Dear Black Flag Nation 🏴,
The Black Flag DAO’s website is officially live. It’s your go-to resource for everything about our community, from ongoing projects and official links to governance processes. Be sure to check it out to learn more. Shout out to 0xZFi and the Transition Council for their stellar work in bringing this to life.
In other news, the Black Flag Collective has received funding approval from the multisig. If you’re hosting an event and would like to receive funding from the Collective, all you need to do is:
Include a black flag on your online promotional material.
Take a picture at or during the event and post it on the Discord channel.
Once those are done, you will be added to the Snapshot for retroactive funding.
This week’s article poses you with a challenging question, and it’s a question only you can answer, so take a moment, clear your mind, and read purposefully. Additionally, Bankless Academy is participating in the Octant Epoch 6 Snapshot Shortlist for the first time, and they need your support. Note that only 18 out of 41 projects will make it, so if you’re a GLM locker, head to the Octant Snapshot and cast your vote before the voting window closes on December 17, 2024.
As we wrap up 2024, it’s easy to get caught up in all the frenzy that comes with the end of the year. Don’t forget to take care of yourself. Eat well, exercise, and rest, so we can start the new year refreshed, healthy, and ready to fly the black flag even higher.
Enjoy your weekend, friends.
Contributors: Lucent, Tonytad, Angelspeaks, Boluwatife, Kornekt, WinVerse
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🏃♀️ Catch up: Listen to this week's Community Call recording.
What Does the Black Flag Mean to You?
Author: Lucent
Yesterday’s community call discussion shed some light on our ecosystem, especially for our community and where we stand in the bigger picture. The conversation stemmed from the incident early last week where someone, frustrated by systemic issues, took a presumably unacceptable action to bring attention to his grievances. We all agree that violence is never the answer, but that incident can be a wake-up call to us and how we can help the system we belong in. There is no perfect system, but the members of that system can do a lot to make it function more seamlessly. This is why the larger conversations should be about the community and the systems we strive to build.
BanklessDAO became Black Flag DAO to change most people's ideas about DAOs. Most folks see it as an entry into blockchain, and while that may be right, who says a DAO cannot be much more than that? Who says it cannot be a tool for positive change in the web3 ecosystem? When we changed our identity, it came from a new purpose which is to build an onchain community of changemakers focused on vibing, thriving, and exploring decentralized systems. Therefore, one thing is clear: we want to bring change. How then can we do that?
Building Something New
We have the potential to redefine how people collaborate, create, and solve problems. We know that centralized systems concentrate power in the hands of a few, but we can build a network that makes transparent decisions, builds accountability, and values contributions based on merit, not hierarchy. Funding and executing public goods projects is a way to start. For example, who wouldn’t appreciate or embrace a clean energy initiative, open-source technology, or decentralized education? Profit-driven institutions often overlook these projects or execute them selfishly and poorly while focusing only on their gains. We have started this through the Black Flag Initiative, which although still budding, has the potential to show the world how much we value the well-being of people and how decentralized systems can impart the real world in due course.
Rebuilding What’s Crumbling
Remember what started this discussion, the incident where someone took action in his own hands to get the system to listen to him? Therefore, permit me to quote the words of fin4dao from the call.
I think since the co-dependency of capitalists and employees is going down, the balance that held up democracy is dwindling. Employees are being replaced by digitalization and AI. Democracy is not a given, it was fought for for hundreds of years. Progress is being reversed wherever possible. I think physical violence might be the factor that's still available for rebalancing democratic structures in the future. In any case, I don't think it helps to underestimate the changing role of physical violence.
The centralized system itself is crumbling and some people are already losing faith in them and turning to violence to be heard. Although our purpose does not include exploring centralized systems, we could start a cultural shift and create a chance to rebuild the definition of governance and trust in systems designed for the many, not the few. Once we have that in decentralized systems, we will have rebuilt the foundations of DAOs themselves, which are people and their actions.
What Does the Black Flag Mean to Us?
The black flag has different meanings across different fields of life. To some, it stands for defiance, aggression, and resistance to authority. While some people might be quick to tag us with that, it is entirely different from what the black flag means to us. At Black Flag DAO, we aim to create meaningful connections and act as a connective tissue for the people and the system that houses them. People are as important as the system to which they belong. We want to be a community that shows, not just tells. We want to get to a point where we can show the world that we solved problems even in the centralized world by exploring and doing meaningful things in decentralized systems.
We can demonstrate our roles as changemakers through action, problem-solving, and building trust, ultimately proving that decentralized systems can deliver real-world solutions, even in spaces traditionally dominated by centralization. As we gear up for the new year, it is on you as a community member to figure out what the black flag means to you, and as long as it does not mean rebellion, you will always be welcome.
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