What's next for the ReFi DAO community in 2024?

This was the central question at ReFi DAO Forum meeting #4, a gathering of ReFi Local Node leaders, key contributors, and leaders from the broader ecosystem. The meeting provided a space to check in, explore our community's current state, identify necessary actions, and envision future developments. It was an opportunity for members to share insights, contribute ideas, and invite passionate individuals to join the ReFi DAO 2.0 organizing team. It marked a crucial step in shaping our collective trajectories. In this article, we share an overview of some key opportunities, challenges and next steps identified by the community for 2024. Let's dive in 👇

If you want to contribute to this collective visioning and join us in 2024. Please take a moment to fill in the co-creation form, we'd love to share this new journey with you! 👇

Local Node Updates

During the forum, we got the chance to hear exciting updates from some of the leading Local Nodes in our community. here's a summary of key insights 👇

🇲🇽 ReFi Mexico City: Oscar, co-founder of ReFi Mexico City, shared the aim to deploy an NFT minter for enhanced synchronization across Nodes, leveraging the Nodes' growth and city outreach. Their focus includes broadening community engagement through initiatives like "Meatless Monday" and integrating web3 tools for community support.

🌊 ReFi Tulum: Sandra, co-founder of ReFi Tulum shared that the Node will continue to focus on innovative and impactful initiatives. They will advance the NFT Boutique to keep promoting a circular, regenerative economy and incentivize actions for reducing plastic waste. Their ongoing city cleanups will keep combining community action with education, backed by web3 incentives. The Node will also persist in its plastic transformation technology efforts, using PetGas to mitigate plastic waste.

🇨🇷 ReFi Costa Rica: In 2024, ReFi Costa Rica aims to expand on its successful 2023 pilot of the ReFi Incubator for Collaborative Businesses. Karla, co-founder of the Node, shared that this initiative is part of their broader goal to transform Costa Rica into a world-leading ReFi Lab, fostering regeneration and sustainability. Looking ahead, their main focus is to raise funds to support more emerging ReFi projects in Costa Rica.

❗️STAY TUNED! At the beginning of 2024, we are planning to share an update article with all the amazing work done by across the entire ReFi Local Node network during this year.

For more about the ReFi local node network, what's coming next, and how to start one, check out this recent article 👇

ReFi Local Nodes - Round Results & What’s Coming Next?

Welcome to the latest update in the evolving story of ReFi DAO and the global network of ReFi Local Nodes. Rooted in diverse communities, these nodes are pivotal in advancing a shared mission of using web3 for regeneration and sustainability. In this article, we’ll explore the successful outcomes of our

ReFi DAOAnna Kaic

There is still time to register for the Local Node Beta Cohort Incubator in 2024!

Top opportunities for 2024?

Forum participants were invited to share perspectives on top opportunities and initiatives for their projects and ReFi DAO as a whole in 2024. Here's a synthesis of the key points and insights:

1. New Business and Ecosystem Development: There's a strong focus on developing new business opportunities, particularly in areas like regenerative tourism, ecosystem services, community currency systems, and circular economy initiatives. Sandra and Giulio emphasize the desire for sustainable applications of these concepts.
2. DAO and Technology Integration: Many participants, including Raam, Tereza, Cori, and Afo Wefa, express a commitment to DAO-ification and leveraging technology to enhance community governance, knowledge sharing and impact verification.
3. Network Strengthening and Collaboration: Luiz, Monty, and Valentin highlight the importance of strengthening global networks and building bridges between different ecosystems. This includes partnerships with other organizations and ecosystems like Celo, as well as launching incubators and collaborative projects.
4. Local and Global Impact: The responses show a balance between local and global initiatives. Yamine focuses on environmental actions and helping local nodes acquire land, while Wasabi suggests leveraging first-world connections for third-world projects. There's also a push for impact tokenization, as mentioned by Shawn, as well as projects like EBF Hypercerts mentioned my Monty.
5. Education and Community Engagement: Maya, Anastasia, and others emphasize the importance of education, both within the ReFi DAO community and beyond. This includes onboarding non-web3 activists and educating teenagers on various topics, including web3 and sustainability.
6. Project Launches and Development: Several participants, like Steven, Tian, and Karla, are looking forward to launching or developing specific projects. These range from ReFi incubators to venture studio DAOs focused on circular economics.
7. Event Organization and Community Building: Many participants plan to organize events and workshops, like RayBankless's IRL workshops and a Regen Week mentioned by Sandra. These events aim to foster community engagement and knowledge sharing.

Top challenges for 2024?

