Nantan DAO Chronicles (Part One)

Introduction

In March 2025, I went to Sanhe Town, Sanyang Village (formerly Nantang Village), Fuyang City, Anhui Province for a field study that lasted for one and a half months. During this period, I conducted in-depth interviews with 14 respondents, including core members of the Nantang DAO, local agricultural cooperative staff, and villagers. I also participated in the Nantang DAO novice program, the daily affairs of the Nantang Agricultural Cooperative, and the Nantang Unknowing DAO translation group. Although the time was short, I had many reflections. I saw the efforts of local partners to put the DAO ideals into practice and observed many challenges faced by pioneers in the rural construction DAO field. These issues are both unique and reflect some common problems in the current development of DAOs.

The "Nantang DAO Chronicles" series is divided into seven parts - Birth, Gathering and Conflict, What is the Goal, Experiments of Incentives and Circulation, Is it Decentralized Enough, Paving a Path, and Written in the End. These words aim to objectively record the stories of changemakers on this land - that beam of ideal light dedicated to rural construction, the frustrations and perseverance in practice, as well as the most genuine human connections. If these stories can resonate with more people's hearts or bring some inspiration to rural builders and Web3 explorers, then that is where their value lies.

This article is the first and second part, mainly introducing the background of the South Tang DAO's emergence in Nantang Village, the gathering of the "Seven Elders", and the conflicts between the Nantang Cooperative and the DAO members.

Birth

The democratic gene of Nantang

In the year 2025, on the wish list of an academic funding project by a certain foundation, the topic "How DAO tools can empower cooperatives" was proposed for the first time as an academic subject. This represents a new idea of how Web3 technology can influence the real world, as well as a challenge that lies before everyone. As researchers around the world are gearing up to tackle this issue, coincidentally, in a "regular" village in China, a grassroots group composed of young people and villagers has already begun to find solutions — in August 2024, Nantang DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization dedicated to rural construction, was officially established. Unlike the vast majority of DAOs in the world, all members of Nantang DAO reside in the village and live locally, creating a situation of equal standing with the original agricultural cooperative in the village. Of course, this is a joke; the "command center" of Nantang DAO is actually located in the cooperative's courtyard, indicating a close intertwining of both entities. However, introducing the concept of decentralized autonomous organizations into the fields is indeed a groundbreaking endeavor in China. This village in Sanhe Town, Yingzhou District, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, with its pioneering ideas from the crypto world, has rapidly gained attention, attracting experts and scholars from across the country to discuss "Rural Construction DAO" and even unprecedentedly hosting a Web3 "hackathon"...

You may be curious about what charm this village possesses that attracts so many Web3 elements to converge here, and why the first rural DAO was born here. Why has it been jokingly referred to as "the Jerusalem of China's Web3"? In fact, what seems like coincidence is actually inevitability— the democratic genes and cultural accumulation cultivated in this land over the past thirty years are the deepest answers. From the renowned farmers' rights protection organizations to the first localized practice of "Robert's Rules of Order," the seeds of democratic governance have long been sown here.

Regarding farmers' rights protection organizations, it may seem somewhat untimely to bring it up nowadays. However, at the turn of the century in China, during the era when "farmers are truly suffering, rural areas are truly poor, and agriculture is truly dangerous," such spontaneously formed organizations in the countryside powerfully promoted the modernization of rural China and wrote a significant chapter in the history of rural construction. This village in Anhui is both a participant and a witness to this vast rights protection movement. In the 1990s, the central government implemented tax and fee reforms, and in some areas of Fuyang, farmers' burdens were exacerbated layer by layer, with corrupt officials entangled with thugs collecting taxes, leaving the people in dire straits. At that time, Yang Yunbiao (Brother Biao), who had just graduated from Northwest University of Political Science and Law, went to Beijing on behalf of the villagers to file a complaint but faced various accusations, threats, and even illegal detention. In this context, local villagers believed that establishing their own organization was the only way to change the rural situation. Thus, the "Farmers' Rights Protection Association" was born. In 2004, at the initiative of the renowned "three rural issues" expert Wen Tiejun, the village prepared to establish the "Nantang Agricultural Cooperative," marking a gradual shift in the local main objective from confrontational rights protection struggles to organizational construction and development—transitioning from "crying for rights protection" to "smiling for rural construction." During this period, many constructive cultural, community, and economic activities began to develop, such as the Elderly Culture Festival, mutual aid for farmers' cooperative funds, and activities for the elderly association, women's association, and left-behind children's activity center.

