Social DAOs

Note: Data in this section last updated July 3rd, 2022

What is a Social DAO?

A social DAO is an online social club, generally organized to bring like-minded people together around a common purpose.

Social clubs are obviously not a new phenomenon. For most of history, we’ve been joining guilds, salons, country clubs, exclusive houses, etc… as they offer several benefits such as networking, knowledge sharing, status, etc…

Social DAOs take this a step further, offering members several benefits including:

• Global Exposure: As remote-first entities, social DAOs can access members from anywhere in the world

• Investment Opportunities: Social DAOs often invest in projects that benefit the community or further its mission

• Governance Rights: Social token holders have the right to vote on the direction of the organization and how the treasury is managed

• Discounts: DAOs often provide members with exclusive access to merchandise, events, NFTs, etc…

• Financial Reward: Membership tokens are extremely liquid and easily traded on the open market. In addition, social DAOs can offer members the ability to “stake” their tokens to generate passive income

How do Social DAOs Work?

To understand how Social DAOs work, let’s take a look at Friends with Benefits – an online social club for “creatives” in the Web3 space (e.g. creators, developers and artists) . It has over 3,000 members and was founded by Trevor McFedries in 2020.

The DAO’s mission is to promote a “web3 world where prosperity is abundant…technology acts as a communal connective tissue… and data and payments are fluid and controlled by the creators”.

While there are some real-world events (such as exclusive parties, after-parties and meetups), most of the DAO’s communication is conducted online via a Discord server composed of over 2,000 members. The Discord includes channels covering a variety of interests including art, games, music, films, food and technology.

What makes FWB so difficult from traditional social or country clubs is the fact that it also acts as an investment fund. Members have $18M in funds at their disposal to invest in activities that they believe will further the community and creative side of Web3. To date, they have invested in a:

• Virtual music studio

• NFT gallery

• App that allows “token-gating” for real world events

• Web3-focused blog

• Real-time community dashboard

• Series of parties around the world

Membership in the Friends with Benefits DAO is highly exclusive – fewer than 20% of applicants are accepted. To become a member, one must submit a written application, receive approval from the community and purchase 75 tokens (valued at ~$1K today). Fortunately, the DAO offers scholarships for applicants from underrepresented communities.

Key Players

In addition to Friends with Benefits, other notable Social DAOs include CabinDAO, LinksDAO and Krause House.

Note: The above list is not exhaustive. Although generally ranked by size, some smaller projects may be included for illustrative purposes. In addition, while DAOs often span multiple categories, they were only included once in the vertical that is believed to represent the best fit