Contributor Series: The Editor

Since a DAO is the sum of its members’ contributions, this series is highlighting how top DAO members got that way.

This is Trewkat's story. She's lead staff editor for the BanklessDAO's Writers Guild.

It all started with a webinar

DAOs ended up being a lot different from her expectations.

She’s a librarian who joined a webinar at work about putting research on the blockchain. The presenter talked about how the blockchain would disrupt her industry and others. She decided to investigate.

DAOs weren’t what she expected

Before exploring crypto, her understanding of DAOs came from stories about The DAO. The first one. The famous one. The one that got hacked by a nameless thief. She imagined a DAO was a group of faceless people making big decisions anonymously. The whole thing lacked humanity.

But now that she was researching, she understood that a DAO was a community. It was people who worked together. And it was also a good way to learn about crypto. She joined BanklessDAO because a podcast she heard said they were doing a good job of onboarding people into web3.

A DAO welcomed her input

At first, she was in the DAO’s Discord, but she wasn’t emotionally invested. Then she noticed a mistake.

She was involved in a logo contest and she noticed the count was off. So she spoke up. Instead of taking offense, the community welcomed her feedback. They appreciated her contribution. It was a good feeling.

It was different from her job, where she felt her abilities weren’t fully recognized. It felt nice to be valued and welcomed.

She earned crypto

She started looking for more opportunities to contribute. By doing it, she earned tokens in BanklessDAO. It felt good to earn crypto for her work, but unlike others, earning it wasn’t her main motivation.

For some, earning BANK, the DAO’s token is a main motivator. It’s how they pay their bills. When BANK’s value went down from a recent high of about 15 cents in December 2022 to under 1 penny in October 2022, many of those members scaled back their work or left the DAO completely. The members who remained are true believers.

The mission is most important

Like her, those who stayed when BANK’s price dropped believe that web3 will improve the world. They’re working to take back power from large corporations and put it back in the hands of people. A project that illustrates that power shift is Carbon Collectible NFTs, which enables communities to do what companies and governments failed to do: incentivize the removal of carbon from the atmosphere by preserving old-growth forests.

Chris encouraged her to participate

When Chris, a DAO member who goes by NF Thinker, heard she was a librarian in IRL, he suggested she’d be a wonderful manager of the DAO’s digital assets, including podcast content, images, and writing. As a librarian, she’d know how to keep the DAO’s data organized. She wrote a proposal to take on the responsibility of digital librarian and got the role.

She also became the lead staff editor for the DAO’s Writers Guild, which publishes at BanklessPublishing. She helps manage the kanban board of assignments, assesses all incoming articles, and personally edits many of them. It’s 20 hours a week of work, in addition to her day job. But she enjoys learning about crypto by editing articles.

She stays because its fun

She also enjoys the community. It’s full of chatter and laughs. And their meme game is strong.

Thank you NF Thinker for connecting us with Trewkat.

Is there a DAO member we should highlight? Tell me Andrew@joinOrigami.com