The future of private clubs for the crypto elite will soon be formed by NFT memberships and community-funded DAOs. Here’s what you need to know about launching the next members club on Web3
By now, we should all be familiar with NFTs (non-fungible tokens)—but what are DAOs? Decentralised Autonomous Oganisations (the acronym is pronounced “da-ow”) are online communities formed with blockchain technology. These collectives congregate like-minded people who come together with a common purpose and are entirely managed by members through community governance. Not to be mistaken for a book club, DAOs are more akin to a venture capital fund, except a community treasury is pooled together by members.
Members either buy into the club with a set amount of crypto, or purchase the DAO’s branded digital token—which rises and falls, just like stocks. Votes and stakeholdership are weighted based on how much has been invested individually or the number of tokens held. Aside from a monetary scorecard, entry to DAOs are also permissible through a reputation-based scoring system where a user’s vote is weighted based on correspondence and participation. Token holders can submit proposals and vote on projects to allocate resources to.
The RedDAO for example is a fashion collective of members passionate about the digital fashion ecosystem and had snagged Dolce & Gabbana's The Doge Crown NFT for USD$1.27 million in Ethereum (ETH) to archive and hold in their treasury. Besides the utility of NFTs being used as a membership key, DAOs are the clubs that hold the keys to make decisions together using a smart contract, whereupon an action is triggered after certain conditions have been met. Decision-making power is distributed to all stakeholders, rather than just the one traditional executive or board member and the process is entirely transparent where votes and voting history are all publicly available. DAOs are expected to revolutionise the future of community-building by encouraging people to build passion projects unitedly while empowering individuals with ownership stake and decision-making power.
The Crypto Clique
Reimagining the modern golf and leisure club, a community of golf enthusiasts and crypto collectors under LinksDAO have teamed up to buy a golf course. After raising over US$10 million from its NFT membership sale—which granted holders governance rights, exclusive perks and membership quota for its first physical club—the DAO is on track to purchase a network of global golf courses while designing parallel experiences in the Metaverse.
Meanwhile, another Web3 private members club originating from Hong Kong is also in the works. PWC—PunkWhaleClub, not to be confused with the accounting firm—will be a decentralised private club built and owned by the community. Unlike your standard club membership, there are no applications or recurring annual fees. To access clubhouse facilities, members are to purchase its NFTs to gain access to the PWC clubhouse, whose location is to be decided by its holders. The club will host a Japanese omakase restaurant, cocktail lounge, insulated cigar lounge, and 24/7 private soundproof meeting rooms where payments for food and beverages are accepted in fiat and crypto.
From Member to Owner
Membership is no longer just about the access or the perks, but being part of the club as a stakeholder. The fully autonomous and transparent concept brings about a new form of investment, inspiring the creation of the next social club in the age of decentralisation. In pursuit of a common goal, DAOs are a new way for people to come together to build a new society according to what people truly want.
Web3 re-engineers the concept of private memberships for niche communities by token-gating entry under the DAO method, whereby entry and access is only given to those either with sufficient token holding or by active participation to filter through the quality of members. The emergence of a new cultural class composed of crypto elites may also mean that NFTs and DAO memberships may become sought-after status symbols, just like any luxury item. It won’t be surprising when Anna Delvey begins building her next private members club on the blockchain.