Align Lido’s Vibe (Purpose, Mission, Vision)

A vote on Lido DAO's Mission, Vision, and Purpose (a synthesis from 5 months of deep discussion).

Purpose / Vision / Mission

Purpose (why): Keep Ethereum decentralized, accessible to all, and resistant to censorship.

Vision (where): A world in which Ethereum is the co-ordination and value layer of the internet.

Mission (what): Make staking simple, secure, and decentralized.

Definitions

Purpose: WHY the organization exists, contributing something positive to people, and/or the planet. This should be short, memorable and aspirational.

Vision: WHERE the organization is heading, with a view of the world envisaged as being created by being successful in its purpose. This can be both a vision of the world and a vision of where the organization is within that world.

Mission: WHAT the organization will do to achieve its purpose over a specified period of time. This can be seen as the specific strategy, the actions and operations which the business will conduct over a set period of time.

Motivation

Governance arc

The substance of a DAO’s constitution (its raison-d’etre) should ideally come before the governance framework/design (the next port of call).

This is because the right governance framework (e.g. process and tools) is fundamentally dependent on what we (all present and future contributors) plan to govern (and setting bounds on this is essentially the role of a constitution).

Put another way, governance happens primarily within the boundaries that the substance of a constitution gives shape to. But what exactly does the substance mean?

The substance, for the purposes of this document, is the animating purpose coupled with the mission / vision / purpose that make Lido what it is. You can think of it as a pre-formal social contract of sorts.

Once we have consensus over this foundation, we can start working out a functional architecture for a general governance framework, followed by the process and tools required to fulfill all the required functions in the functional architecture.

Communications / product arc

Today, there is an increasing acknowledgement that purpose defines both the direction of the organisation and its course, rather than simply messaging.

Going forward, we can expect purpose to only increase in importance as people look for greater meaning, greater understanding, and greater clarity on the organisation they work for, the organisations they engage with, and the brands and services they use.

Rather than fitting a brand around a product, the strongest brands of tomorrow are building capabilities around a brand truth – the overarching promise or positive ideology that the brand has the credibility to enact (a credibility derived from the authentic expression of the organization’s purpose).

Under such an approach, the brand effectively acts as a central organizational principle – the truth which brings everything together (therein lies the link between purpose, brand, and organisational design).

Summary

Without a deep understanding of the DAO’s purpose, as well as how to authentically express it (purpose / mission / vision), it is impossible to effectively communicate our brand truth; this in turn compromises our ability to build the most authentic product.

The next port of call on the communications front is to build out a brand platform and strategy around the truths contained in this document.