Nantan DAO Chronicles (Part Two)

found a way out

The story of Nantung DAO continues, despite facing numerous challenges, everything is still happening naturally and continuously emerging. The community is exploring forward through trial and error, digging for new possibilities while seeking change. Some core members have gone to Jianta Village in Pujiang County, Chengdu, to attempt to start new projects, trying to find the true intersection of "rural development and Web3" to build a "rural entrepreneurship DAO." At the same time, another group chooses to stay local in Nantung, proposing the initiative of "living well," organizing local young people to carry out blockchain co-learning, band activities, and so on, continuously digging deep into the community. One side explores outward, while the other takes root locally, with two paths running parallel without conflict. Paving a new road has always been full of hardships, but as a famous saying goes: "Pessimists are often right, but optimists keep moving forward." The optimists of Nantung DAO are writing their own answers through action.

Attract more professionals

Talent is the cornerstone of any organization's development. Cikey reflected that in the early stages of its establishment, Nantung DAO failed to effectively attract "truly knowledgeable talents in blockchain and Web3," coupled with the general lack of mature rural development experience among early members, which led the community to take quite a few detours in its exploration. Fortunately, the community has recognized this shortcoming and has taken a series of improvement measures. Currently, Nantung DAO plans to invite industry veterans to form the "Nantung DAO Governance Advisory Group" to provide professional mediation for internal disputes and to offer systematic suggestions for the strategic direction of each quarter. In addition, through the "Rural Development Web3 Bilateral Enlightenment Program," community members have participated in domestic and international Web3 activities multiple times and have gone into universities for presentations, which not only enhanced their own professional qualities but also attracted more professionals passionate about Web3 and rural development to join. This two-way interaction has opened up a new situation for talent recruitment. Excitingly, new members are continuously joining, injecting new vitality into the community. Some of them are skilled in artistic creation, adding creativity to rural cultural activities; some are proficient in brand promotion, providing support for the external communication of Nantung DAO; and some have made significant achievements in organizational research, contributing wisdom to the optimization of community governance mechanisms. These new members not only bring professional skills but also open up more possibilities for the future development of Nantung DAO.

Facing the world, drawing on experience

What are the real needs of rural areas? Can Web3 inject new momentum into rural development? The implementation of DAO is not only a topic for Nantang but also a global challenge. Nantang DAO has researched several international DAO cases, many of which provide insights closely related to rural construction. For example, in response to the challenges of reconstruction after earthquakes and an aging population, the Japanese village of Yamakoshi launched the "Nishikigoi NFT" centered around the local specialty "koi fish", viewing NFT holders as "digital villagers". The DAO community formed as a result attracted over 1,750 members globally and raised funds to support regional sustainable development. Although this model did not utilize typical DAO elements such as smart contracts or on-chain funds, it effectively addressed local issues. The experiences of Yamakoshi village are quite enlightening for Nantang DAO. Recently, Yamakoshi village further proposed the idea of "a governance revolution driven by dual-layer DAOs": using the Yamakoshi DAO as a vehicle to achieve co-governance between physical villagers and digital villagers through Snapshot voting decisions; simultaneously, using the Shihua DAO as a platform to promote cross-regional collaboration (such as with Shuifei village and Tianlong Gorge), building a "LocalDAO network". This model is similar to the current development path of Nantang DAO and should provide valuable references.

Another relevant case is CabinDAO—a decentralized autonomous organization dedicated to building network cities through community collaboration and technological innovation. Its development process is divided into four stages: the Creator Era from 2020 to 2021, establishing "Creator Cabins" as a funding project for creator residency; from 2021 to 2022, as DAOs flourished, Cabin also began to enter the DAO service provider stage, during which the community created numerous DAO media brands and developed DAO tools such as on-chain and physical passport systems aimed at online communities; from 2022 to 2023, with the turbulence in the crypto market, the community began to significantly reduce the DAO team and focus on creating natural communities for digital nomads and building a global co-living network; starting in early 2024, the team's key phrase became "family community," and the team decided to establish deeper connections with local communities, launching the Neighborhood Accelerator program, proposing to create a community where friends live nearby and collectively raise children.

It is worth noting and reflecting that after several years of continuous exploration, the Cabin team believes it is more suitable to exist as a loose community network rather than a startup or DAO. On May 8, 2025, Cabin officially announced its dissolution, deciding to abandon DAO funding and commercialization projects, and shift to a purely community-driven network. This decision stems from a reflection on the different models of startups, DAOs, and community networks: "Venture-capital-backed startups are best suited for small, focused teams that can quickly pivot to seek high-growth business opportunities that are financially viable in the short term. DAOs are most suitable as a trusted neutral governance mechanism for distributing ecosystem funds from existing cash flow protocols. Community-driven networks are best suited to serve as loosely connected organizations that allow many people to independently explore adjacent paths and build what they find most interesting and valuable." For practitioners of rural construction DAOs, finding the positioning of DAOs in rural communities and what value DAOs can bring to local communities is undoubtedly a common topic faced by the world.

Deepen into the local market, seek advantages

While learning from global pioneers, how to take root locally must be based on in-depth research and analysis of local realities. Nantang DAO needs to comprehensively assess local resources such as the economy, human resources, spiritual culture, politics, social capital, geographical location, and natural environment in order to formulate practical goals and action plans.

