Composable Membership and Why You Believe The Things You Do: Building Social Capital and Shaping Beliefs

Composable Membership and Why You Believe The Things You Do: Building Social Capital and Shaping Beliefs

Introduction: Understanding the Importance of Composable Membership and Beliefs

Membership systems play a crucial role in bringing communities together, both in Web2 and Web3 contexts. While a token may loosely unite a community financially, it is composable membership that holds a community together long-term through the generation of social capital. In this article, we will explore how composable membership shapes communities, ecosystems, and platforms, and delve into the fascinating psychology behind why we believe the things we do.

Composable Membership: Bundles of Access, Permission, and Status

When designing a membership system, it is essential to consider access, permission, and status as the key elements. Access refers to the fluid requirements and fluidity of tokens, making ERC20's ideal for this purpose. Permissions, on the other hand, should be tightly coupled to a stake, ensuring that responsibility comes with risk. Unlike access, permissions should evolve and can be revoked. Finally, status plays a vital role as it is tied to attributes and metadata. Status varies greatly within a community, making it event-dependent and allowing for a more inclusive representation.

Membership Interoperability: Web2 vs. Web3

In Web2, membership forms around services, meaning that being a subscriber on one platform does not affect your privileges on another. However, Web3 presents the opportunity for membership interoperability, where services revolve around membership. Platforms like Patreon have made strides in establishing a hierarchical membership structure, but true interoperability is only possible in Web3. Tokens, as the primitives of Web3, are not owned by any one platform, allowing smart contracts to facilitate composable membership systems seamlessly.

The Community as the Platform

In Web3, the community becomes the platform. Traditional platforms will transform into composable components owned by different platforms, creating a more open and inclusive environment. Smart contracts act as APIs, enabling revenue splits and adapting to the composable membership systems that communities create. This shift ultimately empowers community members, improves ownership of decisions, and prevents social forks.

Social Capital: Trust, Experimentation, and Flexibility

Social capital is defined as the allowance for trust, experimentation, and flexibility within a community. To foster social capital, it is crucial to define roles within the membership system. These roles bundle different layers of membership and are tied to specific participant personas, facilitating growth and providing clarity for all members. Moreover, specifying incentives is essential for promoting trust and engagement. Membership, identity, and relationships serve as proxies for reputation scores, allowing for more creatively weighted incentives. Lastly, assigning roles can be technically challenging, but with the right identity solution and a membership solution, integrating membership systems into existing platforms can be done elegantly.

Why You Believe The Things You Do: The Psychology of Beliefs

Our beliefs are heavily influenced by how much we want them to be true. Beliefs that help us deal with uncertainty are more likely to be accepted, regardless of their relation to truth. Additionally, our memories play a significant role in shaping our beliefs. The leveling and sharpening effects in memory lead us to emphasize certain memories and discard others, based on their storytelling appeal, confirmation of stereotypes, and connections to previous experiences.

Changing Beliefs and the Fear of Intellectual Inertia

Changing our beliefs can be challenging due to two main reasons. Firstly, it may feel like all the effort put into establishing previous beliefs was wasted. Secondly, changing beliefs can be met with skepticism from others, as it implies that the new belief may be short-lived. Beliefs are not just about knowledge; they serve as social signals that reflect our intelligence, ability to establish reliable truth, and confidence in our beliefs.

Conclusion: Taking Action and Building Strong Communities

Incorporating composable membership systems and understanding the psychology behind beliefs can help us build stronger communities. To harness the power of composable membership, we must define roles, specify incentives, and assign roles effectively. Moreover, embracing intellectual flexibility and the willingness to change our beliefs when faced with new information is crucial for personal growth and the development of inclusive communities.

Actionable Advice:

1. Foster a culture of open-mindedness and intellectual flexibility within your community. Encourage members to challenge their beliefs based on new information and foster an environment where changing one's mind is seen as a strength rather than a weakness.

2. Develop a comprehensive membership system that incorporates access, permission, and status. Ensure that permissions are tied to stakes and evolve over time, while status is event-dependent and inclusive.

3. Prioritize the generation of social capital within your community. Define roles, specify incentives, and assign roles effectively to promote trust, experimentation, and flexibility.

By implementing these actionable strategies, we can create communities that thrive on composable membership, foster social capital, and embrace intellectual growth.