Podcast Notes 📝: Building Power Structures in Crypto
Parker Jay-Pachirat, a VC at Fintech Collective was recently interviewed by Bankless about critical theory in the context of blockchain innovations.
Parker Jay-Pachirat, a VC at Fintech Collective was recently interviewed by Bankless about critical theory in the context of blockchain innovations. We listened to the entire podcast to provide you with a summary of the important insights.
@parkerjayp has a unique take on systems and power structures at a broad scale. She argues that power exists in any context. Some forms of power are explicit and some are inexplicit. It’s very reminiscent of @jordanbpeterson's idea of hierarchies existing everywhere.
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The goal of critical theory is to make inexplicit or assumptive forms of power more explicit. Understanding the current systems of power will allow society to break out of them and make progress. This is where #crypto comes in.
The current two-party political system has maximized political polarization to record levels in the US, forcing everyone into one of the parties. She argues that the values of #Web3 and Crypto may allow people to transcend existing political systems.
Parker states that all media tends to be biased today and to make your own opinion you have to consume information about the same stories and events from different sources (left-wing & right-wing). Avoid group thinking!
A diverse information diet is the healthiest diet!
Transparency, social mobilization, and an open financial system may allow for building different political communities within the current system, and they have the potential to transcend them. Crypto economies are introducing fundamentally novel and innovative ways of doing governance that we have never seen before. Voting systems and completely unconventional governance mechanisms to how traditional institutions operate.
The DAO design space creates more dynamic forms of governance mechanisms to keep up with changing belief systems of people. Conviction voting allows staking your vote which gains more power over a set time period and then retracting it if you change your view.
@parkerjayp encourages not to be afraid of #DAO failures as there are big opportunities to put a lot more research documentation and experimentation into DAO governance. Learning from the mistakes of existing and failed DAOs will allow the whole space to progress faster.
The narrower the niche of the community, the stronger it is (the strongest subreddits are very niche). Focusing on a specific thing helps attract the most intrinsically motivated participants. Be open about how to interact with the community and opportunities for members.
@parkerjayp points to token-based governance as one of the challenges of DAOs, as it will lead to a corrupt system where the most financially resourceful accrue all power. The resulting voting fatigue and low participation will lead to non-reflective decision-making.
She argues there is no one right way to do a DAO - for DAOs to succeed - the proliferation of diverse forms of governance need to be realized and experimented with. However, it is known the most consistent way communities dissipate is when members don't feel heard.
Parker points out that for the first time in history with these innovative forms of organization, different initiatives more quickly mobilize around a common goal or values. @Ukraine_DAO and @ConstitutionDAO are prominent examples.
"@Ukraine_DAO raised more money in the first week of it being formed than the UN did for humanitarian relief in Ukraine. It's insane!" - Parker points to the power that DAOs bring to the world
@parkerjayp raises a question that exists within critical theory: Does culture shape law or does law shape culture? She notes that direct engagement with community members and their problems resulted in better policy decisions as opposed to external institutional research.
See the full podcast episode:
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