Nantang Village is well-known for its historical experience in democratic governance, and the attention of society is the greatest advantage of this land. Looking back at the history of Nantang, it can be found that the desire for democracy and rights has never ceased, and its important historical nodes have always resonated with advanced organizational concepts in the context of the great era— from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, civic movements surged, and the rights protection lawyer movement and environmental movement began to rise, enabling citizens to safeguard their rights through legal means and collective action. Nantang also began organizing farmers' rights protection struggles, promoting grassroots elections and implementing villagers' autonomy. Starting from 2003-2004, the goal of farmer organization gradually shifted from rights protection to construction. As Yang Yunbiao stated: "In the past, we approached rights protection from a confrontational perspective; after establishing cooperatives, our daily work is to protect our rights through livelihood development, cultural construction, and rural autonomy." Later, in the process of farmer organization, they drew on Western civilization, introduced deliberation rules, and achieved the localization of advanced governance concepts (in 2008), during which the village's economic and cultural undertakings developed rapidly. Yang Yunbiao once pointed out in a rural construction dialogue: "Rural revitalization is not simply about industrial revitalization or organizational revitalization; it must return to 'the revitalization of people' and think about how to ensure that people live with smiles and dignity." Today, the establishment of the Nantang DAO continues the tradition of organizational innovation, marking the latest attempt to integrate local ethics with modern civilization.

From rights protection organizations to parliamentary rules, from cooperatives to Nantang DAO, Nantang has experimented with different democratic governance methods over the past 30 years. However, it is essential to realize that regardless of how innovative the organizational form is, the key lies in whether it focuses on "human connections" and addresses the fundamental needs of local farmers. It is gratifying that the various attempts made in the past and those currently underway have already produced a good "linkage" effect. After living and learning together for a time, wonderful chemical reactions are quietly occurring between DAO members and cooperative members. During my field study, I observed local young people actively applying Robert's Rules of Order to efficiently negotiate and reach a consensus on the division of labor when facing the challenge of cooking collectively, using "motions" and "reconsiderations." I also sensed the budding awareness of equality among local youth; they have begun to organize spontaneously to collectively address issues such as the lack of transparency in decision-making, unclear responsibilities and rights, and ambiguous rules in local work and life. This emergence of independent thinking and critical spirit will be a valuable asset for the future development of Nantang. On the other hand, cooperatives are also broadening their horizons, planning to create a "third space" that serves digital nomads, to connect a wider young audience. Based on the understanding of each other's needs, working in a mutually respectful manner may be the driving force for new possibilities to emerge in this land.

written at the end

Despite the conflicts, the integration of rural construction and Web3 holds promising prospects. Through time and practical experience, both sides are expected to reach a consensus amidst the conflicts, forming a governance model that balances individual autonomy and collective collaboration. In future development, Nantang DAO, while promoting Web3 technologies and governance models, must also take root in the cultural soil of rural areas and the vital interests of villagers, focusing on addressing the most fundamental needs of rural communities, allowing new digital technologies to truly touch the soul of rural society.

How to view the exploration of DAO in rural areas?

Rural construction and DAO are like two circles that originally intersect: rural construction carries the practice and sentiment of revitalizing rural areas, while DAO reshapes trust and cooperation mechanisms through decentralized technical concepts. In recent years, these two fields have begun to converge, attracting Web3 practitioners dedicated to rural areas and those in rural construction eager to embrace new technologies. However, due to the brief exposure time and differences in values and cultural backgrounds, this intersection inevitably generates friction, including the collision between decentralized autonomy logic and rural collectivist culture, as well as the integration of foreign concepts with local traditions.

The core issue is how DAO, as a new organizational form, can find its role and capability boundaries within the rural governance structure. Taking the practice of Nantang DAO as an example, if the issuance of Nantang beans is merely a digital replica of the traditional rural governance points system (such as the work point system), and its usability and ease of use cannot surpass other existing "alternative currencies"; if token-based voting simply translates direct democracy to a Web3 digital platform but effectively excludes villagers from the democratic decision-making process, how much change can we expect from this so-called organizational "innovation" to bring to rural society? Although these questions utilize Nantang DAO as a specific carrier, they are fundamentally a universal inquiry for all future rural construction DAOs or similar organizations.

Moreover, it must be acknowledged that the DAO is not the ultimate answer to all organizational governance issues. No organizational design is perfect, and the trade-offs and choices in the governance process are key to how organizations respond to sustainable development challenges. Different forms of organizations have their advantages and disadvantages, and they coexist rather than replace each other. If we consider decentralization and autonomy as a spectrum, various historical organizations, as well as different stages of development of the same organization, occupy different positions on this spectrum. Many DAO failures stem from a lack of adequate understanding of this issue; they attempt to undertake commercial projects, only to find that a more centralized approach works better. They wish to allocate funds using a DAO approach, but often the majority are not the beneficiaries, and economic gains tend to be monopolized by a few. Some DAOs focusing on building community networks, after operating for a while, find themselves struggling to identify their position as a DAO. A vivid example is when the Uniswap Foundation, during a vote, decided to provide $165 million in liquidity mining rewards for Uniswap v4 and Unichain, triggering anger within the DAO. Members questioned why the foundation needed to spend money.