We Them Media logo We Them Media Back the work

How a roommate on a whitelist led to DAOs.

Reported by Maceo, Philadelphia, 3 min

In this video? Ask for a change or have it taken down.

Keep up with new releases. Get the newsletter, once a week

To quote this piece: “How a roommate on a whitelist led to DAOs,” We Them Media, https://wethem.xyz/watch/how-i-got-into-crypto-philadelphia. Each transcript line links to its second.

What got you into crypto and community? Maceo answers the question he usually asks other people, to camera in Philadelphia, on day one of a week leading up to the Global Pizza Party: “This whole week we’re going to be talking about crypto and community.”

It started in college in 2021 with a roommate: “My college roommate was making money off some different DeFi plays. He was involved in some NFTs. He was on the Doodles whitelist.” Maceo says: “I’m like, what the fuck is this?” So he went and read.

The first community he joined was SharkDAO: “people coming together to fundraise, crowdfund, to buy like larger NFT projects, one particularly called Nouns.” What stuck was “collective funding and cooperative action.” His definition of a DAO: an innovation on cooperatives that uses blockchain for agreements and governance. Three minutes.

Become a supporter →

What is in it?

Jump straight to a moment.

Transcript

Skip the transcript ↓

Spotted a wrong word? Tap its timestamp, then tell us.

Who speaks, by their own introduction on the tape: Mo at 0:00. Transcribed from the original audio and corrected for names. Search every transcript

These are the speaker’s own words. We have not checked their claims.

0:00What’s up everybody? My name is Mo. I’m out here in Philadelphia. I’m here from We Them Media. I’m going to tell you just a little bit about how I myself got involved in crypto. This whole week we’re going to be talking about crypto and community. Um today we got myself, tomorrow we got Kafani. The day after that we got Marissa and then Aziz and then GIF. Um leading up to the global pizza party on Friday where we’re expecting to have a major influx of content from people around the world. We’re going to be shooting content at the global pizza party. Shout out to Pizza DAO. Shout out to the global

0:24pizza party this Friday, May 22nd. Um, if you want to find your local pizza party, I invite you to to comment down below. So, what’s up everybody? So, tell you a little bit about how I myself got involved in crypto and found myself involved in community. I um I was in college 2021. My college roommate was making money off some different DeFi plays. He was involved in some NFTts. He was on the doodles white list and um I was just completely confused about how this guy was like on a white list where he had, you know, over $50,000 essentially and some value JPEG. I’m like, “What the [bleeped] is this?

0:56you know, and so I myself uh got really interested and learning. My first community that I was involved in was probably uh Shark DAO. It’s like what the [bleeped] is that, right? But essentially, Shark DAO is a community that was people coming together to fund raise, crowdfund to buy like larger NFT projects. One particularly called Nouns. Um Nouns is still one of the largest NFT projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, in the world even. Um and it’s super dope to see that project proliferate and grow. Um I myself was inspired by that kind of vision of you know collective funding and cooperative action in the crypto space in Dallas particularly. um

Read the full transcript ▸

1:29endows kind of being an innovation on cooperatives that leverages blockchain technology for agreements for governance and um things of that nature even like you know keeping track of community spending and things like that or I guess organizational spending probably a better word to use right but um I myself um have been exploring what does it mean for me to be building community at the intersection of black people creators and blockchain for the last couple years and so it’s been remarkable I’ I’ve had the opportunity to interview black people Latino people white people, Chinese people, people of all walks of life really, you know, about what they

2:02see as possible and happening in crypto and on the blockchain, particularly when it comes to the creator economy. Um, and as of late, I’ve been thinking a lot more and even when I started, right, you know, how can black people use this technology? What’s the value to us? Is this even real? you know, and and I’ve gotten to understand what inflation is and how it functions and how cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in particular, right, was designed to be a solve for inflation and actually give people a way to hedge against, you know, the ways in which our our governments and our people who control our money, I would say,

2:27exploit us um through inflation. And, you know, it’s been a remarkable journey. I spent, you know, a couple months in Asia, a couple months in Africa, and maybe about a month in Europe. And I’m just like like who I don’t know a lot of people my age who’ve gotten to do that. Um, and so I’ve gotten to learn, develop my little perspective, and now We Them Media is really experimenting and exploring what it means for us to be an international journalism cooperative. And um, can we create community around people who just want to go out and, you know, help people know what’s going on. So right

2:53now, we’re kind of in that space and exploring, you know, what’s possible. And, um, and yeah, I hope you stay tuned and see where we head from here. Peace.

That was the whole tape.

The We Them Weekly, once a week by email What went up, and what we are asking next.

More from Bitcoin Pizza Day.

The whole project
0:54
Bitcoin Pizza Day, Islamabad, 1 min

Pizza Day from Islamabad: Hamza Khan.

By Hamza Khan

 52:08
Bitcoin Pizza Day, Lagos, 52 min

Kafani asks Lagos four questions about crypto and community.

By Kafani

 24:12
Bitcoin Pizza Day, Philadelphia, 24 min

Benny and Estabon, Temple musicians turned street reporters for the day.

By Maceo

Keep going: Everything filmed in Philadelphia.