On June 9th, London’s first decentralized crypto community coworking hub welcomed the first season of web3 entrepreneurs to a new flagship venue.Coworking Group — Called by name ThursDAO— Our mission is to build a web3 community hub that many crypto community organizers in the city can use as a resource.
The first season of resident entrepreneurs consists of more than 30 individuals of various backgrounds aged 18-40. Our rapid emergence and growth presents an interesting case study of the organization of decentralized communities and the use of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) for actual coordination.
My background is digital strategy and community organization. In 2016, my career began to develop at the crossroads of cryptography and politics. I left the blockchain industry in 2019 to work as a professional political community organizer for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential primary.
I moved to London to earn a Master of Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, but decided to stay when I realized the strength of the city’s fast-growing crypto community. Since then, I have applied the background of community organization to my career in web3, centered on ThursDAO.
Origin of Thurs DAO
ThursDAO is currently run by The Bakery, an innovation lab that matches high-growth start-ups with corporate partners. Our rapid emergence obscures the organic efforts of more than eight months that ultimately led to our new home.
It all started on Monday, August 30, 2021. At that time, my best friend and News Editor of The Block, Tim Copeland, tweeted asking for a new cryptocurrency meetup in London. The blockade of the coronavirus has just been lifted, a welcome call after months of lonely work from home. A group began gathering to chat with cryptocurrencies at Shoreditch’s bar on Monday night, calling themselves MonDAO, which Tim runs to this day.
One MonDAO night, several attendees expressed their desire to work together that week. The next Thursday, five people met at a local cafe and the informal origin of Thurs DAO began. This original group consisted of other community organizers, including the eerie name Tim Coleman, the organizer of Ethereum London, which continues the Thurs DAO organization.
After working for months at Shoreditch’s Fix126 Cafe, I was kindly invited to work in the shared space of the Rise Barclays Accelerator. Around the same time, something interesting began to happen. Another group of crypto community organizers has “forked” the MonDAO meetup and launched a new social event for people living in central London. They met at SOHO on Tuesday and called themselves Tues DAO. Next up is Wednes DAO, a virtual gathering held at Zoom on Wednesday. To support this growing ecosystem, our crypto coworking club has changed its brand name to Thurs DAO and accelerated its organizational efforts.
Thurs DAO mission and roadmap
Last month’s turbulent market environment made it even more important for web3 entrepreneurs to have the resources, support, and networks they need to survive the bears and continue to build. This is what Thurs DAO aims to offer.
It is important to note that ThursDAO is non-profit. Our goal is to make our venue as accessible, affordable and comprehensive as possible. All of our “core contributors” and organizers are completely unpaid (and often bear the brunt of unexpected costs). We subsidize membership fees with the generous support of sponsors who believe in our mission. These include Penrose Partners, SENTR3, Unegma, Zebu Digital, CoLabz and, of course, The Bakery. We are still looking for additional sponsors to help expand and expand our business to multiple locations in the city several days a week. We are currently meeting only on Thursdays, but we plan to expand to Tuesdays and Wednesdays by the end of July.
The more resources and members you have, the more opportunities you have. We would like to collaborate with other community groups to start hosting supplementary events such as workshops, panel discussions, hackathons, founder speed dates, and food sharing. The most exciting part about welcoming the members’ first official season was the exciting and creative way they volunteered to contribute.
Some members are in charge of cleaning the space, some are ordering missing office supplies and managing inventory, some are building the next website, and others are trying to grow the community. Some members help create content. The founders are building products they plan to use in their work, including token gating tools for admission, NFT rental markets for daily passes, and recurring payment portals for collecting membership fees.
“Wen token” and “wen NFT” jokes have begun to appear on our private Telegram channel. Currently, there are no plans to tokenize the operation. However, the usefulness of DAO methodologies and tools is evident for our long-term growth. The expansion of MonDAO into ThursDAO throughout the week highlights the speed and efficiency of decentralized community organization.
My mind is spinning in the similarities seen between my political and web3 organizing efforts. Both leverage the strengths of the community in line with common goals and mobilize volunteers in an incentive structure. My next experiment aims to leverage the DAO structure to influence our political process. But until then, and during these times of horror, uncertainty, and suspicion, we often return to the old campaign screams of rooting for Warren’s campaign. Organize.. Will last a long time. “
Guest post by GClay Miller of Penrose Partners
G Clay Miller is the partner and community leader for Penrose Partners, a web3 advisory firm. He is also the founder of Thurs DAO, a decentralized crypto coworking hub. He is also a key contributor to HOD Lpac, a political action committee like DAO that raises funds for US Congressional crypto candidates. He previously belonged to the US Senate Institutional Review Board and was the organizer of the primary elections for Senator Elizabeth Warren. G Clay is also an avid activist, organized by several community groups including non-profit organizations such as the Voter Empowerment Project, as a board member of the Caucus of the Democratic Party, and a local code in London where he currently lives. I am attending a meeting.
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