Show Notes
Interviewer: Tell me about the people you’re helping.
Michael: Imagine someone with a notion that a DAO is global and frictionless. Then they want to do normal things, like rent an apartment, get health insurance or have benefits for like paternity or maternity leave. And they’re blocked.
When a landlord wants income verification, they can’t say, “look at my wallet.”
And then there’s health insurance, the #1 thing people look for.
A DAO can’t do all those real-world things, much less in over 100 countries, but that’s where the contributors are. So we step in and make sure those people are officially compensated.
So they could handle income verification, insurance and taxes.
People shouldn’t sacrifice interoperability with society just because they work for a DAO.
Interviewer: Can individuals join WorkDAO or just DAOs?
Michael: We actually can help some individuals.
We can’t always do it because sometimes the contributor isn’t really a contractor, by the local government’s definition. They’re an employee. In those cases, we need both the DAO and the contributor to sign on.
Interviewer: How do you handle taxes?
Michael: Our first product is Token Payroll, but it extends to fiat and includes cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Doge, or a DAO’s native token. We allow an organization to compensate in any combination of payment options.
Governments generally expect some kind of withholding and don’t accept crypto. So we take tokens, assess how much taxes are owed to different authorities, and transmit that money.
We also handle all the forms.
All of that is our bread and butter.
Interviewer: What about token price fluctuations?
Michael: There’s an issue with compensation in assets that appreciate or depreciate.
Whenever there’s an income event, we immediately do what’s called “sell to cover.” We convert it into some fiat and withhold the amount that has to go to the government.
Interviewer: Doesn’t your business have a marketing problem because people only feel the pain once per year?
Michael: Typically, when people experience pain and look for a solution, we can’t solve their problem. We can solve future problems.
But that’s damaging to a DAO because the contributor who experiences this pain could say, “forget this. I don’t want to ever contribute again.”
We market to DAOs because individuals could have this problem once, but DAOs that are aligned with their members will experience it many times and in many different countries.
Interviewer: Your name has “DAO” in it and there’s a whitepaper on your site that explains the mechanics of a DAO, but WorkDAO isn’t a DAO, right?
Michael: We intended to be a DAO, but in the process of being one, we realized we need a progressive approach to becoming a DAO. We have one of the most expansive corporate structures in web3. We have over 100 corporations right now. We’re trying to get to every country.
Everywhere there is or could be web3 talent, we have to have a corporation, a bank account, and a license. We have to comply with all local regulations.
The most important part of our business right now is real-world corporate compliance.
Interviewer: Why aren’t there clients on your site? Who uses WorkDAO?
Michael: We haven’t been focusing on marketing, but we have well-known clients, like Gitcoin, mStable DAO, Astar, dYdX, and API3.