Mission, Vision, and Values

[frogmonkee]

Authors: @frogmonkee
Collaborators: @Devin_S, @EliteViking @wolfehr
Date: 5/20/2021

Bankless - Mission, Vision, Values

SUMMARY

Before the launch of Season 1, it’s important for us to figure out our mission, vision, and values as a DAO.

BACKGROUND

Taken from this article: Mission, Vision & Values Facilitation
The Roles of Mission, Vision, and Values

• Mission/Purpose - A statement of why the organization exists, at the most meaningful level. It is aspirational, in that it can never be fully achieved. In this way, the purpose states why the organization does the work it does, but does not define how that work is to be done.
• Vision - A clear, specific, compelling picture of what the organization will look like at a specific time in the future (one, two, or five years), including those few key metrics that define success. It defines key results achieved and yet to be accomplished, the expected impact to the clients, and it describes specific behaviors that the organization must display to be successful. A clear vision delimits potential strategies; it helps define what’s within or outside of the organization’s bounds.
• Values - The boundaries within which the organization will operate in pursuit of its vision. It is critical to distinguish between core values (those on which the organization will never compromise and is willing to pay a price to uphold) and aspirational values (those that the organization espouses, but has yet to live up to in day-to-day operations). To be meaningful, values must be described in clear behavioral terms.

MOTIVATION

Determining our Mission, Vision, and Values is vital to who we are. It defines what we’re doing and why. It influences every decision we make. It’s important for us to nail this stuff before Season 1.

SPECIFICATION

This is a work in progress and would like everyone else to contribute. Luckily, Ryan and David had put in the work to help us.

What is the Bankless Movement?

Bankless is a movement for anyone and everyone seeking liberation from the tyranny of the traditional financial system. Going Bankless means adopting decentralized, permissionless, and censorship resistant technology to achieve financial self sovereignty, security, and prosperity.

What is BanklessDAO?

A decentralized autonomous organization acting as a steward of the Bankless Movement progressing the world towards a future of greater freedom.

Vision

A world in which anyone with an internet connection has access to the financial tools needed to achieve financial independence

Mission

Help the world go Bankless by creating friendly onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media, and culture.

Values

Education
We can learn from each other. We seek to become a trusted guide that empowers people all over the globe to adopt decentralized finance by sharing accurate, truthful, and objective information.

Integrity
We operate transparently and build trust through radically public discourse and financial auditability.

Decentralized Governance
We put decision making into the hands of the collective. We create legitimacy through an environment where the best ideas win.

Culture
We reward action and embrace risk. We empower our community to continually drive new initiatives by providing a space to self-organize and quickly move from idea to action.

NEXT STEPS

• Select 3-5 core values [COMPLETED]
• Decide on what those values mean to us [COMPLETED]
• Workshop with writers guild and editors
• Soft consensus vote on Forum
• Update public facing material to reflect changes

CONCLUSION

We need a clear mission, vision, and values statement. A possible declaration could be:

Mission: Create friendly onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media, and culture.

Vision: Achieving financial freedom by using transparent, decentralized, and fair financial systems.

Values: (1) Education (2) Transparency (3) Decentralized Governance (4) Culture

• SHIP IT!!!
• I like it, but needs some work
• Are you high? What is this shit?
• Meh, don’t really care.

• I like the mission and vision
• This needs some slight modifications
• This needs heavy modifications
• This is not a priority

[Devin_S]

"What is bankless?" I would recommend we articulate the benefits of the definition. The definition isn’t enough because it only represents a shift in funds… what is the shift in value?

Need a punchier mission… one that is purpose-driven ideally. “Help each other achieve financial success in the world of decentralized finance!”

The vision is built on the definition of bankless and so we must have a very very powerful definition of bankless.

Education, perhaps this covers all 4 points, ‘Empower our community with accurate and truthful knowledge about decentralized finance, so that as many people as possible can adopt these new and improved money systems’.

