Why DAOs Matter for Digital Art

Artist Background & Origin

• People Pleaser (People Pleasure) is a digital artist who began self-teaching 3D animation in college with the goal of working at Pixar, subsequently working on multiple film and animation features without securing a role there.
• She transitioned to cryptocurrency art in 2017, leveraging her animation skills to create educational content for DeFi protocols that embed complex concepts through visual metaphors and code (e.g., Pickle Finance's "jars" and Uniswap v2 source code).
• Her approach emphasizes understanding investment concepts deeply to resonate with DeFi meme culture and humor, rather than merely adding logos to 3D assets.

The Uniswap NFT Sale & Formation of Pleaser DAO

• People Pleaser created a teaser animation for Uniswap v3 that garnered over 500,000 views in 24 hours and became the most-liked tweet on the official Uniswap account.
• The animation was listed as an NFT on Foundation, where a bidding war resulted in a sale price of 310 ETH.
• The proceeds were fully committed to charity, facilitated by the spontaneous formation of "Pleaser DAO," a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) created by supporters specifically to purchase the piece.
• Pleaser DAO also later acquired the "Snowden" NFT for 20.224 ETH, with proceeds similarly designated for charitable causes.
• The organizer of this sale, Layton Cusack, is a co-founder of the DeFi protocol Pool Together.

Pleaser DAO Mission & Structure

• Pleaser DAO defines itself as a group of like-minded individuals coordinating around a shared mission enforced by blockchain rules, acting as a "hive mind" for the DeFi landscape.
• The organization aims to serve as patrons of the NFT space through a triple-point focus:
  • Portfolio Investment: Allocating artistic and novel NFT assets to support promising DeFi ecosystem artists.
  • Incubation: Developing in-house software and protocols based on ideas generated by the collective.
  • Funding: Supporting nascent teams and accumulating value back into the DAO.
• The DAO philosophy rejects narratives focused on individual wealth accumulation, prioritizing decentralization, collective action, and charitable impact instead.

Strategic Concepts: DeFi + NFT Integration

• Pleaser DAO proposes complex mechanisms to merge DeFi and NFTs, including:
  • Fractionalizing NFTs to sell pieces for ETH, which are then reinvested into the DAO.
  • Allowing buyers to stake fractionalized pieces to earn governance tokens (DAO tokens) that enable participation in decision-making.
  • Conceptualizing virtual assets that lend their own components via DeFi loan mechanisms, utilizing inflation and interest rate curves tied to borrowing demand.
• People Pleaser draws a parallel between the necessity of DAOs and the animation pipeline, arguing that as systemic complexity increases, it exceeds individual capacity, requiring an "Avengers team" of specialists to execute complex projects.

New Release & Forward-Looking Statement

• People Pleaser announced her second NFT, titled "Apes Together Strong," to be auctioned immediately following the session on Foundation.
• The artwork features a mecha ape (representing the DAO) and a masked figure (representing leadership), referencing the "Pacific Rim" concept of combined strength and the "Ape together strong" crypto community slogan.
• The piece contains a hidden easter egg with 16 letters distributed across the fingers and toes of the ape, serving as a subtle nod to Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
• Proceeds from the new auction will be directed toward charities focused on autism advocacy, information, and support.