Starting A New Company in Yamakoshi - Local DAO in Yamakoshi to the Globe
This is Hayashi and Toshi from Crypto Village, a company based in Japan. Here is an entry to share with you the story of how our new company and ecosystem started and what our vision is for it. As you can see from the name, we are a team that connects Crypto (Blockchain) with Village (community and local).
Born in Coincidence
It all started with one DM that I received on Facebook. It was from a person named “Haruka Takeuchi” who runs a community development group called the Yamakoshi Residents Council in Yamakoshi, a former village with a population of less than 800 people. Only a few months later, we created a project together with amazing artists to help rebuild Yamakoshi and the new concept of “Digital Villager” was born. We made the art inspired by Nishikigoi (colored carp) because Yamakoshi is actually the birthplace of Nishikigoi. We kicked off the project almost on momentum encouraged by the former real Yamakoshi residents, but at the time we did not have specific plans and detailed marketing strategy. Now it has now been about a year since we minted the Nishikigoi NFT, and more than 1,000 digital villagers have joined the Yamakoshi DAO. We’re proud to say that we’ve seen great reactions so far throughout Japan as we named this unexpected thing “Local DAO”.
Why a small village of 800 people making NFTs?
The Wonders of the Local DAO’s Community
In general, communities that involve physicality most often grow out of real spaces. As people meet and interact with each other in their daily lives and when traveling for example, and as this is repeated, many types of relationships begin to grow strongly. Digital spaces like social media have helped support this. With Local DAO, though, the opposite is happening.
The user starts off by getting an NFT as a digital certificate of residence. Then, from the moment, he/she identifies himself/herself as a digital villager and tweets something like "I am now a digital villager”. Most users have never been to the village and may not have even heard of of the village until just a few days ago.
However, as they add "digital villager" to their Twitter profiles and join Discord server to start having conversations with other digital villagers, their sense of belonging to the village begins to mysteriously grow.
Eventually, some of the digital villagers end up visiting the actual village, which we’ve seen so many already. This is like visiting a place of sanctuary that you have long dreamed of and it is also a journey to the roots of your identity. What I am able to describe the situation at this moment is that the concept of NFT and Art may provoke people's ability to believe in their fictions.
Join the NishikigoiNFT Discord Server!
Yamakoshi to Global Villages
What we will do is to establish a new way of community through crypto and locals as we call it “Local DAO”. In fact we proved that this Local DAO framework, which was born out of Yamakoshi, has at least made a big difference to the village that was supposed to be gone by raising funds (ETH) with friends who think and work hard together for the future of Yamakoshi.
However, we know that the population decline will not stop immediately, and it remains to be seen how much positive impact the Yamakoshi DAO will have on the village in the long run. Yet, we feel that the impact will not be limited to the village alone, but will also reach the digital villagers including us.
Normally, we belong to multiple communities whether it’s family, hometown and company, and we play a certain kind of role in each of them. The Internet, most social media, has made us see only what we want to see, so that the communities you belong can be static (or we are being shown what the platform has dictated). However, having an identity as a digital villager and a place to stay in Yamakoshi DAO, they begin to use a different thought process than usual and contribute to the community in “their own ways, adding a new aspect to the individuals that they have never seen before.
We believe that through Local DAOs we can make a positive impact on the individual's life. Through this experience, we started to think about expanding Local DAOs to other parts of the world and established a company called Crypto Village in Yamakoshi to start up an ecosystem with the same name.
Upgrading Nishikigoi NFT
As approved by a snapshot vote of the Yamakoshi Digital villagers at the end of last year (97.32% in favor), Nishikigoi NFT will change its position significantly after the 3rd sale which is scheduled around May-June. Until now, Nishikigoi NFT has simply functioned as a digital certificate of residence for the Yamakoshi Village, but in the future it will become a pass to Local DAOs that will be created around the world via the Crypto Village ecosystem. This means that having the Nishikigoi NFT will not only allow you to have priority access to each Local DAO but will also allow for greater collaborations between Local DAOs.
Local DAO Founders Wanted
Yamakoshi DAO will continue to be one of the iconic examples of Local DAOs and will continue to go, but at the same time we hope that various Local DAOs will be developed in different parts of the world. After the 3rd Sale, we have designed a roadmap for multiple Local DAOs to be created around the summer of 2023. We CryptoVillage view the key terms of a Local DAO as follows.
The founders must be active in the local/community.
The founders aim to grow the related population through the idea of a digital certificate of residence.
The founders consider that the utility is not the only solution for the local/community.
The founders consider the project to be a global project.
We are hosting an info session for those who are interested in partnering with us to build a Local DAO while you live in your local community. We look forward to seeing you there.
Applying For Orientation
Application - Orientation of the Local DAO (May 23rd)
Socials
Crypto Village / https://crypto-village.xyz/
Nishikigoi NFT / https://nishikigoinft.com/
X(Former Twitter) / https://twitter.com/nishikigoiNFT
Discord / @nishikigoiNFT