Exploring the Collision of Rural Areas and Web3: Challenges and Reflections of Nantang DAO

Nantang DAO, as a pioneer in China combining Web3 concepts with rural development, faces numerous challenges in its practice. This article focuses on analyzing some issues present in the governance process of Nantang DAO, including insufficient integration with rural development needs, scattered organizational goals, the need for improvement in incentive and voting mechanisms, as well as risks posed by external regulation, economic monopoly, and centralization of voting rights. At the same time, the article also introduces the humanitarian care reflected behind the "New Year Goods Plan."

What is the goal?

The organizational goal of the Nantang DAO is to "promote the integration of rural construction and Web3", attempting to support rural development through democratic governance and economic assistance. However, there are the following issues in actual operation:

1. Democracy has failed to broadly connect the villagers. The decision-making of the Nantang DAO is mainly led by a small number of core members, and most ordinary villagers have not participated.

2. The goals are dispersed and lack focus. Members focus on different directions, leading to scattered resources and even competition.

3. There is tension between community building and commercialization. Some members advocate prioritizing local integration, while others focus more on commercial exploration.

Experiment of Incentives and Circulation: Nantang Dou

The Nantang DAO has issued the token "Nantang Bean" as a community incentive and voting rights certificate. However, its hourly wage incentive mechanism has many issues:

1. The criteria for work point applications and evaluations are unclear, resulting in some members' contributions not being recognized.

2. Using working hours as the sole evaluation criterion ignores the differences in efficiency and quality of results.

3. The peer evaluation mechanism is essentially a facade, and members are generally unwilling to evaluate others.

In addition, the circulation experiment of Nantang beans, the "New Year Goods Plan," although it reflects humanistic care, has not effectively solved the debt problem, nor has it cultivated the habit of villagers using tokens.

Is it decentralized enough?

The Nantang DAO faces multiple challenges in achieving decentralized governance.

1. External regulatory pressure. The legal status of DAO in China is still unclear, and activities are prone to restrictions.

2. The source of income is singular. Funding mainly relies on the personal contributions of Liu Bing, affecting financial independence.

3. Uneven distribution of voting rights. A small number of members hold a large amount of Nantan beans, becoming "whales" in the community.

4. The voting mechanism has vulnerabilities. It allows informal members to participate in the voting process, which poses a risk of manipulation.

To address these challenges, Nantan DAO needs to further optimize its governance mechanism, balance the interests of all parties, and truly achieve the ideal of decentralization. At the same time, how to explore innovation within the regulatory framework is also a question worth deep consideration.