TLDR
Commitment pooling is a trust-based system for exchanging time, skills, and resources with or without money. At a recent DAO camp full of DAO nerds in an undisclosed location, it helped surface hidden talents, deepen community ties, and inspire future experiments in collective coordination.
What is Commitment Pooling?
Commitment pooling is a system where community members offer and exchange commitments—like time, skills, or resources—based on mutual trust, rather than depending solely on money. It creates a shared pool of promises that others can draw from and contribute to, fostering reciprocity and collective support. Inspired by ancestral practices like Mweria in Kenya, it helps coordinate resources through shared values and social memory.
Commitment Pooling Experiment at DAO Camp
Overview
The Commitment Pooling experiment at a DAO camp applied the concept of commitment pooling as pioneered by Will Ruddick and Grassroots Economics—an approach that builds on ancient community resource-sharing traditions by formalizing them into a modern, decentralized protocol. This method enables participants to exchange skills and offerings without relying on conventional currency, fostering a supportive and collaborative economy.
Why
The core motivation was to leverage community resources, surface hidden expertise, encourage mutual support, and enhance interaction quality among attendees. By creating an environment where skills and resources could be easily exchanged, the community strengthened connections and facilitated collaborative problem-solving.
What
Participants posted offerings and requests on a communal board, ranging from strategy consultations and technical insights to personal wellness sessions such as astrology readings and yoga workshops. Examples of commitments fulfilled included:
- Strategy and product sessions
- Personal growth and wellness activities
- Informal educational exchanges, such as surf lessons
Anecdotal outcomes included:
- A participant offering a brainstorm session had it claimed by someone working on something relevant.
- Several offers were fulfilled through spontaneous 1:1 or group sessions, such as a workshop on spinal health or collaborative idea reviews or a vibecoding learning session.
- One participant offered surf lessons, which ended up being a brief but meaningful connection involving travel and shared experiences beyond the lesson itself.
- Some participants noted that requests led to meaningful sessions they wouldn’t have initiated otherwise, including help with values alignment and burnout resilience.
How
Participants clearly stated their available commitments or requests, sized to about 1 hour each. These were then openly accessible for community members to claim and fulfill during the DAO camp. Exchanges occurred through mutual interest, facilitated via personal communication. The process was analog and informal, relying heavily on individual initiative and flexibility in scheduling.
Number go up Relationality go up
The purpose of commitment pooling is not just to exchange value but to deepen the relationality of the group. Every fulfilled commitment is a thread woven between participants, building trust, shared understanding, and mutual investment in each other’s growth. In this experiment, relationality was measured by the number of commitments that were successfully claimed and completed—ending at 26. Each of these represented a unique moment of generosity, collaboration, or shared learning, forming a decentralized social fabric far richer than any schedule or agenda could prescribe.
Think of our relationality as the size of the endowment. This is the space of seeded commitments created. It is a sacred space filled with intention. It’s not always about the interactions with the space. It is about maintaining it’s vibe, it’s energy. Think of each exchange … or swap. You pull from the space and you give back to it. It is not barter but access to a commons. You maintain the commons because you are part of it- you give back to it.
Lessons Learned
- Successes: Even in a space full of people eager to connect, that first step can still be hard. The commitment pool set a tone that gave everyone more permission to ask, offer, and connect- even beyond the board. The activity significantly surfaced otherwise hidden skills, catalyzed meaningful interactions, and added substantial community value.
- Challenges: Some commitments went unfulfilled due to scheduling conflicts, language barriers, or lack of follow-up.
- Improvement Recommendations: Participants suggested greater structure, such as standardized templates for offers/requests, specific allocated time blocks, clearer claiming mechanisms, supply vs demand tracking, and potentially a tiered value system for varying expertise levels.
Overall, the experiment proved commitment pooling to be a valuable mechanism for community-building, highlighting potential for future iterations to improve efficiency and impact.
Thank You To
Z, Y, Will Ruddick, and everyone keeping this tradition alive and those who attended the DAO Camp, especially those who participated and helped support this review. (not listing names bc dont want to dox anyone’s attendance at event)
If you’re interested in running your own commitment pooling experiment
Please reach out via DMs to myself or @willruddick 