RMIT Proposes ‘Docklands DAO’ to Help Melbourne Precinct Recover From Pandemic

A report released by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s Blockchain Innovation Hub has proposed the creation of a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) to help revitalise the Docklands district of Melbourne, following Covid-related lockdowns and restrictions that affected the city more than most others in Australia.

The April 7 report is the second of five commissioned by the Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund (VHESIF) to explore opportunity areas for the creation of a digital CBD in Melbourne.

Docklands Ideal Location for DAO Pilot

The report’s author, Dr Max Parasol, believes the Docklands precinct would be the ideal location for the pilot DAO project because it faces a number of challenges due both to its location and the economic consequences of the Covid pandemic:

• It’s geographically disconnected from Melbourne’s CBD.
• It faces inconsistent and reduced foot traffic due to work-from-home and hybrid work models.
• Local businesses have unpredictable inventory requirements. 
• There are negative impacts from tenant rent discounts and vacancies.

Dr Parasol said the creation of a Docklands DAO would empower businesses to overcome these challenges and reinvigorate the local economy:

A Docklands DAO would encourage community buy-in and engagement as a way to regenerate the precinct … the beauty of a DAO is that it provides greater levels of transparency, openness and democratic governance so every member of the DAO [the community] has a voice and voting power.

Dr Max Parasol, RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub

A DAO is an open-source, blockchain-based organisation defined by rules encoded in a smart contract and governed by members who vote on proposals using governance tokens.

Docklands DAO Would Launch in Two-Stage Process

The report suggests a two-stage process for the creation of Docklands DAO. The first stage would involve the collection of anonymised local people traffic data and other key metrics such as rental costs, with the goal of assisting local businesses to more accurately predict customer numbers and business expenses.

In stage two, Docklands DAO assumes control of the collected data. Local business owners and community members, as part of the DAO, would vote on how to use the data to optimise resource allocations and improve the local economy to benefit all DAO participants.

Jason Potts, co-director of the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, suggests DAOs such as the proposed Docklands DAO will help communities manage new digital resources and overcome the challenges of a post-Covid world:

The technology is just a vehicle for a new approach to community-led and community-owned discovery of new resources and opportunities with which we can continuously reinvent the local economies that make up our cities, and that has never been more important than right now. 

Jason Potts, co-director, RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub

RMIT has been a prominent player in the Australian crypto space, having last year urged the federal government to reform crypto tax settings and being ranked second in CoinDesk’s global Top Universities for Blockchain list.