Heating Up 🔥 #12: Voices of ClimateDAO
Your Weekly Dose of Climate and Crypto Courtesy of ClimateDAO
This week in Heating Up 🔥 :
Voices of ClimateDAO, our newest featured article series
News from all around ReFi
ClimateDAO Updates
Voices of ClimateDAO
Our newest series of cover stories will feature unique perspectives and experiences from ClimateDAO leaders and contributors. This presents an opportunity to get to know the people working behind the scenes and hear their personal story and mission within the scope of our project.
Our first edition features the voice of Elliot Waxman, founder of ClimateDAO:
Our Story:
We saw the power retail investors held with the rise of Meme Stocks, and specifically the Game Stop Phenomenon proving that thousands of individual investors could move markets if they were aligned behind a common story. At the same time, crypto enthusiasts created new markets by embracing values of decentralized governance and control. Simultaneously, in the last decade, we've witnessed the rise of thematic funds, funds that take a bunch of public companies and securitizes a piece of the portfolio.
The takeaway: individual investors are looking for ways to collaborate with a community in a way that moves markets and expresses a strong view of the world.
A separate aspect of finance has also been gaining traction recently. Shareholder activism refers to one's ability to vote on and issue proposals for a company to change, if you own its stock. Generally speaking, the more of a company's stock one owns, the more of a say one can have in its’ corporate governance. The problem is that everyday individual investors hardly ever own enough stock to tip the scales. This led to the first iteration of ClimateDAO.
My friend Matthew had just left his software engineering job in big tech, disillusioned with the social impact of the company. I was still working as a consultant researching decarbonization, blockchain, and corporate governance. With his computer science background and my experience researching these areas, we filled our calendars talking with hedge funds, corporate governance experts, DAO enthusiasts, legal experts, and climate activists. We read tons of whitepapers and researched the nuances of shareholder engagement. Luckily, Matthew and I weren't in this alone. In the Fall of 2021, we started taking on 'contributors.’ We both left our jobs with absolute zero in funding from angel investors or venture capitalist and sought out crowdfunding from web3 people, and had over a hundred people back us.
Our focus became solving the inherent problems of how to reward users (activist investors), while also providing sustainability to the platform. We became inspired by successful platforms like Uber and Airbnb, which serve the role of ‘middlemen’ who connect different parties and were successful in aligning incentives of these different parties for cooperation (e.g. people with a spare room and people looking for a place to stay.) The key to Uber and Airbnb’s sustainability is their fee for facilitating the whole exchange. That fee is also referred to as the take rate. Naturally, businesses want to be rewarded for the role they play in facilitating valuable exchanges. When the take rate is excessive, it presents an opportunity for a new player to come in and disrupt incumbents. Hence the saying goes ‘your margin is my opportunity’.
Web3 is establishing new networks where the individual participants can reap more of the value they create on the platform. Imagine if you could earn stake in Airbnb by staying at more Airbnbs!
For ClimateDAO's Season 1, we organized our members into four working groups, each tasked with different responsibilities for the season. Over the course of our inaugural season, we were able to accomplish a great deal:
We have a lot in store for Season 2. We've decided to branch off and have more groups of fewer people. Our hypothesis is that 6 groups of 3-5 people will be more effective than fewer groups of more people.
As we advance in Season 2, ClimateDAO will set itself up to become the leading web3 platform facilitating the evolution of a community of aligned democraztized activist investors who are making a tangible impact tackling climate change with their dollars.
Our Model:
The finer details of ClimateDAO's tokenomics are still being hashed out, but will be aligned with the principles of minimizing take rates, aligning incentives of all network participants, and rewarding quality contributions at all stages. We’re building for the long term and want to have a steady foundation.
Our Why:
ClimateDAO was born to tackle climate change through shareholder activism. By purchasing shares in a public company, ClimateDAO will have the leverage to encourage it to take actions to mitigate climate change (divesting from fossil fuels, decreasing emissions, etc.).
This will enable people to leverage their stock ownership and coordinate on a massive scale to align the actions of corporations with the values of the owners themselves.
There’s a long list of companies failing to recognize the urgency of climate action, prioritizing short-term financial gain over our collective long-term welfare. We’re going to remind those companies who their owners are. Part of the beauty of DAOs is that the managers and the owners are the same people. Incentives are aligned and a more direct democracy can prevail.
Are you ready to have your voice heard by the powers that be?
Learn more about ClimateDAO, including gaining access to the whitepaper, by visiting https://climatedao.xyz
~ Join Us This Sunday in Brooklyn! ~
We are teaming up with our friends at FWB for the first ever FWB SWAP MEET in Greenpoint. Bring no more than 10 items to trade with your Friends. Think vintage tees, vinyl records, art (that you can carry on the subway), other clothes, posters, books, fun jewelry...really anything that you think folks would want to trade you for!
We will have tables and chairs for easy set up as well as cocktails and snacks for vibes. $10 suggested donation going to the Black Art Futures Fund.
In Other News:
AeraForce Celebrates First Capital Deployment
Open Forest Protocol has been chosen as the fund’s first official investment. AeraForce aims to support the OFP team as they work towards vastly improving and streamlining reforestation efforts around the globe.
A new record was set, with 6,000 contributions made on the very first day. Throughout the 3 rounds, over $3 million in matching will occur.
The long-awaited ReFi Punks NFT sale has launched. 100% of all proceeds will be donated to fund ReFi projects to give our planet a better chance at recovery, regeneration, and restoration!
KlimaDAO Releases Product Roadmap
Undeterred by lackluster market conditions, KlimaDAO has released a thorough update to their short, medium, and long-term objectives and product strategy.
Weekly Vibes:
Real-world #solarpunk vibes for inspiration in this market. #progress:
ClimateDAO Updates:
Team Updates:
Tac Ops
Progress fundraising conversations
Iterate upon fundraising materials
Platform
Soft Launch of the platform for internal use
Revise Product Requirement document
Growth
Reach out to partner organizations
Planning an event for NYC NFT
Community
Continue roadmap for minimum viable community (MVC)
Welcoming new Discord members
Governance
Build out User Journey on the platform as a building block for governance
Proxy
Finalizing SHAREs
Post Gitbook
Iterate upon ClimateDAO’s business model and documenting
If you liked reading this, consider sharing it with a friend. Otherwise drop us some feedback in our Twitter DMs.
💚💚,
The ClimateDAO Team