Bankless DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that acts as a steward of the Bankless Movement. Its goal is to drive adoption and awareness of bankless money systems like Ethereum, DeFi (Decentralized Finance), and Bitcoin. ^[1]

Overview

Bankless DAO was launched by Bankless Media under the supervision of Ryan Sean Adams and David Hoffman in May 2021. ^[1]

"We will help the world go bankless by creating user-friendly onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media, and culture" - Bankless DAO's mission statement
"To live in a world where anyone with an internet connection has access to the financial tools needed to achieve financial independence." - vision statement^[2]

BanklessDAO aims to explore innovative methods for building wealth, addressing human coordination challenges, creating culture, and advancing thought leadership in the crypto space. Adopting decentralized and permissionless money systems enables individuals to take control of their financial health. BanklessDAO is dedicated to educating the world on these practices. ^[2]

Activities at BanklessDAO

BanklessDAO engages in a variety of activities, including building tools, resources, and communities; creating writing media, podcasts, and educational resources; empowering individuals and teams to do their best work; fostering collaboration by bringing together diverse talents and perspectives; and promoting the culture and adoption of cryptocurrency. ^[11]

Central to its operation is a democratic governance process, which ensures that the community remains at the heart of decision-making. This process is facilitated through the use of the BANK token, which not only signifies membership but also grants voting rights on key proposals and decisions within the DAO. ^[5]

BanklessDAO & Bankless Separation

On November 20, 2023, BanklessDAO applied for a grant of 1.82 million Arbitrum (ARB) tokens from Arbitrum, a layer-2 scaling project for Ethereum. Concerns arose because BanklessDAO’s proposal requested a substantial amount of tokens for content creation without providing detailed information on how the funds would be used. Community members questioned whether BanklessDAO should leverage the weight of the Bankless brand, which it did not create, for such ambitious proposals. ^[10]

In response to community criticism related to BanklessDAO’s application, the co-founders took to X (formerly Twitter) on Nov. 26, 2023, to announce that they plan to burn all of their BanklessDAO (BANK) tokens and to also submit a governance proposal to BanklessDAO, aiming to formally separate the two entities. ^[9]

"The sharing of the brand between two independent entities, @BanklessHQ and @banklessDAO, is too confusing for the industry to accept." - Hoffman tweeted

"As for our next steps:
1. We plan to submit a governance proposal to BanklessDAO early next week to clarify the branding separation between these entities.
2. We also plan to burn all of our BANK tokens on the back of this proposal." ^[9]

The BanklessDAO community criticized the initiative, with many DAO members pointing out that the proposal requested almost two million ARB for writing content without providing detailed information about how the money would be spent. ^[10]

In response, BanklessDAO committed to revising the proposal to cut the one-year grant to three months and provide clear key performance indicators and milestones. ^[10]

The argument between the proposal backers and opponents escalated rapidly on social media. Some commentators like pseudonymous Delegate Cash CEO Foobar accused Bankless founders of “legitimacy grifting” by pretending that BanklessDAO was completely unrelated to Bankless. ^[10]

The controversy led to the decision to separate the two entities and address the concerns raised by the community. ^[10]

BANK

$BANK is the native-governance token of the DAO that coordinates operations and is distributed among community members to actively participate in this bankless movement. The BANK token has no financial value, merely a representation of participation in the bankless community. ^[5][12]

Tokenomics

Token Bank is allocated as follows: Bankless LLC: 25%, Retroactive: 30%, and Community Treasury: 45% ^[13]