How to build a successful blockchain project community?

Original title: at The Key Ingredients to A blockchain of Better, Part III: Community Community Author: Lane Rettig

Our understanding of the reasons for the success of the blockchain is becoming clearer. The following is a discussion of what part of the community is needed for the success of the blockchain.

• Are there many good activities? What is the coverage and frequency of the event? Does the theme of the event take into account both technical and non-technical aspects? Is the activity easy to participate, cheap and thoughtful? Can anyone freely launch an event in the name of the project?

• Is there a strong developer community? This is especially important now, because the blockchain is still in the “early developer” phase, and developers are both our most important evangelists and the ones most likely to increase their value through the development platform and the apps on them. . The developer community relies heavily on the availability of open source code, good tools and documentation, an active, enthusiastic online community, and high-quality, developer-focused activities such as hackathons.

• Does the community have a consensus? While development tools and activities are important, intangible assets are also important to the community: common principles, values, goals, and visions for the future. Without consensus, the community will become less cohesive and more likely to be forked due to differences in values. The consensus will also support key initiatives to help the project weather the crisis. (For more on this topic, see the next section, "Consensus.")

• Is community thinking open and inclusive? Community members will welcome different opinions and opinions, or will the “community” be more like a fraternity composed of extremists, tribalists and thugs who will attack anyone who disagrees with them? As with any early, long-term, and complex technology project, it is clear that in the blockchain, we have not found all the answers, and there are still many innovations to do, which means we must acknowledge the limitations of our knowledge and progress. And open to new ideas and ideas, even those thoughts and ideas seem to be radical at first glance. I firmly believe that those communities that suppress meaningful debates and dissent will be limited to this, and ultimately will not be able to scale up and attract more attention.

• What is the status of community cooperation? Are community members active and friendly on social media? Are teams and projects in the ecosystem working closely together, or do they choose to interact and compete in a zero-sum manner? Are community members more willing to become stakeholder members, protecting some of the benefits they already hold and creating greater value together? Collaboration includes collaboration within ecosystems and cross-chain collaboration: The growing collaboration between Ethereum and Ethereum's classic community is a positive example. In the early stages, cooperation is particularly important because blockchain innovation faces the risk of being eventually replaced by large companies without consensus. If we don't seize this opportunity, the blockchain may not develop into something that ordinary people care about at all. Common values ​​and goals unite us to jointly look forward to and build this future.

• Are the communities diverse and inclusive? Diversification is a complex, controversial, subjective topic that deserves more exploration. This article cannot be explained fairly, so I just want to say: the importance of diversity to your project and the project. The scope is directly proportional to ambition. If you want to build a small private network for yourself and a few trusted friends, then you and your friends can design and build the entire network. On the other hand, if you work hard to build a network for everyone like some platforms, then your community is made up of people from many regions and industries. In addition, there is an important difference between passive and active diversification: it is not enough to reduce the participation threshold of some people or claim to be “neutral” because diversity is not accidental, when you are aware It may be too late when I have a problem with myself.

• Is the community privileged? This is mainly determined by governance and economic models. Is governance clear, legal, and easy to understand, can community members meaningfully participate in governance, voice, take on more responsibilities, and gain influence commensurate with their contributions? Communities that lack clear governance will inevitably become victims of unorganized dictatorship and will eventually be controlled by a small privileged class and deprive others of their rights. On the economic front, no matter who they are and when they join, do all community participants have the opportunity to meaningfully participate in value creation to gain value incentives? Is the reward of the early participants balanced with the rewards of the latecomers? If not balanced, the project will lack latecomers and will not be able to scale up the application in society. (See the Governance topic section for more information.)

• Are there many community-driven initiatives? Contrary to initiatives initiated by centralization, is innovation occurring at the “edge of the network”? Do community members feel entitled to start projects, activities, and sub-communities with the support and blessing of the entire community, does it require authorization? A good example of community-driven experimentation and innovation is Meme, which is decentralized and does not require authorization. So another way to look at this is to ask, does the community have a healthy Meme culture? (For more information, see the "Decentralization" topic section.)

• Is the community vibrant? Energetic is hard to define, it contains many aspects. Are there any participants in the event, are the participants active and friendly? Are the communities active online and offline? When the problem comes, will the community be united? The discussion in the whole community is mostly between members, is it constructive? Are new ideas, new people and new initiatives constantly flowing in? When you see a vibrant community, you know!

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