This is Nan Tang as seen through the eyes of Notthere（跳跳）, but it is not an official introduction of the Nan Tang Cooperative or Nan Tang DAO. This version was completed on October 14, 2024. Special thanks to “Wuyi（无佚）” from Nantang for his feedback.
The Nantang Cooperative, located in the northern plains of Anhui Province, was born in the late 1990s when local peasants came together to address immediate needs and protect their shared interests. Over time, what began as a response to local injustice grew into something much more, and the members continues to thrive and serve the community to this day, remaining true to their grassroots origins.
The early constitution of the cooperative included three key phrases: rational protection of rights, cultural enlightenment, and scientific advancement for prosperity. In my view, these three phrases can (roughly) summarize the cooperative's journey over the past 20+ years. This includes explorations in different directions, numerous projects, various ups and downs, some of which can be found in the related reading materials attached below.
When I first learned about Nantang, I was amazed by the juxtaposition of various activities happened here—'Democracy in the countryside,' “songs from the soil and village singing activities”, “artist villages”, “organic farming”, and “traditional culture”. All these seemingly incompatible elements had taken place in Nantang, proving its vitality and inclusiveness. Most importantly, photos and smiling faces of fellow villagers adorned the walls of the cooperative courtyard, and on the 15th of every lunar month, without fail, the cooperative would hold a general assembly for all its members.
But just as with fungi, where beneath the mushroom cap lies the spreading mycelium network in the soil, where the most nutrients and life are nurtured, what is spoken represents less than one percent. The veteran core members of the cooperative have participated in and witnessed its history—they themselves are the living history of Nantang. In the cooperative's courtyard stands a stone monument titled 'Monument of Cooperation.' It is said that during the monument's unveiling ceremony, the names of all companions and core members who had journeyed with the cooperative were read out one by one.
Nantang's encounter with Web3 dates back to 2010, when Matthew, a PhD student in anthropology, arrived at Nantang. He was studying the "New Rural Reconstruction Movement," which had gained momentum at the time. Nantang Cooperative was one of the cases he observed, and it later became one of the four case studies in his dissertation.
Matthew enthusiastically introduced Bitcoin to a fellow volunteer who was staying in Nantang. At that time, Matthew believed Bitcoin held great potential for social transformation and offered to give the volunteer one Bitcoin, which was worth $1 then. Although the volunteer declined the offer, a seed had been planted—that friend later became involved in the blockchain industry, recognized the potential for implementing Web3 in rural areas, and brought this vision back to Nantang.
As the volunteer later reflected, Nantang and Web3 share a similar spiritual core. This place has accumulated so much—many potentials waiting to be discovered. Web3 needs to engage with the real world, which has become particularly relevant in 2024, at a time when Web3's relationship with mainstream political and financial systems grows increasingly complex. Nantang, too, needs the possibilities offered by Web3 to explore ways out of its crises. These possibilities stem not only from the characteristics of blockchain technology but also from the Web3 community's aspiration to ground value of Web3 in tangible reality but not speculative finance.
Around 2014, the concept of DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) was coined and popularized by Vitalik. Initially, the imagination around DAO was, as Vitalik put it, "automation at the center, humans at the edges." However, as DAO became widely used in Web3, the role of "humans" in DAOs turned out to be much more significant than initially imagined.
From the controversy sparked by the first DAO instance—The DAO in 2016, to the explosion of DAOs during the "DeFi Summer" of 2021, and to today, myths surrounding DAOs have gradually been stripped away.
But DAOs still retain certain identifiable characteristics. In their 2024 article, María-Cruz Valiente and Juan Pavón discuss the lack of a clear definition for DAOs, which leads to difficulties in machine-readability and interoperability between DAOs. They propose a conceptual framework to define DAOs in terms of concepts, attributes, and relationships to enhance interoperability. According to them, the characteristics of a DAO include: