Crypto-Societies

“Crypto Societies” are individual, online communities (societies) of representatives in the various web3 niches including, but not limited to, DeFi, NFTs, and DAO tooling.

This is a conceptual idea, and will evolve over time as I work on it and tell others about it.

Anyone who is interested in helping out, just lmk! dm me on twitter @steve0xp 👋🏼

Context of Idea (for reference):

My Background

I have been fortunate enough to join the web3 developer community and find full-time work as a smart contract dev over the last 1-2 years. My own journey led me to great communities at the start, but once I got a full-time gig I was heads down focusing on my work.

My work included integrating into real protocol code out there. Amongst this integration work, I found that there were more challenges in my early days that could possibly be resolved by having societies for new full-time devs in web3. Here are some of the needs that I had identified:

• Challenging to meet and connect with other full-time devs in your industry online.
  • OG devs have connections of course, but newer full-time devs to the industry may not unless they are introduced
  • Unnecessary friction for devs within the same industry to know of one another
• Space moves very quickly, it is difficult to keep up with even your own specific niche of industry
  • Some devs just keep their heads down because keeping up in relevant communities is too much work atop of their own deliverables
• Current model for new full-time devs to know the community is labor intensive and may not fit all devs out there (especially those that may not want to be super active on twitter / socials, etc.:
  • Ask questions about the code if they are building it in respective protocol community (ex. asking curve about curve contracts)
  • Apply to be a contributoooor - not all protocols have this option though
  • Come up with a way to contribute if you don’t see the position on their postings page
    • Write tweet storms
    • Make videos
    • Make a podcast
    • Solve github issues
• Training ‘paths’ for devs interested in particular fields are not set by the professionals in the field
  • Ex.) ‘path’ to become a dev for a DEX should probably have some consult from devs at Uniswap

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The Value of ‘Societies’:

Values of Societies

These societies would offer a number of value props including, but not limited to:

• Online community where people truly building could congregate:
  • Perhaps gated to only protocols in the society list. Only those working in the industry.
  • New protocols or devs working full time in the space could apply to get in. This keeps the online chat focused on people in the industry, whereas very new incoming devs to web3 have their own communities (speedrunethereum, etc.)
• Newer full-time devs to the industry can get to know more experienced devs in the field
  • Meet and greets once a month perhaps?
• Professionals set the tone for people entering web3 (Instead of numerous onboarding ramps that don't go hardcore into curve contracts, I'd want a curve rep to help set a "training track" for someone who wants to be a stablecoin dex dev).
  • Work with onramps known to web3 (speedrunethereum, pattrick colins, eth foundation, ethernauts, etc.)
  • Create “tech tree” where there are laid out challenges for people to follow through on so they get a comprehensive understanding of what is required for a respective industry “branch” —> ex.) becoming a dev in lending protocols.
• Monthly presentations from different protocols to vetted list of true protocols in the space
  • Quicker innovation, the old silicon valley model where innovation quickly progresses due to quick communication and ideation.
  • Protocols stay on top of innovation within their field.

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Next Steps:

TODO

• Need to get a test society together, and see if there is truly a need for this or not. Going to start with DeFi (sector I work in) Tasks to do to get there:
  • Refine one pager on the idea
  • Get early feedback on idea through meetings: Austin Griffith, x0r, Ryan Coordinator, Devs in my circle, Balancer
  • [/] Get more feedback from industry reps, line up presenters
  • Create a discord for DeFi Devs to start
  • Get a quick loom video outlining the idea:
    • Showcase the tech tree
    • Showcase SRE
    • Outline action items that would help the industry:
      • Prominent protocols to join the discord community
      • Education
        • For full-time ppl in the space:
          • Monthly presentations from other protocols
          • Feedback groups - offering feedback on new ideas protocols may have from fellow ppl in that space
        • For incoming devs to web3:
          • BUIDL GUIDL and whoever else to facilitate
          • Show tech tree, and discuss ideas to integrate feedback from actual industry experts:
            • Code walkthroughs to act as precursor material for devs to view before building code hooking into real prod code (ex. using curve factory contracts)
      • Networking
        • Online format of jumping into small group chats with other devs monthly
  • Outreach to protocols with the ask: “Are you interested in joining a society? Here’s the idea, it is a public good:
    • Showcase video
    • Set up a zoom meeting to talk about it more / get feedback from people
    • ???