldenDAO is a DAO focused on Asain American social issues and community initiatives. Andrew Yang, former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, (and who by his own right has earned a reputation as a Web3 celebrity) is a core contributor to the project.
GoldenDAO describes their mission as the “first decentralized initiative to advance AAPI solidarity through collaborative empowerment IRL.” Consistent with this vision, proceeds from the project’s NFT drop have gone in large part to fund projects working to fight against the recent rise in hate crimes against AAPI groups across the country. Their NFTs granted its token holders utility for the DAO. A large part of how GoldenDAO is achieving their mission is through in person events to bring together their community.
The organization is building up a treasury aimed to fund AAPI empowerment projects, community initiatives, and further projects consistent with their core mission. The roadmap for the project states “the DAO will vote on how proceeds in the community wallet will be [allocated].”
Seed Club
Seed Club is a DAO operating to build and invest in Web3 communities. Highlighting their social focus, Seed Club states in their mission statement, “We’re building a future where the value created by communities on the internet is captured by people, not platforms.” The community behind the org is operating a studio to help members incubate Web3 projects. Currently on their site, they highlight a few of 30+ projects that Seed Club has backed to date, including Krause House, which was featured in a previous article on Verse.
Seed Club maintains a much stronger community focus than a typical investment DAO — members are directly working alongside the projects they work with to incubate. Additionally, community projects are brought on in “cohorts” at a few intervals throughout the year.
As opposed to membership benign granted through a membership NFT, membership in Seed Club is granted through a minimum token allocation of $CLUB.
About Soda
Many Social DAOs are NFT gated, meaning only NFT holders are DAO members that can vote on DAO governance and participate in events. Sonet and its Soda Extension empower DAOs by allowing them to mint and use NFT governance tokens through the app and on Twitter/Facebook. This supplies them with governance protocols and tokens minted on Ethereum, and Polygon soon to come!
