Nantan DAO Chronicle (Part Two)

Finding a way out

The story of Nantang DAO continues, despite facing numerous challenges, everything is still developing naturally. The community explores forward through trial and error, seeking new possibilities. Some core members have gone to Jianta Village in Pujiang County, Chengdu, to initiate a new project, trying to find the true intersection of "rural construction and Web3", and build a "rural entrepreneurship DAO". At the same time, some choose to stay in Nantang and propose the initiative of "living well", continuously cultivating the community by organizing local young people to engage in blockchain learning, band activities, and more. On one hand, they explore outward, while on the other hand, they root locally, with both paths complementing each other. Paving a new road is always full of hardships, but as the saying goes: "Pessimists are often right, but optimists keep moving forward." The optimists of Nantang DAO are writing their own answers through action.

Attract more professionals

Talent is the cornerstone of any organization's development. Cikey once reflected that the initial phase of the Nantang DAO failed to effectively attract "real talents who understand blockchain and Web3," coupled with the general lack of mature rural development experience among early members, which caused the community to take many detours in its exploration. Fortunately, the community has recognized this shortcoming and has taken a series of improvement measures. Currently, Nantang DAO plans to invite senior experts from the industry to form the "Nantang DAO Governance Guidance Group" to provide professional mediation for internal disputes and to offer systematic suggestions for the strategic direction of each quarter. Additionally, through the "Rural Development Web3 Bilateral Enlightenment Program," community members have repeatedly participated in domestic and international Web3 events and have gone into universities to give presentations, which not only enhances their professional qualities but also attracts more professionals passionate about Web3 and rural development to join. This two-way interaction opens up new prospects for talent recruitment. Excitingly, new members are continuously joining, injecting new vitality into the community. Among them are those skilled in artistic creation, who can add creativity to rural cultural activities; those adept in brand promotion, who provide support for Nantang DAO's external communication; and those who have made significant contributions in the field of organizational research, offering wisdom for the optimization of the community governance mechanism. These new members not only bring professional skills but also pave the way for more possibilities for the future development of Nantang 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, after facing the challenges of rebuilding after an earthquake and an aging population, the village of Yamakoji in Japan 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, raising funds to support regional sustainable development. Although this model did not adopt typical DAO elements such as smart contracts or on-chain fund pools, it effectively addressed local issues. The experience of Yamakoji Village is quite enlightening for Nantang DAO. Recently, Yamakoji Village further proposed the idea of a "dual-layer DAO-driven governance revolution": using the Yamakoji DAO as a vehicle for co-governance between physical villagers and digital villagers through Snapshot voting; while also using the Shihua People DAO as a platform to promote cross-regional collaboration (such as with Shuyecun and Tianlongxia), constructing a "LocalDAO network". This model has similarities with 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 2020-2021, establishing "Creator Cabins" as a funding project for creator residencies; from 2021-2022, as the DAO flourished, Cabin also began to enter the DAO service provider stage, during which the community created numerous DAO media brands and developed on-chain and physical passport systems and other DAO tools aimed at online communities; from 2022-2023, with the volatility 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 keyword became "family community", and the team decided to establish deeper connections with local communities. They launched the Neighborhood Accelerator, proposing to create a community where people live near friends and jointly raise children.

What is worth referencing and reflecting on is 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 towards a purely community-driven network. This decision stems from a reflection on different models of entrepreneurship, DAO, and community networks: "Venture capital-backed startups are best suited for small, focused teams that can quickly pivot and 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 funding from existing cash flow protocols. Community-driven networks are best suited to act as loose connective organizations, allowing many people to independently explore adjacent paths and build what they find most interesting and valuable." For practitioners of rural construction DAOs, how to find the positioning of DAOs in rural communities and what value DAOs can bring to local communities is undoubtedly a common issue faced globally.

