Paving a Path: The Exploration and Future of Nantang DAO

In March 2025, I came to Sanhe Town, Sanzhong Village (formerly Nantang Village) in Fuyang City, Anhui Province for a field study lasting one and a half months. During this period, I conducted in-depth interviews with 14 respondents, including core members of the Nantang DAO, local agricultural cooperative employees, and villagers. I also participated in the Nantang DAO novice program, daily affairs of the Nantang Agricultural Cooperative, and the Nantang Unknow DAO translation group, among other activities. Although the time was short, I experienced a lot. I witnessed the efforts of local partners to put the ideals of DAO into practice and also observed many challenges faced by pioneers in the rural construction DAO field. These issues are both unique and reflect some common problems in the current development of DAO.

The story of the Nantang DAO continues, facing numerous challenges, yet everything is still happening naturally and continuously emerging. The community is exploring its way forward through trial and error, digging for new possibilities in the quest for change. Some core members have gone to Jianta Village in Pujiang County, Chengdu, trying to initiate new projects, attempting to find the true intersection of "rural construction and Web3" there, and to build a "rural entrepreneurship DAO." Meanwhile, Tiao has chosen to stay local in Nantang, proposing the initiative of "living well," by organizing local young people to engage in blockchain co-learning, band activities, etc., continuously deepening community ties. One side explores outward, while the other is rooted locally, with both paths running parallel without conflict. Pioneering a new path has always been filled with hardships, but as I love to say: "Pessimists are often right, but optimists keep moving forward." The optimists of Nantang DAO are writing their own answers through action.

Attracting More Professionals

Talent is the cornerstone of any organization's development. Cikey reflected that the Nantan DAO failed to effectively attract "real talents who understand blockchain and Web3" during its early establishment, coupled with the general lack of mature rural construction experience among early members, which led the community to take a lot of detours in its exploration. Fortunately, the community has recognized this shortcoming and has taken a series of improvement measures. Currently, Nantan DAO plans to invite senior experts from the industry to form the "Nantan DAO Governance Advisory Group" to provide professional mediation for internal disputes and to offer systematic advice on strategic directions each quarter. In addition, through the "Rural Construction Web3 Bilateral Enlightenment Program," community members have participated in various domestic and international Web3 activities and have gone into universities to give presentations, which not only improved their professional competence but also attracted more professionals passionate about Web3 and rural construction to join. This two-way interaction has opened up new avenues for talent recruitment. Excitingly, new members are continuously joining, injecting new vitality into the community. Among them, some excel in artistic creation, adding creativity to rural cultural activities; some are proficient in brand promotion, providing support for Nantan DAO's external communication; and others have made significant contributions in the field of organizational research, offering wisdom for optimizing community governance mechanisms. These new members not only bring professional skills but also open up more possibilities for the future development of Nantan DAO.

Facing the world, drawing on experience

What are the real needs of rural areas? Can Web3 inject new momentum into rural development? The implementation of DAO is not only a topic for Nantang but also a global challenge. Nantang DAO has researched several international DAO cases, many of which provide insights closely related to rural construction. For example, after the earthquake and in response to the aging population, Yamakoji Village in Japan launched the "Nishikigoi NFT" centered around the local specialty "koi fish" and regarded NFT holders as "digital villagers". The DAO community formed from this has attracted over 1,750 members globally and raised funds to support regional sustainable development. Although this model did not adopt typical DAO elements such as smart contracts or on-chain treasury, it effectively addressed local issues. The experience of Yamakoji Village is quite enlightening for Nantang DAO. Recently, Yamakoji Village further proposed the concept of a "dual-layer DAO-driven governance revolution": using Yamakoji DAO as a vehicle to achieve co-governance between physical villagers and digital villagers through Snapshot voting; and using the Shihua People DAO as a platform to promote cross-regional cooperation (such as in Shuiye Village and Tianlong Gorge), to build a "LocalDAO network". This model bears a striking resemblance to the current development path of Nantang DAO and should provide valuable references.

Another relevant case is CabinDAO------a decentralized autonomous organization dedicated to building network cities through community collaboration and technological innovation. Its development process is divided into four stages: the Creator Era from 2020 to 2021, establishing "Creator Cabins" as a funding project for creator residency; from 2021 to 2022, with the flourishing of DAOs, Cabin also began entering the DAO service provider phase, during which the community created numerous DAO media brands and developed on-chain and physical passport systems and other DAO tools aimed at online communities; from 2022 to 2023, with the turbulence in the cryptocurrency market, the community began to significantly reduce the DAO team and focus on creating natural communities for digital nomads and building a global co-living network; starting in early 2024, the team's keywords changed to "family community," and the team decided to establish a deeper connection with local communities, launching the Neighborhood Accelerator initiative, proposing to build a community where friends live nearby and co-parent children.

What is worth learning from and reflecting on is that after several years of continuous exploration, the Cabin team believes it is more suitable to exist as a loose community network rather than a startup or DAO. On May 8, 2025, Cabin officially announced its dissolution on the X platform, deciding to abandon DAO funding and commercialization projects, and shift towards a purely community-driven network. This decision stems from a reflection on the different models of startups, DAOs, and community networks: "Venture capital-backed startups are best suited for small, focused teams that can quickly pivot and seek short-term financially viable high-growth business opportunities. DAOs are best suited as a trusted neutral governance mechanism for distributing ecosystem funding from existing cash flow protocols. Community-driven networks are best suited to act as loose connective organizations, allowing many people to independently explore adjacent paths and build what they find most interesting and valuable." For practitioners of rural construction DAOs, how to find the positioning of DAOs in rural communities and what value DAOs can bring to local communities is undoubtedly a common proposition faced by the world.

