Why Web3 and Dojo?
Web3 has become a catch-all term for the vision of a new, better internet. At its core, Web3 uses blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs to give power back to the users in the form of ownership. A 2020 post on Twitter said it best: Web1 was read-only, Web2 is read-write, Web3 will be read-write-own (source).
Read this to catch up on Web3
Core Principles of web3 (from Ethereum.org)
Web3 is decentralized: instead of large swathes of the internet controlled and owned by centralized entities, ownership gets distributed amongst its builders and users.
Web3 is permission-less: everyone has equal access to participate in Web3, and no one gets excluded.
Web3 has native payments: it uses cryptocurrency for spending and sending money online instead of relying on the outdated infrastructure of banks and payment processors.
Web3 is trustless: it operates using incentives and economic mechanisms instead of relying on trusted third-parties.
Why Web3?
Identity
Community
Dojo's Challenge
What if all organizations and people worked together to help people live healthy (movement, sleep, mental, nutrition) as a social good for the world?
Examples of how they could work together
Prioritize user's health
Promote healthy living
Share users and data in an interoperable and frictionless manner
Examples of "who" could work together
Health and wellness companies
Your friends, family, and peers
Your employer
Publishers of the video games you play
Benefits:
The public data can be used to hold organizations accountable for their users health.
An organization could reward you for being healthy in their ecosystem or another ecosystem. Example, Fortnight gives you aesthetic upgrades for running a 5k. Your employer gives you a bonus for meeting sleep goals and running a 5k.
Builders would have access to more information to target specific cohorts based on their goals, habits, and lifestyles to deliver higher quality and valuable experiences tailored to their needs. Example: the transparent data (per user's permissions) could be accessed so developers could understand who to best build for.
Problems with this what if...
It is the common web2 playbook to hoard the data and users to create a moat that creates a network effects for that organization. Existing organizations are profit maximizing entities and must make decisions that make trade-offs between profits and a user's health. So to open up their network (data, users) for interoperability with other ecosystems would lead to loss profits in their way they are structured.
Organizations make significant investments in the early stage of a company (smart equipment, engineering efforts, etc.) that need to be paid back through profit maximizations.
Data in one ecosystem may not be inherently valuable in another ecosystem because of the ecosystem's goals, which would dictate the type of data they need.
Organizations are not incentivized or responsible to promote healthy living to their users, especially users of other ecosystems.
A lot of people would scoff at this idea, and cause friction so they would never get started without political headaches.
Summary of the problem: Existing centralized organizations are not designed or incentivized to work together to promote healthy living.
How to get around this
Existing organizations and the system they reside in (our world) cannot achieve this what if. So, we must work with believers of this idea to design our own alternate reality that is as real as this world in terms of fulfillment and value. I lean to the buzzword, Metaverse.
What is a metaverse?
Facebook renamed to Meta, Epic Game's Fortnite building towards the Metaverse, and NFT ecosystems creating their Metaverses. So what is the metaverse? In Herman Narula's book, Metaverse, he defines it as this:
A metaverse is a collection of realities, including the real world or a "home reality" and a series of other worlds that a society imbues with meaning. Events, objects, and identities can exist in and be modified by multiple worlds in the metaverse. The utility of a metaverse lie in it ability to facilitate meaningful, fulfilling experiences in its constituent worlds. Value is transferred between worlds in many ways, including through increased social cohesion, the creation of valuable artifacts of culture, and direct commerce. A metaverse need not involve technology or physically embodied other realities access through VR or immersion and the like - but these additional ways of manifesting other worlds can enhance their value if they create more powerful ways for people to have fulfilling experiences, or to participate in the commerce in ideas that sit at the heart of the metaverse. The interplay between worlds, and at he associated ongoing creation and transfer of value, is the foundation for a virtual society. If this other world doesn't enable a participatory network of earning that generates events or objects or experience that are worth transferring between worlds, or engage a high proportion of society, then it will be functionally worthless.
Herman Narula talks about two levels of Metaverse that are within our grasp. Level 1 exists today, which are rich universes such as sports, religion, and Fortnite. They provide us meaning and we can add to the narrative of these worlds, but majority of the meaning is up to the controllers of this ecosystem.
