6 ms·

Colony is a platform for community collaboration

64 points by joeyespo 7y ago

thaumasiotes 7y ago
They're missing the "what is colony for?" section of their site.
toomuchtodo 7y ago
This is cool! Is there any way not to use crypto, and to use an actual fiat representation (as part of the BYO Token functionality)? Seems to very useful for community/coop resource planning, especially if I can plug in something like Stripe's Connect marketplace-enabling offering for moving traditional monies around.
- CryptoPunk 7y ago
  If the fiat transfers could be cryptographically validated, then I assume yes, as Colony is customizable. In any case you can use fiat backed or fiat pegged crypto tokens, like USDC and Tether or DAI, respectively. All the fiat-linked tokens I'm aware of are issued on Ethereum, given they use the ERC20 token interface, so would be compatible with Colony.
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Thank you!
cwyers 7y ago
People need to learn how to get to the point, I swear. > So, what does Colony do? > Colony is a platform for community collaboration. It lets teams, projects, and communities do work, make decisions, and manage money, together. I read that, and I'm like, what, it's like a CRM/project management for communities? Keep reading, and it's some kind of a crypto thing, as far as I can tell.
- Geee 7y ago
  From my understanding, it's project management with free market economics. Colonies and tasks are funded and whoever completes the task gets the reward. So, like a colony, it's a self-organising entity that works towards a goal that is most rewarding for everyone.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - stareatgoats 7y ago
    > So, like a colony, it's a self-organising entity that works towards a goal that is most rewarding for everyone. That's a novel definition of a colony, unless I'm misinformed. Better not include it in the PR at least, could backfire.
    - Geee 7y ago
      I'm trying to define it economically. A colony is something that's independent from any other authority, thus creating it's own ecosystem. There's no one in charge, but everyone works on the most rewarding tasks, thus maximizing rewards for the whole ecosystem.
      - cwyers 7y ago
        That is not how colonies work, no. The American colonies had to fight a war to be independent. Colonies are subservient jurisdictions.
        lazaroclapp 7y ago
        It's using the term as in definitions #2-3 (particularly 3b) here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colony https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colony, not #1. They mean colony as in "a colony of ants", not the political structure.
simonw 7y ago
Sign of the times: the launch announcement seems to mostly downplay the fact that this is a blockchain/crypto thing. I guess the shine really has worn off now. A year ago this would have been putting the blockchain element front and center.
- simonw 7y ago
  Or maybe I'm being overly cynical here, and Colony (which looks like it was founded in June 2017) assumes that everyone who sees their announcement already knows that they're in the crypto space.
- lazzlazzlazz 7y ago
  Yeah, I think you're right that you're being overly cynical. Blockchain projects now understand that, to be taken seriously, they need to have a compelling product vision. They still get internal press in the blockchain community, but the standards have (rightly) risen.
hrdwdmrbl 7y ago
Pretty alpha in my quick tour of it. I can't even find a way to browse other colonies. Also during a few minutes experimenting with it I had to sign in multiple times with my metamask wallet. A refresh seems to cause it to forget me.
birdyrooster 7y ago
Oh boy I’m so excited to be a colonizer.
- hombre_fatal 7y ago
  Seems to only be a bad word among the Woke. I'd love to be a colonizer of uncharted lands like Mars.
Lucadg 7y ago
I've been experimenting with Colony and other similar software in the past months in the hope to let the community decide on some aspects of our project. In my opinion we are still a few years away from something usable but the concept of DAOs is really exciting. The main issue is the high cost of ETH gas, which means just to vote on a single issue may cost a few dollars in smart contract gas fees. So we're now looking for aspects of the decision making process which are worth the cost. We haven't found any so far. Either way, it's great to be able to be part of something so potentially disrupting so early in the journey.
- Barrin92 7y ago
  >The main issue is the high cost of ETH gas, which means just to vote on a single issue may cost a few dollars in smart contract gas fees I don't understand the logic of this, why does this need to be a decentralised platform using real currency for transactions? If you want to simulate a sort of internal market you can implement something like "colony-dollars" and if anything at the end convert it into some actual currency.
  - Lucadg 7y ago
    The gas is not for transactions. It pays the Ethereum network to execute the smart contracts. The idea is to have a decision making app where no one controls the app itself.
edwinjm 7y ago
I browsed the website and I still don't know what colony is. I understand it has something to do with crypto currency. is it a wallet? Is it a miner? Is it a game? This is a good example of how not to make a website.
Kinrany 7y ago
Are there other solutions that aim to disrupt middle management? Colony seems to be trying to do too many things at the same time. It could be useful to traditional companies without any decentralization.
Temasik 7y ago
Built on ethereum (which still can't scale) they should consider moving to BitCoin the original protocol as it scales if they don't want to waste time and money tools: http://gear.computer/#/?id=why http://gear.computer/#/?id=why proof: https://bitcoinblocks.live/ https://bitcoinblocks.live/
zouhair 7y ago
Crypto the new Pyramid Schemes.
igor47 7y ago
Product pitch reminded me of Loomio, which is a platform for community collaboration that I've been using a lot lately. If the headline brought you here, but then you got confused by all the block chain stuff, maybe check it out.
- rgbrgb 7y ago
  Interesting. What are you using Loomio for?
  - igor47 7y ago
    i bought a house with a group of friends, and we're using loomio to manage the household -- organizing maintenance, meetings, and various decisions. it's especially nice for asynchronous decision-making, which should be the only acceptable kind of decision-making. i learned about loomio from jason benn's excellent blog, here: https://jasonbenn.com/tag/community https://jasonbenn.com/tag/community

64 points by joeyespo 7y ago

They're missing the "what is colony for?" section of their site.