Deeply rooted in the local area, seeking advantages

While learning from global pioneers, how to take root locally needs to be based on in-depth research and analysis of local realities. Nantang DAO needs to comprehensively assess local resources such as economy, human resources, spiritual culture, politics, social capital, geographic location, and natural environment in order to formulate practical goals and action plans.

Nantang Village is known for its historical experience in democratic governance, and the attention it receives from society is the greatest advantage of this land. Looking back at the history of Nantang, one can find that the desire for democracy and rights has never ceased, and its important historical milestones have always resonated with advanced organizational concepts in the context of the great era. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, civil movements surged, with the rights protection lawyer movement and environmental movement beginning to rise, allowing citizens to maintain their rights through legal means and collective action. Nantang also began organizing farmers' rights protection struggles, implementing grassroots elections and village autonomy. Starting in 2003-2004, the goal of farmer organization gradually shifted from rights protection to construction. As Yang Yunbiao stated: "In the past, we approached rights protection from a confrontational perspective. After establishing cooperatives, our daily work has been to use livelihood development, cultural construction, and rural autonomy to protect our rights." Later, in the process of farmer organization, they drew on Western civilization and introduced deliberative rules, achieving the localization of advanced governance concepts (in 2008), during which the village's economic and cultural undertakings developed rapidly. Yang Yunbiao once pointed out in a rural construction dialogue: "Rural revitalization is not simply about industrial revitalization or organizational revitalization; it must return to 'the revitalization of people,' and we must think about how to allow people to live with smiles and dignity." Now, the establishment of the Nantang DAO continues the tradition of organizational innovation and marks the latest attempt to integrate local ethics with modern civilization.

From rights protection organizations to parliamentary rules, from cooperatives to the Nantan DAO, Nantan has tried different democratic governance methods over the past 30 years. However, it is essential to recognize that regardless of how innovative the organizational form is, the key lies in whether it focuses on "human connections" and addresses the fundamental needs of local farmers. It is reassuring that the various attempts made in the past and those ongoing have already produced a good "link" effect. After living and learning together for a period, some wonderful chemical reactions are quietly occurring between DAO members and cooperative members. During a field study, I observed local young people actively using Robert's Rules of Order to efficiently negotiate and form a consensus on the division of labor when faced with the challenge of collective cooking. I also sensed the budding awareness of equality among local youth; they are beginning to spontaneously organize themselves and collectively reflect on issues such as the lack of transparency in decision-making, unclear responsibilities, and ambiguous rules in local work and life. This budding independent thinking and critical spirit will be a valuable asset for Nantan's future development. On the other hand, cooperatives are also broadening their horizons, planning to create a "third space" to serve digital nomads, connecting a wider young demographic. Based on understanding each other's needs and working in a mutually respectful manner, this may become the driving force for new possibilities emerging in this land.

Final Words

Despite the conflicts, the integration of rural development and Web3 holds great promise. Through the test of time and practice, both sides are expected to reach a consensus amidst the conflicts, forming a governance model that balances individual autonomy and collective cooperation. In future developments, Nantang DAO should not only promote Web3 technologies and governance models but also root itself in the cultural soil of the countryside and the vital interests of the villagers, focusing on addressing the fundamental needs of rural areas so that new digital technologies can truly touch the soul of rural society.

How to view the exploration of DAO in rural areas?

Rural development and DAO are like two circles that originally intersect: rural development carries the practice and sentiment of revitalizing the countryside, while DAO reshapes trust and collaboration mechanisms with a decentralized technological philosophy. In recent years, these two fields have begun to converge, attracting Web3 practitioners engaged in rural areas and those in rural development eager to embrace new technologies. However, due to the short duration of contact and differences in values and cultural backgrounds, this intersection inevitably generates friction, including clashes between decentralized autonomous logic and rural collectivist culture, as well as the integration of foreign concepts and local traditions.

The core issue lies in how DAO, as a new form of organization, can identify its role and capability boundaries within rural governance structures. Taking the practice of Nantung DAO as an example, if the issuance of Nantung beans is merely a digital replica of the traditional rural governance points system (such as the work point system), and its usability and ease of use are even difficult to surpass other existing "alternative currencies"; if token-based voting is just a direct democracy moved to the Web3 digital platform, but effectively excludes villagers from the democratic decision-making process, how much change can we expect this so-called organizational "innovation" to bring to rural society? Although these questions take Nantung DAO as a specific carrier, they are, in fact, a universal inquiry for all future rural construction DAOs or similar organizations.

In addition, it must be acknowledged that DAO is not the ultimate answer to all organizational governance issues. No organizational design is perfect, and the trade-offs and choices in the governance process are key for organizations to address sustainable development challenges. Different organizational forms have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they coexist rather than replace each other. If we consider decentralization and autonomy as a spectrum, various types of organizations throughout history, as well as different stages of development within the same organization,