Utopias typically fail because they let in too many people; or not enough.
Today, we are excited to open a private Discord group for a few people who we have chosen to be the “Founding Members” of Structure’s online community. While we have been developing the Structure app for about 17 months, we are only now opening up this important community channel because the app is finally ready to be beta tested. We strive to create an authentic community that is organized around a product that can actually be used, and we didn’t think that there would be a real community before the product was ready to use. We are very happy to announce that we are now at this point.
Problems with online communities:
We’ve learned a lot about the nature of online communities since the birth of crypto. Crypto projects have better utilized the power of their communities than pretty much any technology sector in history. But while they have been powerful, crypto communities have also suffered from some unpleasant maladies that have severely disrupted their objectives. One of the most common problems we have seen is when honest contributors are crowded out by people who are inauthentic or dishonest: shills, pump-and-dumpers, scammers, or people trying to create FUD. Another common problem is the degradation of a community’s culture or purpose; and this is usually catalyzed by, ironically, the community’s success in growing to very large numbers. We are trying very hard to prevent this from happening with Structure’s online community, and this is one of the reasons we have decided to keep this group of Founding Members very small.
A founder’s mindset:
At this time, we really only want about 100–150 people who have the “founder’s mindset”. What is the founder’s mindset? To us, these are people who:
— have the initiative to create something new;
— accept ownership of outcomes; and
— take responsibility for fixing problems, even if they didn’t cause them in the first place.
100–150 people with a founder’s mindset is an incredibly powerful force, and one we believe will be instrumental in defining the future of Structure, not to mention manufacturing its success. We will, no doubt, grow beyond these numbers as our project matures, and we will face new community challenges as that occurs; nonetheless, we are excited to welcome in these first Founding Members, and we look forward to when we are ready to grow beyond this.
If you’re just learning about this community now and want to join it yourself, take a minute to answer a few qualifying questions here.
