Why Crypto Needs Boys Club with Natasha & Deana | Layer Zero

Welcome to Layer Zero. Layer Zero is a podcast of unscripted conversations with the people that make up the Ethereum community. Crypto is built by code, but is composed by people, and each individual member of the crypto community has their own story to tell. The Cypherpunks understood that the code they write impacts the people that use it, and Layer Zero focuses on the people behind the code. Because Ethereum is people all the way down, and it always has been.

Today, on Layer Zero, we are once again talking with Natasha Hoskinson and Dina Burke from Boys Club. I've had them on before, but I didn't really know them as well as I do now. And I didn't really know the boys as well as I do now. And also I didn't have this fantastic studio behind me as I do now. And so this is the first ever episode in the Bankless Studio TM in my apartment in Williamsburg. And in-person shows are just so much better. You know, you get all the quality and scope of conversations by doing shows on the internet, but nothing beats the in person vibes of a in person face to face conversation. So it was a real treat having Natasha and Dina from the Boys Club in the studio on the podcast once again. And and like I was referring to, with a lot more familiarity with what they're doing at the boys club and what the boys club really is. And

Personally, I really want the boys' club experiment to work. First, what is the boys club? Let's get let's define this. The boys club is a social DAO, a social organization focusing on women, non-binary, transgender communities, you know, the communities that like aren't in crypto that should be. You know, crypto is typically uh, I mean, the meme is like, you know, basement dwelling libertarian uh types, right? Like that's where where we started with in 2010 to 2015. We've slowly expanded the pie of who is in crypto, but it's generally like white dudes, uh, and at the very least, dudes. Uh, and so boys club is in my mind focusing on the rest of society and figuring out ways to get them represented and having a voice in crypto. And then one of the reasons why I feel so strongly about why I want Boice Club to be successful is because I consider myself a crypto citizen. I'm in crypto society. And personally, for my own per selfish benefit, I would like it if crypto society looked like the rest of society. And that is really how we're going to onboard the world, onboard the rest of society, is when what crypto is starts to look like and emulate more what the rest of society also looks like. So we need these less advocated for populations to come into the crypto industry so it can look a little bit like normal society. Because again, this is where I'm spending my time. Uh, and so the boys club mission and my mission for crypto are deeply aligned, which is why I care so much uh about Boys Club. And that's not all, actually. It it's the other cool thing about Boys Club is that it is a community first, and they're still soul searching for their product. But the community is the hard part, actually. Uh, usually communities form around things that already exist. Boys Club is is taking the we're going to make a DAO.

Uh, but inverted it. They inverted it. So they don't have a token. Uh, so like they can't really call themselves a DAO yet. They call themselves a proto DAO. Uh, but they have this super engaged, super committed community. They have this core team that is all doing sweat equity, no one's being paid a dime, but everyone believes in this mission, yet they're still working on defining what that mission is and defining how the DAO works. Uh, so I I think this is a fantastic experiment. Is what can you build when you have a community?

but you don't have a product. Uh and so they are currently pioneering that frontier. And if the if the boys the boys club can do it,

then it sets a template, it sets a model for so many other

People, organizations, DAOs, movements to follow in their footsteps. I see a lot of alignment between the Bankless movement and the Boys Club movement. And overall, just super happy to see this experiment unfold and happy to support it as best I can. I'll stop rambling here and we'll get right into the show with Natasha and Dina from Boys Club. But first a moment to talk about some of these fantastic sponsors that make this show possible. Natasha, Dina,

what's going on?

Hi. Hi.

How's it going?

We're doing good. This well loving the setup you've got here.

Yeah, thanks thanks for helping me uh inaugurate this whole entire studio.

So honored. Very honored. So deeply honored.

So you guys start off your podcast, which you guys are also podcasters.

Yes, sir.

with the same question every single time, which I thoroughly enjoy. It's like a little bit of a bit. Yeah And you guys ask yours you guys it take turns asking each other, what is boys club?

Yeah.

Why do you do this?

We are constantly evolving.

It's a moving feast. It's a movable feast.

It's a movable feast, and honestly, we're not really sure.

I think that's part of it, just that we're like trying to figure it out.

I feel like every week we're like

putting something out there, trying something new, and that's sort of evolving what Boys Club is, what it can be. Yeah. But what is it? Do you know what's Boys Club?

Uh as of this week, it is a social DAO, a media company, and a product studio.

And it changes every single week. The a the answer changes.

It it yes.

We might stick with this for a couple weeks and see how it feels.

Yeah, yeah. This feels good. This feels really good. And also like it is.

A combination of a lot of the same topics each week, but like trying to find the through line is really what we're getting at. Like there are some things that are definitely set in stone around Voice Club, but then how you package that is evolving.

And also how you talk about it to people who aren't in the community and like who people who are not only coming into Boys Club Fresh, but like maybe coming into Web3 or Crypto Fresh. And it's like, how do we, how do we like, where are the proxies that we can find in like the real world that people will understand and so that people have like a framework for thinking about like what Boys Club is? So that's sort of the work of it.

