Neo-Guilds for the Crypto and Web3 Economy
Description
Josh Tan et al. :
"Today, the term "guild" extends beyond physical trade into digital communities, especially in web3. One particularly compelling example is the Protocol Guild. This innovative project creates new ways for Ethereum core contributors to be rewarded collectively.
The guild mechanism helps create consistent support from the ecosystem and facilitates the streaming of funds to core developers. The Protocol Guild is an early example of the power of this mechanism, and its treasury has accumulated millions of dollars, with these resources distributed among Ethereum developers."
(https://paragraph.xyz/@guildguild/guild-guild)
Discussion
James Waugh et al. :
"Guilds, by their nature, empower their members with significantly more collective bargaining power as well as smooth the volatility of access funding allowing members to dedicate more attention to their trade. While Protocol Guild is a novel mechanism, it seemingly takes inspiration from both traditional guilds, which have existed since the 11th century, and modern online gaming guilds, both of which have a common theme of empowerment through organization. Insofar as they increase the bargaining power of individual contributors against more powerful, institutional entities (on- or off-chain), they also function like 20th-century labor unions. When individuals join forces in a guild, they can solicit funds more effectively on behalf of the collective.
Guilds are important coordination mechanisms which allow for more efficient matching between supply and demand for expert labor. The guilds create a legible group-level identity which can be relied upon to reliably produce high quality work in a particular specialization, while also offering members more time to focus in their specialization. Thanks to a net saving in attention for both the guild members and the organizations funding their work, the creation of a guild is a positive-sum innovation.
The success of the Protocol Guild has inspired discussions on guilds at MCON.fun this year. We think the Ethereum ecosystem would benefit from the creation of more Guilds.
Guilds present an incredible opportunity to increase collective coordination and bargaining power, ensuring long-term success for developers and contributors within the space."
(https://paragraph.xyz/@guildguild/guild-guild)
Typology
Rena O`Brien et al. :
The Guild model offers a way forward for the creation of various guilds across the blockchain space. Some potential areas include:
- Protocol Guild: The original model for protocol development and core contributor funding.
- Dev Tooling Guild: A specialized guild focused on the creation and maintenance of developer tools.
- DAO Guild: A potential guild for creating DAO reporting standards, organizing professional delegates, coordinating governance research, and addressing the growing complexity of DAO operations. (see also: Guild DAOs
- Security Guild: A potential guild specialized on Ethereum security.
- IRL Guilds: A potential guild that have real-world (IRL) use cases, extending beyond the digital realm into IRL events, experiences and connection.
- Guild Guild: A guild for guilding. Distributes the means of guilding, and helps collections of guilds organize ."