Nantan DAO Chronicles (Part 1)

Birth

Nan Tang's democratic genes

In 2025, the wish list of the Ethereum Foundation's academic funding program first proposed the academic topic "How DAO tools can assist cooperatives." At this time, a team composed of young people and villagers in an ordinary village in China has begun to explore this issue. In August 2024, the Nantang DAO was officially established, which is a decentralized autonomous organization dedicated to rural development.

The birth of the Nantan DAO is not a coincidence. The democratic genes and cultural accumulation nurtured in this land over the past thirty years are the deepest reasons. From the well-known farmers' rights protection organization to the first localized practice of "Robert's Rules of Order", the seeds of democratic governance have long been sown here.

In the 1990s, local villagers established the "Farmers' Rights Protection Association" to cope with unreasonable tax burdens. In 2004, under the initiative of rural expert Wen Tiejun, the Nantang Agricultural Cooperative was founded, marking the shift from rights protection struggles to organizational construction and development. In 2008, the "Robert's Rules of Order," a classic Western procedural guideline, was first implemented in rural China. The localized innovation of this procedural rule quickly attracted widespread attention from scholars and media both domestically and internationally.

established Nantan DAO

The key figure connecting cooperatives and Web3 is Liu Bing. In 2011, he came to Nantang as a volunteer and was introduced to Bitcoin here. Since then, he has continuously monitored the developments in the virtual currency industry and began giving back to Nantang after achieving financial freedom.

In 2023, under the coordination of Liu Bing and others, the cooperative leader Yang Yunbiao had in-depth exchanges with the founder of SeeDAO, Bai Yu, and both parties realized the potential of the integration of Web3 and rural areas. In May 2024, several members of SeeDAO went to Nantan for an inspection, and this meeting ignited the enthusiasm for cooperation between the two sides.

In June 2024, at a Web3 event in Shanghai, partners from the Nantang Cooperative met with members of LXDAO. Subsequently, Li Zi from SeeDAO and Yu Xing and Tiao from LXDAO became the first residents to arrive in Nantang. On July 28, 2024, the first proposal of Nantang DAO was released, marking the official start of this innovative organization.

Gathering and Conflict

Assembly: Nantang DAO Seven Elders

Under the promotion of Liu Bing's Web3 incentive program, more partners have come to Nantang one after another, forming a rural DAO consisting of seven initial members. This "Seven Elders" team has diverse backgrounds, including practitioners from other DAOs, Web3 programmers, graduate students, and local villagers born and raised in Nantang.

Yu Xing is the first resident member of the Nantang DAO. He believes there is a natural "tonal fit" between DAO organizations and traditional villages. Tiao is the second core member to arrive at Nantang, pursuing a "mycelium"-like logic of life and institutional design. Bi Bing is a senior developer in the Web3 field, and he believes that DAOs can bring new organizational forms and development ideas to rural areas.

Conflict: Two groups of people with vastly different backgrounds

However, when two completely different governance cultures and logics meet, conflicts and contradictions are almost unavoidable. The Nantang DAO and the cooperative have differences in their organizational operation methods, and both sides ultimately reached a certain degree of compromise.

The Nantan DAO is also advancing and improving its organizational system. In September 2024, the Nantan DAO passed the first version of the "Newbie Task Plan." However, as more people joined, the situation became more complicated. The Nantan DAO decided to raise the entry threshold, which led to many cooperative members being turned away.

At that time, the local youth were divided into three categories: members of the Nantang DAO with a Web3 background, members of the Nantang DAO with a cooperative background, and cooperative interns who had not joined the Nantang DAO. All parties debated endlessly on the proposal platform, with the core disagreement revolving around the project's relevance to Web3 and its significance for local development.

The third option: Nantung Unknown DAO

As the contradictions intensified, Nantang DAO reached a crossroads. They decided to change their approach and establish new relationships with local partners. They founded "Nantang Unknown DAO", providing local members with a third option between a cooperative and Nantang DAO.

Nan Tang may have been established with an ironic and critical stance towards the DAO, but it has objectively provided local members with new development opportunities. They emphasize that "decentralization is merely a means, not an end," and are committed to empowering local youth and more young people to help them realize their own value.