So what actually is boys club and why is it so hard to define?

I would say the m the like core of Voice Club is a community. And that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. And it can also mean a lot of things in web three. And so when you have a community that's sort of bridging the gap between web two and web three, or just getting into it, um, what their perception of what community is outside of crypto web three and what it is in it can look very different. So the core of Voice Club is like.

Really smart people coming together and thinking about Web3. Um, I

don't know. What would you add?

Yeah, I think we're a community. I think we um are for people who are um building in or interested in or curious about Web3 or crypto, we center the voices of women. Um we center the voices of non binary people, but we're we're really open to everyone. Um and I think the the reason why it can be one of the reasons why it can be so hard to define it, also the sort of people's understanding of what community is for sure, but it's DAO, and the DAO like is.

at least in how it's taking shape in Boys Club is like sort of this amorphous thing that is like more sort of like world building or like nation state building than it is like a startup with a one product or one service that we're like really narrowly focused on. So because it is like

This sort of nebulous thing where like people different people come in and energize different sort of verticals, whether it's content and media or whether it's a product studio or whether it's an investment syndicate, like it's like starting to get really wide. Um and so I think that that's like

Yeah.

part of, yeah.

One thing I would add is that it's a brand. And that that feels like the truest probably statement around Voice Club. Um, and so and that feels very distinct in Web3 when brand is sort of in the backseat for most um companies that you see in this space. And for us, it's definitely the driver.

And we when I first met you guys. Uh we were introduced by our mutual friend Evan. And as I learned about it, I was like, oh, this is this is quite interesting because it's a little bit inverted of a model of to what crypto's used to seeing. There's initially there's like a startup, and then they need to create a community around them. And a create and then a community might arrive if there is like upside potential. Yeah. But this is a little bit different in that the community came first and now there's question marks remaining. Yeah. So like we know what what's next? And when we I first had you guys on, what was it, six months or so ago. So how has that journey of exploration gone? Like, can you update us on the roadmap?

First of all, I just want to say you want to know why that's happened, why we started with community first? It's because we both had failed startups.

And we both like had like products that didn't work. And so we're like, we're never doing that again. Never doing that again. So honestly, that's like the truest reason why like we started with community first.

Um yeah, I would say like the biggest evolution over the last six months is when we started Boys Club in November.

The motivator was really we see a ton of smart, capable women sitting on the sidelines of what's happening. This whole new economy is built being built, and they're sort of just watching. And we felt of a lot of conviction around making a change and designing for a space where

Women and people who didn't feel known and seen in Web3 could learn and grow and do things together. And what's been amazing is we started with that premise, and then

we got a bunch of women in a room, and they were all like, Yeah, we're in, like, what are we building together? And so that's really been the journey that we've been on is okay, now what are we building as more and more people who didn't feel

excited about this space or known in this space are coming into it and feeling really energized by what's happening.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean, now yeah, we're all here and we're like, okay, what's next? Let's like do something together. And I think that that's like that's been such a fun thing to do in like

a community. And and the DAO like format, the DAO like foundations has like allowed us to do that really seamlessly, right? Like bringing people in and working with people and collaborating with people and having contributors come in and out of the DAO.

Like that to me, I think is like actually the true innovation of Boys Club, where we're able to like harness this collective, like human collaboration. And in a way that like in web two would have been impossible. And now with Boys Club, like we have like 40 people like around the world that are like sort of aligning around this sort of shared vision and worldview. And I think that like that's actually what's really special about um.

uh uh uh about like DAOs, I think generally is that like it it it really allows for that and I think um that's just been so fun to do.

One distinction that I want to make based on what you said is like the way that we think about so there's about 40 people in our in what we would call our DAO, which is like the main founding, the founders, founding team, core team, contributors. And then that's sort of the center of Boys Club. And then around that is our community, which is anybody who's in our Discord, anybody who's going to our events consistently, those are individuals who are really invested in Voice Club and engaged in the actual like work of community building but aren't contributing. And then the larger sort of um reach of voice club is audience. And we've started to make those distinctions because we have seen that it's really important to

have a distinction between your community and your audience because those two types of engagements with the brand are very, very different. So anyway, you said

We want to keep the community intentionally small. Like their that their audience is unbounded, right? Like that can grow to whatever, but like the there's an intimacy in the community right now that like is really special that we want to preserve and maintain that experience for existing members and for people who are coming in. And I think that that's like

That's why we're sort of like the community does have a ceiling, but that's appropriate, I think, at least for us. And and then the DAO is sort of this we're we're a uh what we call like a contribution gated DAO. So it's not like token, I mean

maybe token at some point, but like one token. But in order to to be in the DAO, you you have to be contributor. So um that's like sort of the nucleus of of Boy Scope. So yeah.

A lot of uh other DAOs, other projects, they have this like massive carrot for people to join them, and it's usually because the token price is gonna go up. Yes. Uh Boys Club doesn't have that yet. Not not yet. But people have joined the DAO anyways. Uh and it's seen great success in producing a community without all of the other carrots that are or other orgs typically do have.