A Level 2 metaverse is an interoperable economy of digital assets, identities, and experiences that can directly impact our real lives. Everyday users will be able to add to the stories of the realm, guide it's direction, make or lose money, and conduct important relationships. Herman poses that key factors in Level 2 virtual society are economic ones. Where members will have jobs to provide goods and services to deliver value to the other members of the network. Members of this new nation state will be able to fully live and thrive in these metaverses. This would be the key difference between Level 1 and Level 2 metaverses.
Dojo Web3 Strategy
Dojo sets out to design and build a network where everyone works together to promote healthy living.
Benefits of the Dojo network
Provides a network of experiences, services, and knowledge that helps you be healthy.
The network incentivizes others to motivate you and help you be healthy and for users to maintain and grow the network and its values.
Users can find their specific community to fit their lifestyle, goals, and fitness levels.
As the network grows with additional experiences and people, the network has more people who can motivate, help, and learn from one another.
By participating in the network (consuming, helping others, maintaining, building), users have the ability to earn monetary rewards for their services.
Users will own their digital assets that can be collected, sold, or used in the network or other networks.
Users' public health identity can be used by other ecosystems and builders to custom tailor experiences to the user's needs
The network is a validator of healthy activity which can be trusted.
Dojo's web3 principles
Community driven and governed
Dojo will be owned by the participants of the network. Some participant types, but not limited to, are builders, maintainers, and consumers of the services.
Challenges for Dojo
As the network grows, how might we reward the participants of the network while avoiding new user pyramid schemes and ponzinomics?
How might we reward builders and maintainers of the network so it can run perpetually like a well oiled machine?
How might we grant varying forms of ownership to consumers of the services?
How might we allow participants to make decisions on the values of the network and the directions it must go to achieve it?
In 10+ years, what if many independent developers build for Dojo to push the mission of helping people be healthy? Imagine if there was no central authority, rather, hundreds of communities contributing to the mission because they believe in the values and are rewarded for their efforts.
Interoperable data and assets
Participants will own their data and assets, and can freely move between different networks or live on multiple networks with any data owned by the user.
For example,
virtual goods can be taken to other ecosystems and leverage by other ecosystems
user's public health identity can act as a public player statistic card on their health, and used by other games, services, and ecosystems.
other ecosystems will understand the value of these assets and how they are earned so they can react according to their own values.
a user's excess virtual goods can be sold or traded to other users, or if a user decides to exit the network, they can liquidate all their assets.
This interoperability of your data and assets will be treated as a feature, not a bug. This fixes the problem of centralized networks accruing all the value and working against the values of the users to meet the centralized authorities agenda.
Identity
We believe that if participants share their health data that Dojo and others can build an ecosystem that helps them maintain their healthy habits and grant the ability to learn from each other around what is healthy for one person type versus another.
Imagine your health data like a RPG character statistics that can be plugged into other games or experiences. Imagine receiving additional benefits for store discounts, or better aesthetics in your favorite battle royale game, just because you slept 7+ hours and have met your weekly movement quota. As your everyday life reflects your healthy habits, your environment will re-enforce them to cause a habit loop of environmental triggers, and rewards.
Some challenges to think about:
How might we reward network participants in any ecosystem for being "healthy".
How might we turn their health into a globally networked game to motivate them to build healthy habits?
How might we enable their healthy habits to affect the participant in their everyday interactions with the digital and physical world?
Immutable truth
The logic incentivizing users to exhibit the desired network values will be coded transparently, and in immutable fashion so users can trust the logic of code, rather than the stories told by humans.
How will Dojo use Web3 to achieve this?
Start with one experience within the Dojo network to find product market fit
Build a incentive system that rewards desired behaviors with virtual goods required in the network to operate. As the population grows (network effects), the value of the virtual goods will increase, which will build more monetary value that can be used to maintain and grow the ecosystem.
Generate virtual assets that are earned through healthy activities and are owned by the users.
Leverage existing governance systems to allow users guide the direction of the network
Leverage a decentralized identity system to store public and private data for the user
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