September 25, 2025: Community call
We spoke with Ori Shimony, a researcher with the EF, about why he thinks this project is important and what we can learn from his experience. Below is a summary of the conversation.
Ori’s Background & Experience
- Currently at Ethereum Foundation doing use case research
- Identifying technical/adoption blockers for nascent use cases
- Developing interventions and collaborations to remove barriers
- Founded Mechanism Institute
- Created mechanism library cataloguing onchain mechanisms design space
- Covers governance, public goods funding, DeFi market mechanisms
- Led dOrg (2019-2022)
- First service DAO and first DAO with legal entity (Vermont BBLC)
- Built DAO tooling and Web3 infrastructure through consulting model
- Still operating with 6-8 active projects, ~150 contributors total
- Private DAO with strict hiring process and non-transferable reputation tokens
What do you see as the most important use cases for organizational metadata?
- Counterparty verification and legitimacy
- Service providers need verifiable credentials when representing organizations
- Similar to corporate registries (UK Companies House) but for Web3
- Addresses authorization problems (e.g., former members misrepresenting affiliation)
- Legal compliance and transparency
- Essential for DAOs with legal wrappers (Duna, Marshall Islands structures)
- Could become source of truth for organizational agreements and bylaws
- Enables programmatic compliance monitoring
- Website and domain verification
- Link between Web2 presence (websites) and Web3 identity
- Custom ENS resolvers to verify CNAME connections
- Prevents phishing and establishes official channels
- Enhanced wallet/interface integration
- Metamask showing verified contract names during transactions
- Profile verification across platforms (similar to X verification)
- Quantitative trust metrics (earnings, token holdings, tenure)
Another idea for further down the line
- Organizational reputation system using EAS
- Verified reviews from confirmed members/customers
- Similar to Trustpilot/Glassdoor but with proof of affiliation
- Scoring visible on platforms like Etherscan
Adoption Strategy & Blockers
- Primary challenge: collective action problem
- Individual organizations lack strong incentive to adopt early
- Benefits accrue to ecosystem, not individual adopters
- Different DAO types (DeFi protocols vs service DAOs) have different needs
- Proposed solutions:
- Legal compliance as primary driver (strongest incentive)
- Integration with aggregators and tools (DeepDAO, Etherscan)
- Blue checkmark system for verified organizations
- Partnership with friendly jurisdictions (Wyoming Duna, Marshall Islands)
Who should we target?
- Look beyond traditional DAOs to broader organizational metadata
- Web3 agencies and service providers
- DeSci DAOs (high verification needs for scientific credibility)
- Small private groups
- Potential to drive DAO creation by making onchain organization aspirational
- Integration with existing tools (Aragon’s new activity, Hats Protocol, etc)
What are some suggested next steps?
- Develop rough pilot with ENS implementation
- Engage legal specialists in DAO-friendly jurisdictions
- Target law firms and compliance service providers for feedback
- Create demonstrable standard before broader outreach
- Focus on solving specific legal/regulatory pain points as primary adoption driver