“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has ”

— Margaret Mead

In September 2022, Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman of Kurdish descent died as a result of interrogation at the hands of Iran’s morality police, after being arrested for not covering her hair properly in public. Her murder sparked instant outrage in Iran, leading thousands of young women and girls to take to the streets in sustained protest. The protesters are hoping to bring about the end of  the strict Islamist regime that has ruled the country since the fall of the Shah in 1979. The United Nations has expressed outrage, reporting that over the months since Amini’s murder, as many as 1,200 Iranian schoolgirls have been poisoned in what appears to be state-sanctioned chemical attacks to stop the protests. 

The murder of Mahsa Amini prompted UkraineDAO to take immediate action. Known for mobilising into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UkraineDAO raised $7 million in cryptocurrency to support the Ukrainian war effort. In late 2022, members of the UkraineDAO voted to form IranDAO to support the women’s protest movement. 

I recently interviewed a member of UkraineDAO who is currently part of the team coordinating the IranDAO community. The member didn’t want to be identified because of threats and abuse the DAO has received, and we will refer to the member as Bambi. We cover how UkraineDAO has been able to take its year of learning and experience with community building, fundraising and resource development to assist Iranian women on the ground with their fight. And how  blockchain technology is now being used to log war crimes and assist in future prosecutions at the International Criminal Court. 

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Decential: There’s already so much going on with the war in Ukraine. What happened at the moment you saw the events unfold in Iran that made your community decide to pour their hearts out even further into a whole new cause and form a second DAO? 

Bambi: There is a lot of stuff happening in the world. And even if you are the most empathetic person, you just cannot care about everything, right? I think the reason behind the solidarity between Ukrainians and the Iranian people, especially the women in Iran, is that they are showing such courage. It is impossible not to connect with them as Ukrainians. That's the first thing. And then also the fact that the Iranian regime is providing Russia with weapons. Iranian drones are being used to kill Ukrainians. So the faster this Iranian regime falls, the sooner they will no longer be able to do that. And so that is why the valiant struggle by the protesters in Iran in particular is so close to us. 

D: In the case of UkraineDAO and IranDAO, I imagine getting resources and the funds to the people on the ground quickly, safely and securely is critical. Can you explain why crypto is a solution for such extreme times?

B:I believe that UkraineDAO actually provided a perfect use case for disaster response. Because what happened in Ukraine, in the beginning of the full scale invasion in February last year, was that the traditional banking system was not functioning properly. The Central Bank of Ukraine had to introduce certain limitations on currency inflow and outflow from the country to stabilize the national currency. You can imagine, it was already hard enough to transfer funds into Ukraine at that time and they desperately needed that.

Patreon, the platform for donations, suspended the profile of the largest charity in Ukraine supporting the army. So there was literally in that moment, on the 24th of February 2022, no other way to get the funds into the country fast enough. A bank transfer would take days and it's not clear whether it will actually even come through. And there were huge limitations on how much money you can even transfer. So Ukraine found itself in a position where crypto literally was the only way that was available to us. And if you take into account that those first days were critical for Ukraine's defense, this whole full scale invasion could have panned out very differently had crypto not been there.

D: So obviously a year on you know, none of us want this horrible distressing war to still be happening. So what has happened in the course of the year? What activities has the DAO been engaged with? 

B: I joined UkraineDAO as it was the first time in history in my lifetime that something of this scale had happened. At the time, I felt that people often misunderstood DAOs as simply a fundraising tool. And people would ask me, “why not just donate to a certain charity?” For me, the answer was simple. A charity or crowdfunding page does not create a community. Before anything else, a DAO is a community of people who can achieve so much more than fundraising. 

Read more: ‘They Were Shooting Civilians Who Tried to Escape’

UkraineDAO is part of Project Dokaz (an alliance formed by Stanford University-based Starling Lab, USC Shoah Foundation and Hala Systems) to collect evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, that was then submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands as part of the first cryptographic evidence in the world. I think this is something that many people don't consider when they think about crypto. They don't think about that use case. We also organized a hackathon in a bomb shelter in Kyiv and brought Vitalik Buterin to it, his first visit to Ukraine actually. We are currently working on the first national course in Ukraine on crypto literacy and blockchain. The goal of the Ukraine government is to help half the population of Ukraine in five years time to become crypto literate, and we want to make our nation the most crypto friendly in the world. It has been a huge privilege for us to be taking part in that. Most of the time though, we are focused on countering disinformation, actually. It's a huge priority for us, because it's a massive problem for Ukraine.

D: I'm particularly fascinated by documenting footage of war crimes. From a technical perspective, how are you logging that on the blockchain?

B: As an example, from our community members in Kharkiv, they were at the location that they wished to document and collect evidence from a particular place. In a court, the Russians would argue that the image or video was not taken at that place. Using the special camera app, you can pinpoint exactly where you were at that exact moment in time. That image or video is then uploaded with those details to the blockchain. IranDAO team members on the ground are also logging footage for the same purpose. I feel like that is going to save so much time in the courtrooms and it's going to make a huge difference because you can use that for any type of evidence collection. And it's recorded forever. Nobody can tamper with it. 

D: What have you learned from a year of being a member of the Ukraine DAO?  What has worked from an organizational community perspective and what learnings are you bringing to the IranDAO?

B: A priority for us since the beginning has been online safety. Safety recommendations were the first thing we wrote about to guide all contributors and community members. We also distribute guides on security and safety offline as well. We always try to be overly cautious because of the nature of Ukraine and Iran DAO. People often assume that DAOs must be completely transparent and that everyone should have equal access. But we are constantly facing attacks and need to protect our community. We have to be considerate about what information we disclose publicly, and what we keep private to keep our team on the ground in Ukraine and Iran safe. Every DAO needs a mission and that mission can change over time. It is always important for the community to have clarity about that. Ultimately, the sign of success will be whether the DAO is moving towards that goal, not whether the DAO is fully decentralized. 

D: Members of the Ukraine and Iran DAOs are likely many of the same people. What are your thoughts on DAO-to-DAO collaboration? And how would that look from your perspective?  

B: We have over twelve months of experience in UkraineDAO. IranDAO faces many of the problems we have already dealt with. We can help them and support them to make it easier. Both communities get a lot out of it in terms of knowledge exchange. It’s extremely beneficial to both communities. We are different countries, yet we are fighting the same evil. It's about making this world better. And I feel like it inspires a lot of people to see our two DAOs collaborating in this way. 

You need to be really careful who you accept into your community and into your team. You need to set out clearly what your values are and you need to enforce them. I strongly believe that if you cannot collaborate together in a Google Doc, there is no tool that is going to help you. 

Ultimately we are a bunch of friends working together on something that we feel passionate about. Obviously they are very difficult circumstances for us. In Ukraine and Iran. A very tough time. But we are producing something of value. We have a sense of purpose that comes from helping.