San Cristobal - Mexico | Jan 2020
The following document outlines the various feedback, outcomes, and thoughts regarding the DAOfest event that was organized in the city of San Cristóbal on the 23rd of January, 2020.
Proposal for the event: https://alchemy.daostack.io/dao/0x8990e11b69403ea53ef2b32434bbd7dbf84b5234/proposal/0xfa82ce95416f201405d1c3f541210c742b0cab0ad4a6ac1890f3d3e37d9adfb3
Goal
This workshop and session will provide DAOfest with a template that can be used by other members to host their own workshop, thus increasing the level of awareness and opening up the education framework for others to review and contribute to.
Improving the curriculum and allowing people to gain from the wisdom of the crowd is a big part of this initial workshop. The curriculum has been put together and will mark the first step in building a decentralized and open education platform, which can be translated and used by anyone in the world while ensuring quality control by using the wisdom of the crowd.
Location Background & Importance
This city is a very important place. San Cristóbal is situated in the state of Chiapas, where the Zapatistas took form and reside, one of the most successful autonomous regions of our time. The population are well aware of the dangers of centralization and have suffered greatly from the hands of Coca Cola in particular. It would be amazing to have people learn about autonomy, decentralization, DAOs, and how they can be used to preserve culture and traditions, as well as allow others to collaborate and contribute to their cause.
This city also attracts a wide range of backpackers and open-minded individuals from all around the world.
Procedure of the Workshop
Curriculum
As a part of our initial approach, we decided to introduce a well-defined curriculum to help elevate the collective knowledge regarding decentralization, blockchains, decentralized cryptocurrencies, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
This open-source curriculum can be viewed via: https://github.com/BITTOPIA/curriculums/blob/master/intoduction%20to%20decentralization.md
The curriculum was broken down into 7 modules. Most of the modules included an exercise that needed to be completed as a way of assessing and applying the theory. The following are the modules that were included in the workshop:
Module 0: Introduction to Decentralized Currency
Excercise 0: Download Telegram/join Telegram group for DAOfest Mexico (https://t.me/DAOMX).
Module 1: How to Setup a Wallet
Excercise 1: Download Coinomi.
Module 2: Wallet Security 101
Excercise 2: Securely store your mnemonic phrase.
Module 3: How to Buy Bitcoin
Excercise 3: Sweep paper wallet, each loaded with 50 pesos.
Module 4: How to Send/Receive Funds
Excercise 4: Send funds to each other.
Module 5: Online Transactions
Excercise 5: Send funds to an address placed on the projector/TV screen.
Module 6: What is Ethereum?
Excercise 6: Download/setup Metamask.
Module 7: What is a DAO?
Excercise 7: Create a DAO on Aragon via testnet.
Feedback
To get a better understanding of people's thoughts and motives, we decided to put together a feedback form that people could use to provide us with valuable information that could be used to better adjust the workshop for the future.
This feedback form also allowed us to explore the existing limitation within people's mind that has prevented them from exploring the possibilities of cryptocurrencies, decentralized tools, and decentralized applications.
The feedback form included the following questions:
1. What do you think of Bitcoin? 2. What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? 3. What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? 4. What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain?
People were asked to answer these questions prior to the workshop--with the exception of the last question--so that we could gain an authentic response.
5. How would you improve the workshop?
Questions From Our Students
During the session, several people had questions and concerns regarding various aspects of adoption:
How would the average shop owner pay their staff and cover other aspects of their expenses if they were to accept Bitcoin?
How do you pay your bills with Bitcoin?
How would a person in Mexico deal with the fluctuations, given a small change can have a huge impact on the person's financial safety?
Create Your Own DAO
The last part of the curriculum required that people gather in groups and brainstorm ways that a DAO could be created. The following are the various ideas that were suggested by the students:
Book Club DAO: Rewarding for reading and sharing books.
Musicians DAO: Helping artists and musicians.
Workers Co-Op: everyone owns a part of a business.
