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Upstream Collectives

Public
Investing
Multi-feature Platform
Recruiting
Contribution & Compensation
Governance & voting
Knowledge Management
Marketing
Community Management
Token Gating
Treasury Management
Fundraising
Token Creation

Upstream Collectives is a multi-feature platform that includes treasury, governance & voting, token gating, and communication management.

WebsiteDiscordTwitter

Founder(s):  
Alex Taub
Michael Schonfeld
This post was written by 
Joe Rhew
and edited by 
Antoine Sakho
 & 

Overview

What is it?

Upstream Collectives is a multi-feature platform that enables the set-up and operation of a DAO or any self-governed community, which it calls a “Collective”.

What problem does it solve?

The platform aims to centralize the currently fragmented functionalities required to run DAOs such as treasury, governance & voting, token gating and communication. Instead of having each of these functions reside in disparate tools leading to disorganization, Upstream Collectives brings them all onto its main platform.

How does it work?

A user can either set up a new Collective (read: DAO) or become a member of an existing one. Upstream Collectives is currently in beta and users have to request access to set up a new Collective.

For joining existing Collectives, users can connect their wallet, then request to join. The pre-existing Collective members vote on approving the ‘join request’, with their voting power weighted by how many of the Collective’s tokens they hold.

Upstream Collectives’ functionalities include:

  • A shared wallet for the Collective: Collective members can contribute ETH and receive the Collective’s own tokens which can be used for voting
  • A community forum: A message board feature that is conducive to asynchronous communication
  • Token-gating: Ability to grant entry to Collective based on ownership of a specific token
  • Transparent treasury: Collective members get visibility into how much ETH is in the treasury and how it is being spent

How do I use it?

DAO Masters Insights

Why it's cool:

Operating a DAO across a wide stack of individual tools is challenging - DAOs might use Discord for communication, Snapshot for voting, Coordinape for disbursement, etc. Upstream Collectives’ ambition is to bring together all of these foundational functionalities required to run a DAO.

Upstream Collectives is built by the same company that built Upstream, a web2 professional community and networking product. Upstream Collectives tries to improve on its web2 predecessor by bringing “greater accountability, governance, and input into how communities are making decisions and using their money.” Upstream Collectives’ goal is to transition web2 communities into web3 communities, as the company itself is transitioning. This is part of the reason why Upstream Collectives uses the term “Collective” in place of “DAO” to have a wider appeal beyond just the web3 audience.

Challenges:

The product is still in beta and prospective users have to request access to create a Collective.

The UX of the product seems to be in transition from web2 to web3, which creates some confusion. For example, users have to create both an email-and-password login and connect their wallet to join a Collective. This might be due to the fact that Upstream is operating two separate products - Upstream, a web2 professional networking product, and Upstream Collectives, a web3 DAO product. It will be interesting to see how the team brings together these two different groups of users they are serving and to produce a user experience that appeals to both.

Words of advice:

Upstream Collectives doesn’t have a technical documentation or a trial/demo environment yet. Get a feel for the product by requesting to join the NFT Community Collective.

Expected future updates:

Mobile version of the tool will be available as an internal beta in mid-December

Other near-term functionalities: 

  • Real-time chat to facilitate real-time communication within the app
  • Ability to delegate one’s votes depending on the type of proposal being put forth

Getting Started

  • To create a new Collective: request access here
  • To look around and test the product: join the beta community here
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