Autonomous Communities
July 23, 2023
This idea stems from a tweet and a quote from Nadia Eghbal’s book Working in Public. Eghbal notes that people contributing to open source code do so due to intrinsic motivation—they enjoy coding, and that's their primary reason.
This understanding also explains why many attempts to incentivize and monetize open source code have failed. Such efforts fundamentally miss the point. Similar to most basketball enthusiasts who don’t engage in the sport for profit, individuals contributing to open source code are not primarily driven by financial gains. They willingly spend money and time on what they love, driven by intrinsic motivation. Herein lies an opportunity for crypto to add value, offering a means to facilitate transactions that aren't purely monetary.
We are at a unique juncture in internet history, with public social forums like Twitter and Reddit seemingly imploding. This presents an opportunity to potentially create something new.
Reddit has thrived largely due to free labor from subreddit moderators. However, with AI now capable of content moderation, why not replace human moderators with AI that can enforce community guidelines? AI moderators can effectively identify and remove hate speech, irrelevant content, and other undesirable elements.
But how will these AI moderators know what to police? This is where crypto comes into play. Community members could vote on the guidelines they wish to enforce. Once ratified, these rules could be stored on a blockchain, immutable without further community voting. AI moderators would then enforce these guidelines, which are enshrined on-chain, as community members post and comment.
Voting could mirror procedures used in DAOs, with each community setting its own rules. For instance, in some communities, you might need an NFT in your wallet to view or post content, or vote on new rules. Others might opt for a more anarchic approach, allowing anyone to vote.
This approach allows communities to control their content and membership, while AI handles the heavy lifting. Not everyone needs to vote, so most people will engage in communities as they always have: lurking and posting.
The crypto aspect can be downplayed. It can simply be presented as secure community voting, without emphasizing the crypto element. Here, crypto is a tool for building the communities people desire.
This concept builds on the intrinsic motivation observed in Reddit moderators, who take pride in managing their domains. It empowers active community members while allowing others to remain passive.
This idea also addresses the shift in social media from broadcast-based to community-based engagement. People are leaving platforms like Facebook and Twitter for group chats, seeking safer, more intimate interactions. While this trend aligns with traditional human social behaviors, it limits the serendipitous interactions the internet offers. A Reddit-like platform could bridge this gap, maintaining small, interest-based groups without reverting to full broadcast mode.
However, Reddit is increasingly focused on ads, which are tailored based on extensive user data. The platform is moving towards a "text-based TikTok" model, prioritizing engaging content over community interaction.
This shift opens the door to a new, community-centric social platform not reliant on ads. Such a platform could be based on a protocol (or a set of APIs built on an existing protocol like Lens or Farcaster), allowing users to create or join hosted communities. The company could monetize by providing tools to enhance the community experience, rather than through ads.
As a self-proclaimed nerd, I envision this as the internet's version of Enlightenment-era Parisian salons, where various cafes hosted diverse and engaging discussions. For those with different interests, this concept is equally applicable. For instance, I often visit /r/NBA on Reddit and would love a dedicated NBA community focused on catering to the interests of avid NBA fans.
This idea, in essence, leaps beyond the framework of platforms like Discord. Discord, known for fostering instant communication within communities, doesn’t harness the transformative power of blockchain for democratic governance or AI for nuanced content moderation. Our model blends the best of both worlds – the dynamic community engagement found in Discord, enriched with the cutting-edge integration of crypto and AI. This fusion not only offers a more robust and secure community management but also paves the way for a more evolved, self-governing social platform experience.