Agriculture: Creating solidarity, share tools, labour, and reduce struggle.
Coffee farmers within Chiapas. Protect them from the industry. Tracking the coffee, logistics, its origin, and details of the farmer.
Responses from the Workshop
1. What do you think of Bitcoin?
2. What has prevented you from using Bitcoin?
3. What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin?
4. What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain?
Overall Analysis
Overall as seen in the below responses, most people lacked the knowledge and education when dealing with Bitcoin and decentralized tools, which can result in fear. This is why such an approach is essential to the overall growth and adoption.
A lack of knowledge creates fear. Seeking knowledge creates courage. --Candice Swanepoel
We also categorized the data. This allowed us to see the relevant topics that we should focus on:
As seen from the above analysis, knowledge is the most important aspect when dealing with adoption and use.
Raw Responses
Below are the responses provided by the participants who were willing to fill out the feedback form.
Participant #1
1. What do you think of Bitcoin? I think it has a lot of potentials but it can still be taken over by the big powers like banks and governments. Stopping them is going to be hard.
2. What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? Lack of money to risk.
3. What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? I believe the applications of blockchain in smart contracts, identity management, and decentralized decision-making are going to be more useful than the currency.
4. What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain? Decentralization is one of the only ways I see of changing the system at large.
5. How would you improve the workshop? Explain a little bit more about how blockchain works, and why it is secure.
Participant #2
What do you think of Bitcoin? The currency of the future.
What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? Not having enough knowledge.
What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? Corruption.
What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain? Less paper and plastics destroying our planet, faster and easier transactions, and ethics.
How would you improve the workshop? N/A.
Participant #3
What do you think of Bitcoin? I'm interested in the currency and how it can make a lot of things (financial/transactional) easier.
What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? Lack of knowledge and as such apprehension in jumping into something I didn't know a lot about.
What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? I worry that I wouldn't be able to find others with the currency to transact with.
What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain? The biggest benefit, I feel, is its inclusivity and ease of use. I assume once you've learned to use it, its easier with fewer barriers in transactions.
How would you improve the workshop? Maybe more tips about how or what we can do to spread the word as well.
Participant #4
What do you think of Bitcoin? It seems cool, I guess, but I don't really much about it.
What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? It seemed confusing, I don't really know where to star. Plus so many have bro dickheads talk about it.
What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? I just don't really know how to use it.
What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain? Anonymity.
How would you improve the workshop? This was awesome. So many great ideas. Well delivered. Maybe you could include some of those links you mentioned in the info booklet. Also, increase the zoom on your computer screen. Thank you for doing this. Really appreciate it. Very much enjoyed it.
Participant #5
What do you think of Bitcoin? Am mildly suspicious always of using money online in any context. Seems like a good tool. Don't understand it enough to feel comfortable using it.
What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? Lack of computer literacy.
What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? Don't have any specific words about Bitcoin that I don't have about any other use of capital within the global system.
What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain? Not tethered to big banks, interested in oil and war, as far as I know.
How would you improve the workshop? Maybe more of a focus on DAO? or a bit more transparency with a focus on bitcoins as opposed to decentralization.
Participant #6
What do you think of Bitcoin? Sounds like a brilliant idea in general. Don't think its "simple" enough to get.
What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? Missing knowledge/trust, no need so far.
What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? Feels like it got "misunderstood", and popular due to the uses for the wrong reasons.
What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain? Independency from the banks and institutions.
How would you improve the workshop? Technical glossary.
Participant #7
What do you think of Bitcoin? Certainly much more than I did prior to the workshop.
What has prevented you from using Bitcoin? The bitcoin copy cats that seem to have invaded the bitcoin conversation and perception of value.
What are some of your worries regarding Bitcoin? Future value when considering government and banking industry efforts to devalue it.
What are some of the benefits of Bitcoin / Blockchain? Decentralization and being able to control your own “bank”.
How would you improve the workshop? Having more time to create a more flushed out and applicable DAO.
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