Deepen into the local market, seeking advantages

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

Nantang Village is renowned for its historical experience in democratic governance, and the attention it receives from society is the greatest advantage of this land. Looking back at the history of Nantang, one can find that the desire for democracy and rights has never ceased, with its significant historical milestones always resonating with the advanced organizational concepts of the great era - from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, civic movements surged, the rights protection lawyer movement and environmental movement began to rise, allowing citizens to safeguard their rights through legal means and collective action. Nantang also began to organize farmers' rights protection struggles, implement grassroots elections, and practice villagers' autonomy. Starting from 2003-2004, the goal of farmers' organization gradually shifted from rights protection to construction. As Yang Yunbiao stated: "Previously, we approached rights protection from a confrontational perspective; after establishing cooperatives, our daily work is to use livelihood development, cultural construction, and rural self-governance to protect our rights." Later, in the process of farmers' organization, Western civilization was referenced, and deliberative rules were introduced, realizing the localization of advanced governance concepts (in 2008), during which the village's economic and cultural undertakings achieved rapid development. 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 we need to think about how to enable people to 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 the Nantang DAO, Nantang has attempted various democratic governance methods over the past 30 years. However, it is important to recognize that regardless of how innovative the organizational form may be, the key lies in whether it focuses on "human connections" and addresses the fundamental needs of local farmers. The comforting fact is that the various past and ongoing attempts have already produced a good "linkage" effect. After living and learning together for some time, some wonderful chemical reactions are quietly occurring between DAO members and cooperative members. During my field study, I observed local youth proactively using Robert's Rules of Order to effectively negotiate and reach a consensus on the division of labor when facing the challenges of cooking collectively, through "motions" and "reconsiderations." I also sensed the budding awareness of equality among local youth; they began to organize spontaneously to collectively reflect on issues such as lack of transparency in decision-making, unclear responsibilities, and vague rules in their local work and life affairs. This emergence of independent thinking and critical spirit will be a valuable asset for Nantang's future development. On another front, cooperatives are also broadening their horizons, planning to create a "third space" to serve digital nomads, aiming to connect a wider group of young people. Based on recognizing 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 the test of time and practice, both sides are expected to reach a consensus amidst conflicts, forming a governance model that balances individual autonomy and collective collaboration. In future developments, the Nantang DAO, while promoting Web3 technology and governance models, must also be rooted in the cultural soil of the countryside and the genuine interests of the villagers, focusing on addressing the fundamental needs of rural areas, 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 originally intersecting circles: rural construction carries the practice and sentiment of revitalizing the countryside, while DAO reshapes trust and collaboration mechanisms with the concept of decentralized technology. In recent years, these two fields have begun to intersect, attracting Web3 practitioners dedicated to rural areas and those in rural construction eager to embrace new technologies. However, due to the short duration of contact and differences in values and cultural backgrounds, friction is inevitable within this intersection, including the collision between decentralized autonomy logic and rural collectivist culture, as well as the integration of external ideas and local traditions.

The core issue lies in how DAO, as a new organizational form, can find its role and capacity boundaries within rural governance structures. Taking the practice of Nantung DAO as an example, if the issuance of Nantung 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 struggle to surpass other existing "alternative currencies"; if token-based voting is simply a direct democracy transitioned to the Web3 digital platform, yet villagers are effectively excluded from the democratic decision-making process, how much change can we expect this so-called organizational "innovation" to bring to rural society? Although these questions are illustrated through the specific case of Nantung DAO, they are essentially universal inquiries for all future rural construction DAOs or similar organizations.

Moreover, it must be acknowledged that 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 for organizations to address sustainable development challenges. Different organizational forms have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they coexist rather than replace each other. If we view decentralization and autonomy as a spectrum, various types of organizations throughout history, as well as different stages of the same organization, exist at different positions on this spectrum. Many failures of DAOs stem from a lack of sufficient understanding of this issue; they attempt to run commercial projects but find that a more centralized approach is often better. They wish to allocate funds through DAO mechanisms, but often the majority are not the beneficiaries, and economic gains tend to be monopolized by a few individuals. Some DAOs focused on building community networks, after operating for a while, find that they also seem unable to locate the position of a DAO. A vivid example is when the Uniswap Foundation decided to allocate $165 million in liquidity mining rewards for Uniswap v4 and Unichain during a vote, which sparked outrage within the DAO. Members questioned why the foundation needed to spend money, while the centralized entity Uniswap Labs ( was earning from front-end fees.