The Plan - Quest Events O'Connor.pdfThe Plan Background on DAOs Background on Organisational Theory ... the modern world, the specter of crypto anarchy. Timothy C. May's 1988 publication

The Plan

● Background on DAOs

● Background on Organisational Theory

● Introduction to UnionD - a blueprint for a new organisation type

● Key Features of UnionD

● Use Cases

● Smart Contract Walkthrough

A specter is haunting the modern world,

the specter of crypto anarchy.

Timothy C. May's 1988 publication The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto

Primavera de Filippi “Decentralized

blockchain

technologies bring

trust and coordination

to shared resource

pools, enabling new

models of non-

hierarchical

governance, where

intelligence is spread

on the edges of the

network instead of

being concentrated at

the center.”

DAOs, DCOs, and DOs

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations

Decentralised Collaborative Organisations

Decentralised Organisations.

Software managing capital.

Software managing resources.

Software managing people managing resources.

Vitalik Buterin's Quadrant Chart for

Classifying DOs

Reinventing Organisations

Street gangs

Mafias

Mercenaries

Catholic Church

Army

Governmt agencies

Public school systems

Global corporates

Wall street

Culture-driven

organizations

Images of Organisations

The Evolutionary Origins of Hierarchy

Henok Mengistu, Joost Huizinga, Jean-Baptiste Mouret, Jeff Clune

● Hypothesis: the existence of costs for network connections

creates indirect selection for the evolution of hierarchy.

● Experiment: evolves computational abstractions of animal brains

called artificial neural networks to solve hierarchical Boolean

logic problems.

● Results: suggest that a connection cost will make it more likely

for hierarchy to evolve.

http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004829

“Expanded communication and significant

changes in the process of decision-making

can provide a foundation for a system that

utilizes the talents and abilities of the many

instead of the few.” Yaneer Bar-Yam

Hypothesis:

Given that information technology has

reduced connection costs between

participants in an organisation,

hierarchical structures are sub-optimal

for solving complex problems.

Across countless

species, social

groups have

developed

methods of

amplifying their

intelligence by

working together

in closed-loop

systems.

The Cathedral and The Bazaar

Many

Eyeballs

Tame

Complexity

The World’s Most Successful OS

Wikipedia:

The World’s

Biggest

Encyclopedia

A Billion Dollar Company With No Bosses

http://www.inc.com/samuel-wagreich/the-4-billion-company-with-no-bosses.html

“Imagine being a part of a

company with no bosses,

upper-level management, or

HR where bonuses, hirings,

and firings were all determined

by peer consensus. Imagine a

company like this going on to

become one of the most

successful in its space.”

Occupy Sandy -Crowd-sourced Disaster Relief

60,000 volunteers *

Remediation to 1,000 homes

300,000 meals

*4x more than the Red Cross

The 21st Century Dutch East India Company?

Or maybe not?

UnionD - A Blueprint

Re-Thinking the

Organisation

UnionD Key Features:

1.Evolutionary Constitution

2.Flux Democracy

3.Fluid Equity

4.Default Transparency

5.Web-of-Trust Reputation

1.Evolutionary Constitution

Settings can be voted on and changed over

time

All key parameters abstracted to a

Constitution object

Constitutional settings can be compared

between instances

Root hash of natural language articles

could be included, anyone could fork,

amend and put to a vote an amended

natural language constitution.

2. Flux Democracy

● Political capital is commodified

● Voting not tied to equity - one member, one

issue, one vote

● Users can delegate their votes to a proxy

● Users can spend their votes on issues they

care about, or accumulate votes until important

issue arises.

● Issue-based direct democracy

● Minimum quorum - function of member.size()

3. Fluid Equity

Abstract salary and equity to a generalised

notion

Members set their own ‘equity salary’

All members’ remuneration and equity

salaries are visible, set through peer

consensus. No more toxic secrecy

around remuneration.

Equity tokens can be traded at anytime,

services such as shape-shift could

facilitate liquidity and conversion into

other tokens of value.

4. Default Transparency

Spending, elections, amendments,

salaries -- visible to all members.

Many eyes make bugs shallow

Real-time audit trail.

Members know where they stand in

relation to the organisation. No silos

of information.

5. Web-of-Trust Reputation

Simple reputation scheme, we don’t want to

reduce people to a numerical score

Reputation is contextual and subjective.

Reputation through ‘endorsements’ -- a positive

association

Members can make endorsements of other

members, and later can revoke those

endorsements

Side Note On Web-Of-Trust Reputation

Five Arms is a secure reporting tool for crisis

journalism.

Recent recipient of Walkley Foundation grant.

Identities can be anonymous, how do we verify

that a source is credible?

Use Cases ● Labour Unions

● Co-operatives

● Social Movements

● Guilds

● Partnerships

● Non-government Organisations

Labour Unions

● Lack of transparency in existing

structures

● Sharing economy and horizontalized

workforce

● Union movement searching for relevance

● Potential to form rapidly and scale

CONTRACTORS

Uber

COMPANIES

TaskRabbit

Fiverr

❖ Communications

❖ Negotiations

❖ Claims & Arbitration

❖ Value Added Services

e.g. Insurance, Rewards

❖ Liberate Data

❖ Build Reputation

❖ Create Community

❖ Generate Economic Security

❖ Unify Channel

❖ Reduce Turnover

❖ Open Governance

❖ Support Compliance

Drivers

Helpers

Freelancers

Why Blockchain a Union?

● DAO Model

● Transparency

● eVoting / Elections

● Worker Data Portability

Co-operatives

Social Movements

Guilds ● Potential model for commons-based

production (eg. free software)

● Organised around shared skills

● Promote skill sharing within the guild

● Has historical precedence

Partnerships

NGOs

UnionD Smart Contract - Main Data Structures

Members Constitution

Issues

ElectionsEquity

Constitutional

Amendments

UnionD Smart Contract - Non-Member Functions

Apply for MembershipGet UnionD Ether

Balance

Get Total Equity

Supply

Get Equity Balance of

an account

Get Member Count Endorse another User

UnionD Smart Contract - Member Functions

Create an Election Create an Issue

Vote on an Election Vote on an issue

Transfer Votes to a

proxyCreate an Amendment

Vote on an

AmendmentTransfer equity

UnionD Smart Contract - Member Admin Functions

Approve a new

member application

UnionD Smart Contract - Treasurer Functions

Spend UnionD Ether

Adjust joining fee

Review active member

list

Current approximate cost to

create a UnionD:90 cents