Could a DAO Build the Next Great City? | Scott Fitsimones | TED

Could DAOs, or "decentralized autonomous organizations", be the key to building the next great city? Experimental urbanist Scott Fitsimones shares how these mission-driven, blockchain-governed, collectively owned organizations could increase the speed and efficiency of building cities (among many other applications) -- all while pooling decision-making power in a radically collaborative way. Hear about how he started a "crypto co-op" that bought 40 acres of land in Wyoming and learn more about the potential for DAOs to get things done in the future.

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[amonmetalhead]

"Could a DAO Build the Next Great City? "
NO

[Mediaright]

“Sounds safe and secure. Here’s all my assets.” x.x

[akash_goel]

Exciting idea but a few problems I think:
1. Token creators usually own a much larger proportion, so they keep all the benefits without doing much of the work that goes into the progress and development of a DAO. This is worse than homesteading, where you at least have to spend time and effort to improve your land and prove your ownership.
2. Smart contracts are fixed and can usually create irreparable damages if done wrong (token theft, loss of ownership, etc) - and are usually much harder to debug since they are written in an esoteric programming language that is incomprehensible to more than 99.9% of the population on earth. Its a very undemocratic way to implement any set of rules.
3. Blockchains are good - but which blockchain? There are several out there and not all of them equally secure, fast and cheap for frequent transactions.

I would like to read a detailed case-study though, just because I want to see if this is actually a viable alternative to current government and administrative models.

[joshhorley]

If my man wanted to be taken seriously, why is he wearing a wig made of cotton candy?

[Schmidtelpunkt]

"mission-driven, blockchain-governed, collectively owned organizations"
Nope.

[pyrrho]

wow, what a great way to implement aristocracy, money is votes! the american dream!

[BadNessie]

Someone already invented this game decades ago, it's called Monopoly. Really, TED?

[JeusNimrod]

. . . in the end, vote for which best poison to take by all the residents

[Vadorin]

Building and governing a city through a DAO sounds like a horrible, dystopian and anti-democratic idea. It basically means that money rules everything - even more than it already does.

[Yuusou.]

This idea sounds good, but the reality is, that it's far away from building a great city. The DAO contributors need to be informed, what a great city demands in terms of infrastructure. Then you have aesthetics, resilience, future-proof housing designs and so on. Representing it through a DAO will not work because anyone can vote, even those with no expertise at hand. You will run into the issue in the middle of the project, where friction is created among the group due to inconsistent agreements on goals. For such big projects with so many disciplines, a DAO is not ideal.

[suicune]

I highly recommend you watch "Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs" by Folding Ideas to find out exactly why DAO's are horrible. In short, it's a literal pay to win system.

[Chazzmatazz]

Blockchain is still unnecessary/disadvantageous for any administrative functionality.

[akashdeshmukh]

Amazing talk.. Talking about DAO there is one project which caught my eye called as "Townhall" They are doing aazing job in DAO space, Townhall allows users to create Houses, submit proposals, and participate in governance activities without incurring any gas fees. This removes financial barriers and encourages wider participation in community decision-making processes.

It would be great if you can add this project in your discussions :)

[arnogermond]

Pioneer work. DAO leading to land ownership is inspiring (however limited by current legal frameworks). However, the system you described is not 1 person = 1 vote. How does the governance model prevent people from possessing more DAO shares, and having more voting power? Ultimately, how do you tackle egoist interests to corrupt the governance? Why not implement non-exchangeable tokens to avoid price speculations?

[daniellesebire]

I think it's bad only some people can legally listen to specific music

[psivast]

Interesting thought, but I don't think this could overtake the cities we already have in America. It feels a bit like a techno dream for people to get excited about, and invest lots of money and time into, but has very little real world value. It's taken hundreds of years for American cities to grow to the point they are now, and imho we need to go back in time to relearn the lessons that past generations learned, and get away from the 'woke' entitled soft attitude that most people have today. It takes serious hard work, sacrifice, grit, and dirt under your nails to build something as vast and complicated as a city. Just my 2cents anyway...

[TRAMWAJAZ]

Do I understand it correctly that thanks to DAOs now regular people can put money into some ground breaking projects and if they are in fact successful big fish can arrive at already made business opportunity and just buy enough of tokens to overrule the rest of participants? Can I withdraw my money from DAO if I don't like the path that is taken by the majority of voters?

[vesawuoristo]

We need slow down or stop building in new areas, we are severely damaged nature already.

[trvsgrant]

This guy should talk to the people at both the auravana project and come up with a future city.

[evanbradford]

Ah yes, let me live in the city where decision making power is directly correlated with how much money someone has at their disposal. That won't immediately amalgamate power into the hands of a wealthy cabal with vastly different priorities from myself.