Transperancy and Credible Neutrality… my be better written as a diversity and inclusion message, such as we embrace all groups and individuals regardless of any visible or non-visible differences…

Perhaps separate Transparency?

Decentralized Governance (or autonomous organization) … As a value, what is it… what do we value? Perhaps it is more along the lines of the ability to go to the work that calls our talents and passions!

I would add a value on ‘ideas’… A meritocracy, we value the effective flow of information and ideas through the right channels to ensure the best ideas and talent rise to the top of a given project!

[Junglerush]

my take.

Mission statement for the Bankless DAO needs more clarity without getting into the mechanics of it’s parts.
Bankless DAO coordinates actionable information to empower global independence from governmental money systems in order to realize a decentralized exchange of value.

Values: Education, Legitimacy, Governance

[hamish.eth]

I agree. Even just stating that their are benefits in a broad scene, then including a link on where the benefits come from for those who show interest/ need convincing.

e.g Migrating to a more prosperous, self sovereign financial system .

This way people are informed that going bankless is more beneficial to them than being banked.

Those who want to know why this new system is “more prosperous” can follow a link that will cover removing the middle man, help people understand how much wealth the current banking system siphons from the real economy. and how banking profits will now simply go back to being part of everyone’s wealth. etc etc

[Carlosian]

I like this. Its simple. It works.
The Dao is made up of thousands of people so our values are going to be very different.
People watch/read Bankless to learn. Our fundamental value would be education. It should have a higher priority in our mission. Self sovereignty of your financial life using systems built with decentralization and immutability in mind.

[Kouros]

I agree with the mission and vision. It is simple and yet conveys the message of Bankless DAO.

[frogmonkee]

@Devin_S @Junglerush @hamish.eth @Carlosian @Kouros

I’ve reworked the What is Bankless, Mission, and Vision. Please check the original post. I will work on Values later. I like what Rush said:

Education, Legitimacy, Governance

I will expand on this and add one last value: Community.

If you would like to be more hands on, please work here. (Permissions are set to suggest. You can make changes without overwriting what currently exists)

Bankless - Mission, Vision, Values

[cart_collector]

The way I see it, behind every noun there is a question:

Vision - answers the WHY? question - to help people embrace a fairer financial system.
Mission - answers the HOW? question - through media, culture, education.
Values - answers the WHO? question - we are a community that shares the same values.

[Devin_S]

i updated the word documeent with some hopefully helpful ideas.

[frogmonkee]

@Devin_S @cart_collector @Junglerush @hamish.eth @Carlosian @Kouros

I’ve made updates based on your suggestions. I tried to keep things simple and clean. Same doc as before:

Bankless - Mission, Vision, Values

[Devin_S]

you nailed it! it is so concise. I only made one suggestion in the doc, which is nominal… I think we are ready to ship this… how do we do that?

[Junglerush]

Nicely done; all for it!

[Leemers]

It’s looking good! A lot of great amendments.
I think we need to flesh out the culture section a little more. The propagation of the bankless values necessarily has to be through culture. Memes, podcasts, articles, art, videos etc. We are essentially using the culture in order to transform the culture. Inseminating our values into it as we pass through.

I think Bankless DAO aims to be a meme in the sense that we are trying to spread ourselves throughout the culture

[Kouros]

I’ve noticed that there are now two parts in the document… Is the first page an updated version or they are complimentary?

[Devin_S]

not sure what happened… looks like the old version got added I think… when I reviewed and commented, it was only a page.

[mewhoelse]

Added a few edits for community consideration. Learning the ropes. Hope its ok.

[frogmonkee]

Hello everyone, I’ve reworked based on suggestions. I think this is close to a polished draft to present during the community call.

@Devin_S @Leemers
@mewhoelse (thank you for contributing, it was helpful)

[hamish.eth]

Great work @frogmonkee . You’ve constructed all the feed back well in the last update. I’d say it is ready to be presented during the community call.