This is cool! Is there any way not to use crypto, and to use an actual fiat representation (as part of the BYO Token functionality)? Seems to very useful for community/coop resource planning, especially if I can plug in something like Stripe's Connect marketplace-enabling offering for moving traditional monies around.

CryptoPunk 7y ago
If the fiat transfers could be cryptographically validated, then I assume yes, as Colony is customizable. In any case you can use fiat backed or fiat pegged crypto tokens, like USDC and Tether or DAI, respectively. All the fiat-linked tokens I'm aware of are issued on Ethereum, given they use the ERC20 token interface, so would be compatible with Colony.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Thank you!

cwyers 7y ago

People need to learn how to get to the point, I swear. > So, what does Colony do? > Colony is a platform for community collaboration. It lets teams, projects, and communities do work, make decisions, and manage money, together. I read that, and I'm like, what, it's like a CRM/project management for communities? Keep reading, and it's some kind of a crypto thing, as far as I can tell.

Geee 7y ago
From my understanding, it's project management with free market economics. Colonies and tasks are funded and whoever completes the task gets the reward. So, like a colony, it's a self-organising entity that works towards a goal that is most rewarding for everyone.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- stareatgoats 7y ago
  > So, like a colony, it's a self-organising entity that works towards a goal that is most rewarding for everyone. That's a novel definition of a colony, unless I'm misinformed. Better not include it in the PR at least, could backfire.
  - Geee 7y ago
    I'm trying to define it economically. A colony is something that's independent from any other authority, thus creating it's own ecosystem. There's no one in charge, but everyone works on the most rewarding tasks, thus maximizing rewards for the whole ecosystem.
    - cwyers 7y ago
      That is not how colonies work, no. The American colonies had to fight a war to be independent. Colonies are subservient jurisdictions.
      - lazaroclapp 7y ago
        It's using the term as in definitions #2-3 (particularly 3b) here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colony https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colony, not #1. They mean colony as in "a colony of ants", not the political structure.

simonw 7y ago

Sign of the times: the launch announcement seems to mostly downplay the fact that this is a blockchain/crypto thing. I guess the shine really has worn off now. A year ago this would have been putting the blockchain element front and center.

simonw 7y ago
Or maybe I'm being overly cynical here, and Colony (which looks like it was founded in June 2017) assumes that everyone who sees their announcement already knows that they're in the crypto space.
lazzlazzlazz 7y ago
Yeah, I think you're right that you're being overly cynical. Blockchain projects now understand that, to be taken seriously, they need to have a compelling product vision. They still get internal press in the blockchain community, but the standards have (rightly) risen.

hrdwdmrbl 7y ago

Pretty alpha in my quick tour of it. I can't even find a way to browse other colonies. Also during a few minutes experimenting with it I had to sign in multiple times with my metamask wallet. A refresh seems to cause it to forget me.

birdyrooster 7y ago

Oh boy I’m so excited to be a colonizer.

hombre_fatal 7y ago
Seems to only be a bad word among the Woke. I'd love to be a colonizer of uncharted lands like Mars.

Lucadg 7y ago

I've been experimenting with Colony and other similar software in the past months in the hope to let the community decide on some aspects of our project. In my opinion we are still a few years away from something usable but the concept of DAOs is really exciting. The main issue is the high cost of ETH gas, which means just to vote on a single issue may cost a few dollars in smart contract gas fees. So we're now looking for aspects of the decision making process which are worth the cost. We haven't found any so far. Either way, it's great to be able to be part of something so potentially disrupting so early in the journey.

Barrin92 7y ago
>The main issue is the high cost of ETH gas, which means just to vote on a single issue may cost a few dollars in smart contract gas fees I don't understand the logic of this, why does this need to be a decentralised platform using real currency for transactions? If you want to simulate a sort of internal market you can implement something like "colony-dollars" and if anything at the end convert it into some actual currency.
- Lucadg 7y ago
  The gas is not for transactions. It pays the Ethereum network to execute the smart contracts. The idea is to have a decision making app where no one controls the app itself.

edwinjm 7y ago

I browsed the website and I still don't know what colony is. I understand it has something to do with crypto currency. is it a wallet? Is it a miner? Is it a game? This is a good example of how not to make a website.

Kinrany 7y ago

Are there other solutions that aim to disrupt middle management? Colony seems to be trying to do too many things at the same time. It could be useful to traditional companies without any decentralization.

Temasik 7y ago

Built on ethereum (which still can't scale) they should consider moving to BitCoin the original protocol as it scales if they don't want to waste time and money tools: http://gear.computer/#/?id=why http://gear.computer/#/?id=why proof: https://bitcoinblocks.live/ https://bitcoinblocks.live/

zouhair 7y ago

Crypto the new Pyramid Schemes.

igor47 7y ago

Product pitch reminded me of Loomio, which is a platform for community collaboration that I've been using a lot lately. If the headline brought you here, but then you got confused by all the block chain stuff, maybe check it out.

rgbrgb 7y ago
Interesting. What are you using Loomio for?
- igor47 7y ago
  i bought a house with a group of friends, and we're using loomio to manage the household -- organizing maintenance, meetings, and various decisions. it's especially nice for asynchronous decision-making, which should be the only acceptable kind of decision-making. i learned about loomio from jason benn's excellent blog, here: https://jasonbenn.com/tag/community https://jasonbenn.com/tag/community