The challenges for 2024 identified by the ReFi DAO Community Forum participants encompass a variety of areas, including financial sustainability, organizational structure, community engagement, and balancing technological and real-world initiatives. Here's a synthesis of the key points and insights:

1. Financial and Business Sustainability: A common challenge noted by many, including Sandra, Raam, Scott, and Cori, is the need for sustainable revenue models and funding sources. This includes the challenges of monetization, establishing consistent revenue streams, and securing seed funding.
2. Organizational and Structural Challenges: Participants like Sandra, Maya, and Tereza highlight the need for better organization, clarity of offerings, and long-term strategic planning. There's also an emphasis on building stronger community dynamics and team cohesion.
3. Cultural and Perception Issues: Maya brings up the public perception problem of crypto, which affects the culture around ReFi. Shawn also notes personal and cultural challenges in communicating with impact providers.
4. Team Building and Management: Challenges related to team dynamics and management are mentioned by Tian, Anton, and RayBankless. This includes finding committed team members, coordinating tasks, and balancing responsibilities.
5. Capital and Partnership Development: Luiz and Yamine focus on attracting value-aligned capital and finding long-term partners, respectively. The emphasis is on aligning financial and partnership resources with the community's values and goals.
6. Scaling and Expanding Initiatives: Challenges in scaling up initiatives and expanding their reach are mentioned by several participants, including Anastasia and Valentin. This includes onboarding more individuals into web3, expanding teams, and acquiring necessary resources like land.
7. Maintaining Integrity and Values: Giulio highlights the challenge for the ReFi movement to take advantage of financial opportunities without compromising values or losing ownership of the tools developed.

So what next for ReFi DAO in 2024?

Based on further insights gathered from the forum, here are the strategically most important next steps for ReFi DAO to consider, address, and act upon:

1. Official DAO Formation and Token Launch: A primary step is the formalization of ReFi DAO as a decentralized autonomous organization. This includes launching a token to facilitate governance, funding, and incentivization within the community.
2. Global Collaboration Platforms: Implementing strategies for global coordination of the ReFi DAO network includes creating robust systems for knowledge exchange, mentorship, community resource allocation, and collaborative opportunity development.
3. Sustainable Revenue Models and Funding Strategies: Establishing sustainable revenue streams is crucial. This involves exploring various models such as advisory services, partnerships with regenerative initiatives, and identifying reliable sources of funding for ongoing work.
4. Community Building and Governance Structures: Strengthening the community by building a robust network of contributors, and implementing effective governance models, such as reputation weight governance, is essential. This includes ensuring radical transparency and decentralization in decision-making processes.
5. Local Node Empowerment and Support: Activating and supporting local nodes with value-aligned frameworks and technology is vital. This could involve local economy enablement, community currency initiatives, and offering consistent support to local nodes.
6. Event Organization and Global Engagement: Organizing global ReFi events, retreats, and workshops will foster community engagement and knowledge sharing. These events should focus on best practices for node governance, innovation in ReFi, and global collaboration.
7. Innovation in Digital Platforms: Developing innovative digital tools and platforms, such as a ReFi hiring platform, token exchange or a Local Node NFT Minter, will facilitate talent acquisition, community referrals, and creative collaborations within the network.
8. Knowledge Sharing and Synergy Creation: Building out a knowledge graph and creating synergies with networks like the Regens Unite and Greenpill Network will enhance the efficiency and impact of the community’s initiatives. This includes avoiding duplication of efforts and learning from each other.
9. Addressing Cultural and Perception Challenges: Addressing the public perception problem of crypto and integrating real-life projects with technology solutions will be key. This includes bridging the gap between tech-heavy solutions and trust in real-life impact projects.
10. Focus on Local and Global Impact Balance: Balancing initiatives that have both local and global impact, ensuring that local nodes are empowered while contributing to a global decentralized network, is important for the holistic growth of ReFi DAO.

Additionally, as proposed and developed by Scott Morris, we plan to utilise the Co-Production Canvas as an organizational mapping tool for visualising value flows and recognizing contributions through a profit-sharing system. By integrating collaborators, offerings, community, and accounts, the Canvas holds potential to envision a comprehensive, equitable, and collaborative approach to ReFi DAO's future operations.

In summary, the strategic focus for ReFi DAO in 2024 will be on formalizing as a DAO, developing global collaboration platforms, creating sustainable revenue models, strengthening community and governance, supporting local nodes, organizing impactful events, innovating with digital tools, managing strategic partnerships, and working together to build a regenerative future.

Come join!

In order to help achieve these ambitious targets and initiatives we have formed an initial working group of global contributors to help facilitate key operations and drive the further DAOification of ReFi DAO in 2024.

As we embrace this new chapter for ReFi DAO your input and involvement is key! If you want to be involved and help co-vision ReFi DAO's future, consider taking a couple of minutes to fill in this form 👇

As we draw this year to a close, I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone in the ReFi DAO community for their dedication and innovative spirit. Your contributions and visions are helping to realise a more sustainable and regenerative future. Wishing each one of you a happy, prosperous, and rejuvenating New Year. May 2024 bring us closer to our collective goals and continue to inspire positive change in the world. 💚