Will decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) be the way we conduct the collective efforts of the future? Entrepreneur Yury Serdich thinks so, and he’s on a mission to help more people use them. “DAOs are the next great form of organization,” predicts Serdich as he launches PUNK master to improve public access to them.
For the uninitiated, DAOs are blockchain-encrypted smart contracts that control how a group of people organize themselves and make decisions. They provide a means for people to come together, whether they know each other or not, to pursue collective goals in a way that automatically follows pre-agreed processes. It doesn’t take a manager or administrator to get involved – nor the hierarchical structures most organizations have.
Consider a community in a local neighborhood, for example, where each resident puts money into an organization to pay for future improvements to the local environment or infrastructure. They could use a DAO to define the terms for how decisions about potential spending projects will be made, and to manage that process as each project occurs.
Or think of the creative economy, where innovators are increasingly looking beyond venture capital and other traditional investors to raise money for new ideas. A DAO can be the means by which they work with a diverse group of individuals.
“DAOs will be ideal for all kinds of organizations,” Serdich says. “They can work really well for non-commercial groups and for any community where people are making choices about what to do next.”
So far it’s going well, but there’s a problem. Setting up a DAO, properly coded on a blockchain, requires more technical expertise than most people possess. That’s where PUNK master comes in, says Serdich. It’s basically a tool for setting up your own DAO, even if you don’t have any coding knowledge at all. Serdich says the platform’s interface allows users to get their DAO up and running in just 20 minutes.
Professionalizing DAOs in this way will give the structures the legitimacy they need. The most high-profile DAO launched to date, known simply as The Dao, raised $150 million in 2016 to become the target of hackers who stole some of the money. That undermined confidence in the concept and delayed its development.
Founder of the punk master Yury Serdich
Communities should not be deterred, says Serdich. “DAOs will be really valuable to a wide variety of groups,” he says. “They provide an easy way for each member of the group to make a proposal to everyone.” PUNK master will work for free for those with less than 500 members, he explains, while larger organizations charge a fee.
It’s a leap of faith, Serdich admits, although he believes the project will be socially useful, even if it doesn’t become a huge commercial success.
Still, the entrepreneur has a track record that suggests he can try the PUNK master. He is only 26 and has been running start-ups and scale-ups for nine years, mostly in the crypto and blockchain space. Successful ventures include one of Europe’s first cybersports leagues and a Telegram Messenger marketing agency that partners with brands such as Volvo and IBM.
Most recently, Serdich curated the TON Punks NFT collection, commissioning artists to create over 5,000 pixel art images on the TON blockchain. TON Punks quickly developed a cult following of sorts and the project earned Serdich about $1.5 million – money he’s now plowing into the PUNK master.
In addition, while Serdich is particularly proud of PUNK master’s DAO offering, the company is also pursuing other projects. These include Cryptonight City, a service created to provide advisory and consulting services to individuals interested in collecting or managing NFTs, and Punk City, a metaverse venture that allows users to build business models that do not rely solely on are from more and more people joining up.
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