Seattle’s CafeDAO is Like a Decentralized Starbucks
“What if we made a decentralized Starbucks?” comes a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) called “TheCafeDAO”.
With what started as a Reddit post made last August by Dan Car, one of the DAO’s founding members, “What if we made a decentralized Starbucks?” comes a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) called “TheCafeDAO” which was recently opened as a pop-up coffee stand in Seattle last weekend. TheCafeDAO is a test run for what it hopes will be the first brick-and-mortar business run entirely through a DAO structure.
TheCafeDAO, located outside the Seattle NFT Museum, with a menu that consisted of just one item—pour-over coffee for $5 a cup—brands itself as “the cafe everyone owns.” According to them, their customers and employees are given coffee tokens that grant governance rights and discounts with each purchase.
Currently, the DAO’s tokens are still in its alpha stage and have yet to be connected to any blockchain. The launch of the DAO last weekend is a trial run for tokenomics.
With the coffee stand DAO still in its early stages, the founders recognize that decisions are not yet completely decentralized—though that will likely change as the community continues to grow.
“Our goal is for the Discord to grow enough where we no longer have to make decisions ourselves about the future of the DAO,” – Dustin Tong, one of the five founders of the DAO
Regarding its tokens, the value of each is $5, pegged to the price of a 12-ounce cup of coffee. A new token is minted every time a coffee from the stand is purchased.
According to the team, a part of the token’s value, roughly $3.50 worth, is burned to account for operating costs. The remaining portion is then split among the customer, employees and DAO treasury.
Further, they noted that token holders can either redeem their coins for fiat or hold them for governance rights. One cup of coffee is equivalent to one vote in whatever proposals made by the DAOs members.
Basically, the tokenomics essentially function as a decentralized punch card for the customers where every purchase brings them closer to holding one full coffee token.
“In terms of governance, we want to create a list of standard operating procedures and then have those be the things our members are voting on. We don’t want someone to spill coffee and have all the DAO members vote for who cleans it up, that’s just not efficient,” Tong added.
TheCafeDAO’s pop-up was only open for two days as a test run but members of the DAO are now looking to fundraise to create a permanent storefront somewhere in the Seattle area.
This article is published on BitPinas: Seattle’s CafeDAO is Like a Decentralized Starbucks
Editing by Meghan Lim
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