DeStore opens up DAO ownership

The Future. DeStore is creating what may be the first retail store owned and operated by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). More focused on community than commerce, the San Francisco location may be another reminder that creating a brick-and-mortar destination is the best way to sell people on the power of Web3.

Group project

According to Bloomberg, the future of physical retail is on the blockchain.

• DeStore’s “STORE_0” is opening this fall in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, which will be run by a DAO.
• Each holder of the corresponding NFT token — which CEO Itsuki Daito hopes will be around 200 people — will be given access to the DAO’s Discord server to start voting on decisions.
• Holders will be able to choose staff, what products will be sold, what furniture should be in the store, and can even vote for Daito to man the register when no one else is available.

Even though the project has already drawn significant investment, how the store will divide up revenue is still a bit of a mystery. Whether to split the profits among the DAO or invest back in the store is TBD… and with 200 people with different levels of voting power, things could get messy.

Web3 foot traffic

While so much of the store’s nuts and bolts are still up in the air — we kind of imagine it becoming like one of those “we sell everything” Etsy stores — Daito notes that what the store sells isn’t the point. It’s all about the community. If people feel compelled to run the store, they’ll also want to hang out there, which may just bring in curious customers.

In those terms, the store being financially successful may never matter. And Daito says as much, telling Bloomberg that his goal is to sell “the underlying software behind the DAO.” The key, then, is proving that people find the whole concept behind DeStore compelling.