Venture Capital in a Decentralized World

And this is exactly why I supported SuperRare’s efforts to blow up its traditional venture capital structure in favor of a more human approach.

And third, the community is now empowered to make the decisions that will affect the future of SuperRare. This includes which artists and curators are permitted to sell work on the site, how to allocate funds from the community treasury, and which proposed improvements to the network and protocol are greenlit.

Second, $400 million as of this writing of the newly launched $RARE token was given with no strings attached to community members. Current shareholders who once owned 100% of the SuperRare stock now own only 40% of the company’s governance token. And while the community members are free to sell their tokens at any time on the open market, our token... See more

First, all revenue to fund ongoing operations and continued growth now goes directly to a newly formed treasury controlled by the community.

Controlling valuable pillars of internet utility -- the flow of information, social connections, music and video delivery -- has created tremendous wealth for a few while very little for stakeholders not on the company’s cap table.

Time will tell if our decision was a good one for the investors and shareholders in SuperRare. But I know it was the right one for the community at a critical time for our industry. And the model will be copied by many fast followers because a true community must include community ownership.

I cast my vote as a SuperRare Labs board member to shift the ownership and governance of the company’s cryptoart marketplace to its community of early artists, collectors, early team members, collaborators and contributors. The specifics are outlined in the company’s announcement and white paper.

The decentralized automated organization (DAO) structure and the technologies underpinning them -- transparent ledgers, smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, automated governance and certifiable digital ownership -- were created specifically and solely to align incentives. And now that they have been in the market for several years, we are starting to... See more

The third phase of the internet combines blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and digital ownership with new governing structures with terms prearranged and automated by smart contracts to allow decentralized projects to prosper. Web3 both stands on the shoulders of the open-source ethos that supports the earlier internet phases and threatens to ... See more

Community building has been a core part of internet functionality since the very first sites. For most of us, our first use of the internet was jumping into a community. The difference now is that Web3 allows all communities to launch, manage and grow native online economies together that enrich the lives of a broader stakeholder group than ever be... See more