Nantang DAO Memoirs (Part II)

What is the goal?

"Promote the integration of rural construction and Web3."

On the Notion homepage of Nantang DAO, there is a statement about the organization's goals: "Nantang DAO is committed to promoting the holistic development of local villages while fostering mutual learning and exchange between rural construction and Web3 communities: 'Seeking the DAO of community from the local soil, seeking the path of universality from crypto.'" On the voting platform, the description of its organizational goals is even more specific: "By upgrading and transforming the cultural courtyard of Nantang Agricultural Cooperative, we aim to gradually build a base for Web3 partners in rural areas; deeply integrating with the local Nantang cooperative, we strive to establish a system that can be used for governance and is economically sustainable."

From these goals, it can be seen that Nantung DAO essentially positions itself as a rural service organization, aiming to support rural development through democratic governance and economic assistance. Specifically, it hopes to leverage cryptocurrency and Web3 technology to establish a new democratic decision-making process, achieving democratic management and allocation of treasury funds, thereby meeting local needs in infrastructure development and cultural activities. However, there is a significant gap between ideals and reality. In practice, Nantung DAO currently resembles a somewhat rigid transplantation of other DAO models from online to rural areas, failing to closely align with the fundamental needs of the countryside. Moreover, its specific goal setting appears to be quite scattered and lacks focus.

Democracy is not the democracy of villagers; rural construction is objective rural construction.

In discussions about the relationship between DAO and rural areas, there is a general consensus that DAO is here to serve the countryside, with the countryside being the main focus and DAO playing a supporting role. Villagers, as the basic components of the countryside, should be the main subjects of rural development. However, in the Nantang DAO, only two members are local villagers (Fang Fang and Yang Zhen), who are also employees of the cooperative. The purpose of including them in the DAO is to better carry out local work, while more ordinary villagers have not joined the DAO organization and have not participated in the organizational decision-making process. Therefore, the democracy of Nantang DAO is merely a small-scale internal democracy, failing to broadly connect and mobilize the rural community. This practice inevitably devolves into "objectified rural development," which is led by external entities rather than a self-driven governance model by the villagers. The sustainability of this model is concerning due to the lack of deep embedding in the rural community. Objectively, apart from a few members who choose to settle in Nantang long-term, most members exhibit characteristics of high mobility and short active cycles, further weakening the deep connection between the DAO and the countryside. Currently, for the entire rural area, both Nantang DAO and its members largely still play the role of outsiders.

The goal is dispersed, and each fights for themselves.

"Promoting the integration of rural development and Web3" is an attractive and ambitious goal that carries inherent legitimacy and broad value concerns. Aside from the Nantang DAO, there are few local DAOs in China that carry such a vision into the countryside. However, this ambitious concept is full of challenges in practice, and both participants and observers inevitably ask: "How exactly can rural development and Web3 be combined? What is the practical path of the Nantang DAO?" The establishment of the Nantang DAO, along with the departure of some core members to Chengdu to open a new base, has made the divergence of organizational goals increasingly apparent, and the team is clearly trapped in a dilemma of misaligned objectives.

"The goal of the soldiers is very clear - to promote the integration of rural construction and Web3, but the goals of the members of the Nantan DAO are unclear." Yang Yunbiao commented. When everyone cannot even clarify the most basic direction and boundaries of their work, it becomes extremely difficult to achieve group consensus. Reflecting on the initial preparations for the Nantan DAO, Cikey's evaluation was "the goals are too vague, and the things being done are too general." She found that at that time, members were responsible for different areas but lacked in-depth understanding of the relevant fields, which led to frequent changes in organizational goals and slow progress in seeking consensus. Even after several months of development, Xiaobai candidly admitted during an interview that "the Nantan DAO does not have any specific goals; it is exploratory. We only know what we hope it will become, but there are no clearly set short-term or long-term goals."

By observing from the proposal level, one may have a more intuitive understanding of the above description. As of April 23, 2025, there are a total of 49 completed proposals on the Nantang DAO voting platform, which can be divided into five categories: funding applications, project plans, institutional building, new member admissions, and other decisions. Among them, more than half (51.02%) of the proposals are related to funding applications, mainly involving local material procurement, space construction, and member incentives; project plan proposals account for 34.69%, most of which include funding applications and overlap significantly with the former. There are 13 institutional building proposals, covering the establishment and revision of organizational systems, such as newcomer tasks, work point schemes, reimbursement systems, and voting mechanisms. There are 6 new member admission proposals, involving the community deciding on new member qualifications through voting. There are 2 other decision proposals, involving the cooperative relationship between Nantang DAO and cooperatives as well as other DAO organizations.

The chart below shows the trend of the Nantung DAO proposals over time. In the past 9 months, community proposals have mainly focused on funding applications and project planning, particularly prominent in the early and late stages (the first and last four months). Proposals related to institutional development were mainly concentrated in December 2024, reflecting the preliminary formation of the organizational system. Subsequently, proposals for new member recruitment gradually increased, indicating that the community has entered a phase of normalized absorption of new members. Through further analysis of the specific tasks of project proposals, a significant trend can be observed: a gradual shift from focusing on "rooting locally" in the early stage to "expanding outward." Specifically, early proposals were often directly related to agricultural production (such as enzyme product preparation and learning, date palm planting, etc.) and local infrastructure development (such as the construction of the Dadi Book House and book procurement); later, they diverged into two directions: one focused on external communication and cooperation (such as the "Rural Construction Web3 Bilateral Enlightenment Program" and cooperation with Chengdu Wuxiang), while the other emphasized the operation and integration of local communities (such as the daily operation of the Dadi Book Room and organizing local activities).

