DWeb Learning Collaborative

To start us off on our DWeb Learning journey, we had the privilege to speak with Shermin Voshmgir about the basics of Web3. Shermin is the author of the book Token Economy, which helped many of us grasp the basics, the founder of Token Kitchen and BlockchainHub Berlin.  She was clear: the time to learn and get involved in shaping this new socio-economic operating system is now. You can re-watch the full conversation here.  

For our first case study of the learning journey, we spoke with Mercedes Bidart and Viviana Siless, co-founders of Quipu Market. Quipu is disrupting the micro-finance model as we know it, by leveraging web3 to ensure entrepreneurs in the informal sector can access capital quicker, more easily and at much friendlier rates than traditional micro-finance. You can watch the full recording here. 

Ashoka Fellow Regi Wahyu is transforming smallholder farming in Indonesia, using blockchains & NFTs to cut out middle-men, increase transparency and build new revenue streams. Watch the full conversation here. 

Traditional and new forms of labor need to be built and supported. How can we enable communities to build for themselves, mutualistically and create our next safety net? Can tokens, blockchains and DAOs be useful? We dug into these questions and more with Sara Horowitz of Mutualist Society, Saket Soni of Resilience Force, Esteban Kelly of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and Matt Prewitt of RadicalxChange. You can watch the full conversation here.

Ashoka Fellow Reinaldo Pamponet, founder of Noon, spoke about building community wealth and decentralizing work through Web3 technology. We dove into concrete use cases in Brazil & New Zealand, explored how coins and tokens can bring communities together around shared goals, what has worked, what has failed and, more importantly, learnings from the process. You can watch the full conversation here. 

We dove into mutualism as a frame for building and delegating power to communities, with Nathan Schneider - a writer and thought leader on cooperatives - and Sara Horowitz - founder of the Freelancers Union and Mutualist Society. What role can tokens, NFTs and DAOs play to strengthen mutualist communities in new ways? Can tokens and smart contracts open new forms of decision-making, contribution and participation? Will DAOs be the way to organizing communities across borders? We explored these questions and more. Watch the full conversation here.

Some of us are wary, or confused about DAOs, others are interested, and some others may even be excited. To learn about the basics of DAOs and explore their usefulness to mutualists and social entrepreneurs, we sat down with Daniel Hwang, head of protocols at stakefish (a leading proof of stake validator. Watch the full conversation here. 

the DWeb Learning Collaborative got together one last time to reflect and debrief on our journey thus far: what have we learned about web3, about blockchain and tokens -- and the tension between solidarity, community, and self-sovereignty ? Any technology can be used for good and for bad purposes – what are the good promises and avenues for our work that we’re excited about? What do we see is not going to work? You can watch the full conversation here. Here are a few of the highlights: