At Your Service: A Deep Dive into 3 Service DAOs

Some DAOs like to party, some DAOs like to make art, service DAOs like to make money.

Service DAOs are half social club, half agency. Think FWB if they had a consulting branch focused on web2 companies. Service DAOs connect contributors with a loose-flowing community of like-minded individuals while giving them opportunities to earn money with their skills.

In traditional agencies, there are owners and employees. In service DAOs, everyone is a part-owner of the DAO due to the shared token, creating the potential for improved incentive alignment. Additionally, service DAOs are web3-native, meaning they will both attract better contributors and do a better job for web3-native clients than a traditional agency.

There are hundreds of service DAOs, but I selected three for us to go through that I think are representative of where service DAOs are headed.

Myosin

Last week, I had coffee with Myosin founder Blake Minho Kim, who gave me a breakdown of the DAO’s vision. Myosin is a growth marketing DAO that works with both web2 companies and web3-native companies on their user acquisition strategy.

Typically, growth marketers work in an agency model, but Myosin works as a collective with distinct guilds for content, strategy, product, and more. Thus far, Myosin has worked with gaming platform EveryRealm, web3 messaging platform Notifi, and Disney’s prestigious web3 accelerator Lockervere.

Myosin breaks their services down into three main categories: 1) Finding product-market fit, 2) accelerating growth, and 3) jumping into web3. This means that DAO members can be doing anything from go-to-market strategy consulting to setting up a Discord or providing weekly articles as deliverables.

To get into payment specifics, for each project, 75% of revenues go to the project contributor, 15% go to the DAO treasury, and 10% go to whomever referred the deal. Additionally, Myosin sends 1,000 $MYOSIN to each DAO member when they join.

Blake’s vision got me pumped for the future of web3 marketing. On top of servicing other companies, Myosin will be using its cash flow in the community treasury to build a suite of crypto-native digital products. What exactly those will be, Blake refused to tell…

Code4rena

Code4rena is a DAO that focuses on web3 security via blockchain audits. They’ve worked with OpenSea, ENS, Aave, Alchemix, Nouns, and a bunch more web3 projects.

Instead of protocols using typical bug bounties, web3 projects use Code4rena as a protocol layer to host audit contests — often with pot sizes of $50,000+ in USDC. Within the Code4rena arena, there are three players:

1. Wardens protect DeFi by auditing code
2. Sponsors create prize pools to attract wardens to audit their code
3. Judges decide the severity, validity, and quality of findings, and rate the wardens’ performance

Code4rena’s co-founder Scott Lewis led me to @SockDrawerMoney who told me that auditors often fall into two categories: learners making $50–500 per contest and pro auditors making anywhere from a $2,000 floor to $30,000 for winning the contests. The DAO uses $ARENA to pays out tokens to other types of contributors called “Masons”.

As for governance, @SockDrawerMoney told me that governance is on-chain and “highly focused on delegating the right responsibility to the right place.” The DAO Constitution requires votes for DAO treasury usage and changes to governance and token issuance; beyond those subjects, the DAO tries to avoid voting and instead uses Working Groups of 3–5 Community Members with relevant expertise.

Risk DAO

Risk DAO is a service DAO that launched earlier this year with the intention of giving companies access to novel risk management frameworks. Anyone who’s spent time in the crypto realm knows that poor risk management is essential.

Risk DAO offers audits and related services, especially for lending markets and stablecoin protocols. Protocol founder Yaron Velner told me that Risk DAO has worked with Aurigami Finance, Vesta Finance, Gearbox, and more undisclosed protocols.

There is no token at this point, but a few members control a multisig wallet. Often, the multisig receives the payment and distributes it to contributors, but sometimes protocols pay the contributors directly. Velner said there are no official titles, but the team has people who do business development, reach out to potential customers, etc. They also publish research papers and open source tooling which gets them some traction and new customers.

Risk DAO knows that this space is fueled by the visionaries and the innovators but recognizes that many variables for success are overlooked. They found their niche in risk management and this service DAO enables these dreamers to execute and streamline a safety-first approach for builders and customers.

Honorable Mention: Opolis

We’ve seen a massive rise in both the gig and DAO economies. DAO workers in particular have great pay and flexible schedules, but lack the typical employee benefits of a corporate environment. Opolis is a vessel to offer employee benefits for independent workers. It’s a collective that services service DAOs.

The DAO is split into Employee Members (independent workers) and Coalition Members (non-US frens, DAOs that want to refer members, and investors). Opolis Executive Steward Joshua Lapidus told me that there are roughly 450 Employment Members who are members of what he calls an “Employment DAO”.

Actions in this ecosystem revolve around a token called $WORK. Yes, it’s a token. No, it’s nothing to get worked up about. Just view it as a tool for incentivized coordination. The $WORK token is awarded to all members for activity within the DAO — from actually just using the shared services to then referring new members.

But why is Opolis even structured as a DAO? This community of independent workers is able to leverage their newfound collective status to reap benefits typically reserved for companies. This means members can access fiat and crypto payroll tools, discounted group healthcare insurance, payroll tools, and additional services.

Members only pay for these services when used, and profits are shared between members based on activity. Participants transition to owners of this shared network through $WORK. Future moves are dictated by accumulating this token and governing the DAO.

Closing Thoughts

In college, I worked for an SEO agency. Very strict rules and screen-captures every 10 seconds to make sure you’re working on the clock. Service DAOs are the opposite.

Since starting writing this piece, I’ve joined the aforementioned Myosin and gotten involved with the community. It’s been really fun to join product calls and I’m hoping to land a freelance gig through them soon.

I’ll leave with this. Strip away the fancy descriptors and DAO terminology and these frameworks simply humanize connection while increasing individual flexibility. DAOs encourage a type of connection and self-sovereignty that scales. Regarding the future of work, service DAOs are a step in the right direction.