Build a community or commercialize?

Whether from an individual or organizational perspective, DAOs need to weigh the potential conflicts between commercial interests and public interests. In many DAOs, many members only care about short-term commercial returns and do not pay attention to organizational governance, leading to frequent "free rider" problems, which conflicts with DAO builders who have long-term visions. From an organizational perspective, if the pursuit of production efficiency and commercial value growth is prioritized, a centralized power structure may be needed to improve decision-making and operational efficiency; while emphasizing public interests requires a democratized organizational structure and decision-making mechanisms to ensure equal participation and information transparency among members, but this may also lead to a slow decision-making process.

During field research, I often hear this saying: "Nantang DAO is the DAO that lacks money the least." Investor Liu Bing has provided ample financial support for Nantang DAO, which is undoubtedly enviable, but also carries risks. Yang Yunbiao raised doubts about this in an interview: "Many people engage in speculative behavior." This reveals the contradictions faced by Nantang DAO at both individual and organizational levels: the choice between personal participation in community building and taking shortcuts, as well as the tension between the organization promoting community integration and pursuing commercial value. However, the "original intention" of individuals joining Nantang cannot be mandated, as Bi Bing stated in response to the doubts, we should "discuss actions, not intentions." Therefore, the following discussion focuses on the goal selection at the organizational level.

Community building has always been a core issue for Nantan DAO, encompassing both the overall construction in rural development and the Web3 field, as well as deep integration with the local community of Nantan. As an internally highly active project, the "Rural Development Web3 Bilateral Enlightenment Program" was proposed and funded by Liu Bing, and is jointly managed by core member Bi Bing and teacher Liang Shaoxiong from the rural development field. By promoting communication between rural development teams and the Web3 community through funding, the program supports team members' participation in various domestic and international Web3 activities and outreach in universities, creating a certain influence within the industry. Regarding integration with the local community of Nantan, Yu Xing believes that "there is no disagreement on the integration itself; the disagreement lies in how to integrate." Tiao, as a representative concerned with "public goods," is recognized as a steadfast advocate and practitioner of local integration, stating, "When there is no need to make money, I hope to do truly valuable things." He emphasizes that he does not advocate for being passive but believes "that such things will definitely yield returns, and these returns include economic value."

At the same time, community members also reflected from a commercial perspective. In an interview, Cikey talked about his initial confusion: "What economic benefits can continuous reliance on investors bring without doing anything?" After a period of exploration, members gradually realized the economic unsustainability of the existing model. For example, Yu Xing believes that "money-burning local integration" is meaningless, and the lack of market competition pressure leads to resource waste. "Relying on Bing Ge's money means we cannot prove that we are an independent and autonomous organization." However, compared to pursuing short-term profits, the community's current exploration is more practical, mainly focusing on the real project needs and feasible scenarios in rural construction. As Bi Bing stated: "Although the community's primary goal is not profit at the moment, everyone needs to do some concrete things to hone their skills, understand more real needs, and then consider the possibilities of commercialization and profitability."

For an organization that has just started, having too many goals can lead to dispersion, making it difficult to form a deep emotional and value-based recognition, which hinders close collaboration. Rapid changes in goals can also create concerns about continuity. Most members believe that commercialization and community building are not contradictory; they are simply exploring different directions based on their own experiences. However, an objective fact is that internal disagreements on goals often lead to resource fragmentation or even competition. It was mentioned during the interviews: "The side that is better at writing project proposals and applying for funding often has more say in the community and occupies more resources." As I concluded my research, core members Yu Xing and Bi Bing had gone to Chengdu's Jiantao Village to explore the feasibility of advancing the "entrepreneurial incubation project" using the DAO model; meanwhile, Tiao chose to stay in Nantang, organizing local members to carry out daily Web3 activities (such as translation groups and writing groups) and continuously promote local integration. He said: "I feel that my attempts are not over yet."

Incentive and Circulation Experiment - Nantang Bean

DAO facilitates organizational governance around tokens, serving as a virtual currency asset that combines both incentive and governance attributes. Tokens are often collectively held by all members and used for voting on community proposals. Less than a month after its official operation, the token issuance plan for Nantang DAO has also been put on the agenda. On August 20, 2024, Nantang Bean (NT) will officially launch on Optimism, with an initial issuance of 10 million tokens. In terms of value anchoring, one Nantang Bean is equivalent to one Chinese Yuan.

Functionally, Nantang Beans serve as a community incentive mechanism, fulfilling the dual roles of "contribution record" and "voting rights certificate." On one hand, the Nantang DAO adopts a labor hour system to record member contributions, allowing members to self-record their working hours through the Fairsharing platform. According to the community's current standards, each labor hour corresponds to a reward of 60 RMB worth of Ether and 60 Nantang Beans. Although the validity of labor hours primarily relies on peer evaluations among community members, it may also be flexibly adjusted based on specific circumstances (such as initiating a vote for adjudication), with its final validity depending on community consensus. On the other hand, Nantang Beans also possess the attribute of governance rights certificates. Members holding more Nantang Beans will have greater voting weight in community decision-making. This design, which directly links contribution records with governance power, is essentially a governance incentive mechanism, theoretically.