Bitpush Exclusive Interview: How MetisDAO Plans to Fully Realize the Potential of DAOs

MetisDAO is a decentralized layer 2 protocol that allows anyone to create their own decentralized company, or DAC. Bitpush sat down with Kevin Liu, Co-Founder and Product Lead, to find out how they are creating a simple, fast, and cheap protocol to help all internet apps migrate from Web2 to Web3, and bring about the internet of the future.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, or DAOs, are transparent organizations based on code and programming and are governed democratically by members of the organization, unlike traditional companies which are governed by a board of executives. An example of a DAO would be Compound.finance, whose members hold the COMP token and have the privilege of voting on upgrades and rules to change the protocol. Though this seems like a revolutionary concept, it is barely scratching the surface of what a DAO can do.

“For Metis, we are building what we call a ‘Whole New World’ on the blockchain because we believe everyone, every business, every project or community can construct their decentralized Company, DAC, on the blockchain so they can do collaborations, do business, and build up connections with each other.“

Most of today’s DAOs are only capable of voting and governance features. MetisDAO was created in order to fully exploit the potential of the DAO, and allow community members to have much greater influence over their operations, instead of simply voting for features and waiting for them to be implemented. MetisDAO wants to remove boundaries and create an individual-centric system.

This type of governance structure is groundbreaking, and could lead to innovative and complex dApps such as a decentralized Reddit, new DeFi protocols, a decentralized crowdfunding platform, and many more.

Though it sounds like these decentralized applications would be difficult to create, MetisDAO already has templates users can take advantage of to create a task collaboration dApp, like a decentralized Trello, and it can be done in three simple steps.

First, a user chooses the name and description of the project they would like to create. Then the user stakes a certain amount of Metis, the token that fuels the entire ecosystem, in order to activate the project. Now, using templates provided by Metis or by using the development features they offer, the project can be created and launched, and can fully utilize all of the features built in to the Metis protocol. 

Unlike a typical company, where employees are required to bend to the company’s will, MetisDAO has created an individual-centric system. What this means is that somebody can join a DAO, complete one task, receive payment, and then leave. This system vastly expands upon the gig economy created by the likes of Uber and Airbnb, and makes it possible for anyone to work to their fullest potential.

One of the problems in the anonymous blockchain system is making users trust one another. Fortunately, MetisDAO also solves this problem with a reputation and staking system. Whenever a user joins a DAO, they are required to stake a certain amount of Metis tokens. This collateral acts as a bond to ensure that anyone who joins is economically incentivized to carry out their task. So if we put a task on our task board DAO and offer money for its completion, and someone named Bob accepts the task, he has to put up a certain amount of collateral before the agreement is settled. If he completes the task as agreed, Bob will get his collateral back, plus the amount agreed upon for finishing the job. If he doesn’t finish the task, he will lose his collateral. 

Furthermore, every user has a reputation-based NFT attached to their account, which helps users accumulate Reputation Power. This acts as a “passport” to all of the different DAOs, and holds all information about prior collaborations. So if Bob doesn’t follow through with an agreement, his NFT will be permanently blemished, so future users will know to proceed with caution when dealing with him. On the other hand, if he successfully collaborates with a DAO, this performance will be marked on his NFT, and future users will know that Bob is a trustworthy worker. This allows complete strangers to have a high level of trust with one another, and rest assured that bad actors will not be incentivized to use the network.

MetisDAO is also a Layer 2 protocol based on Optimistic Rollup, which means that transaction fees are low and transaction times are incredibly fast. Also, it provides high scalability potential and rich functionalities to support various decentralized applications, businesses, and communities in running on the blockchain.

“With Metis’ Layer2 framework and innovative DAO structure, blockchain can really support real business running on top of it. Metis hopes to expand Ethereum from just transactions, like DeFi or payments, to support real value creation activities and collaboration.” 

MetisDAO is preparing for a testnet release in a few weeks, which will allow users to test out the platform and launch their own DAOs. They expect their mainnet launch, along with the public offering of their Metis token, to take place in Q2 2021. 

By Lincoln Murr

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