As everything gradually returned to calm, a democratic practice innovation from the Nantang Cooperative attracted external attention once again—in 2008, the "Robert's Rules of Order," a classic Western procedural guide, took root for the first time in rural China. The key figure driving this transformation, Yuan Tianpeng, a returnee who experienced the rules firsthand while serving on the student council at the University of Alaska, has been dedicated to the localization of the procedural rules since returning to China. By chance, through the introduction of freelance writer Kou Yanding, he became connected with Yang Yunbiao from the Nantang Cooperative and personally visited Nantang. There, the three of them engaged in repeated discussions and trial-and-error with the villagers, eventually polishing the "Thirteen Rules of Nantang" that fit local realities (also affectionately referred to by villagers as the "Radish and Cabbage Rules," with the book "Operable Democracy" vividly documenting its birth process); this localized innovation of procedural rules quickly garnered widespread attention from academia and media in China and abroad, becoming the most recognizable cultural symbol of Nantang. Looking back, what is particularly valuable is that it successfully stripped away the elitist coloration found in Western procedural rules and transformed it into a truly grassroots, operable democratic practice model. The practice in Nantang demonstrates that the realization of democracy is by no means a castle in the air, nor is it the exclusive domain of the elite, but rather an operable system that can take root at the grassroots level through specific methodologies. This practice provides valuable local experience for grassroots democratic construction in China and showcases the strong vitality of democratic systems in rural China.

established Nantung DAO

Consciously organizing farmers and holding discussions based on the "carrot and cabbage" rules is undoubtedly a valuable cultural gene of Nantang. However, so far, everything that has happened in the Nantang cooperative has not intersected with elements of Web3. When it comes to connecting cooperatives with Web3, one person cannot be overlooked—Liu Bing. In 2011, Liu Bing accidentally learned about the democratic practices in Nantang Village online. Curious about the local "carrot and cabbage" rules, he came to Nantang alone as a volunteer. At the same time, Matthew Hale, a PhD student in anthropology from the United States, also arrived in Nantang to conduct field research on China's new rural construction movement. In this village, connected to the land by blood, they discussed various contemporary topics such as "the Argentine workers' occupation movement, how blockchain technology promotes the emergence of decentralized economic systems, and how to promote the development of cooperatives." During a casual chat, he recommended Bitcoin to Liu Bing and even offered to give him a Bitcoin (which was priced at about $1 at the time). This experience planted a seed in Liu Bing's mind, and from then on, the wheels of fate began to turn. He started to pay continuous attention to the dynamics of the virtual currency industry, investing in Bitcoin in 2013, and participated in a crowdfunding campaign for a well-known cryptocurrency project aimed at global internet users in 2014. After achieving financial freedom, Liu Bing began to give back to Nantang, initially donating Ether directly to the Nantang cooperative and trying to educate cooperative members about blockchain technology, digital wallets, and other new concepts, but the effect was not ideal.

In the upcoming period, two major events occurred in the Nantang Cooperative and the domestic Web3 sector. First, the cooperative's mutual aid project experienced a crisis; influenced by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the funds lent out by the cooperative could not be recovered, plunging it into a debt quagmire. Meanwhile, the largest DAO organization in the Chinese-speaking world completed its transformation from a company to a DAO and quickly rose to become the largest DAO community in the country. This DAO is a human-centered organization that has continuously focused on the construction and development of rural China. Against this backdrop, facilitated by Liu Bing, Gu Yi, and Wang Debin, in 2023, Yang Yunbiao, the head of the cooperative, had in-depth discussions with the founder of this DAO. Both parties began to realize that the combination of Web3 and rural areas could not only attract more young talent and business resources but also bring new possibilities to the cooperative, which was deeply trapped in a debt crisis. At this point, the integration of Nantang and Web3 could be said to be fully prepared, just waiting for the right opportunity.

If all goes well, the first to borrow the favorable wind is this DAO. In May 2024, multiple members of this DAO visited Nantang for exchange and investigation. In the Nantang Su She, transformed from a rural elementary school, Brother Boge sat with the visitors under the Bodhi tree, recounting the cooperative's more than twenty years of struggle. These stories deeply moved the Web3 explorers present, who remarked that Nantang is simply "the Jerusalem of China's Web3." This interesting meeting ignited the enthusiasm for cooperation on both sides, and the DAO subsequently organized multiple visits for its members to study and exchange ideas. Almost simultaneously, the cooperative launched its first internship recruitment program, opening its doors to young people with ideals for rural development. Thus, people from two completely different fields, rural construction and Web3, began to collide ideas and learn from each other on this fertile land of Nantang. It is in this vibrant atmosphere that another favorable wind quietly arose — the establishment of a truly grounded Web3 organization is gradually transforming from a dream into reality...

In June 2024, in Shanghai, a "Ethereum Public Summer" event jointly initiated by a certain DAO and a certain organization was being organized with great urgency, and a wonderful encounter spanning over 700 kilometers was about to happen. With the introduction and sponsorship of Liu Bing, partners from the Nantang Cooperative in Fuyang, Anhui, stepped into the world of Web3 for the first time. Here, they met a certain DAO member—Tiao, who was preparing a keynote speech. Recalling that moment, Liu Bing said he could no longer remember the specific content of the speech, but he distinctly remembered that after Tiao finished speaking, Yang Yunbiao's son excitedly grabbed Liu Bing's hand and shouted, "I like Tiao, I like Tiao! I want to take him back to Nantang!" This moment, full of childlike innocence, was seen by Liu Bing as a destined connection. In the following days, Liu Bing's in-depth discussions with a certain DAO member, Yu Xing, gradually shaped the idea of "Web3 settling in Nantang." Soon, certain DAO members Li Zi, Yu Xing, and Tiao arrived in Nantang as the first batch of residents to initiate this special practice. To attract more Web3 partners to participate, Liu Bing promised to provide a reward of 0.1 ETH (about 2000 RMB) for each participant coming to Nantang; later, to create a more sustainable incentive mechanism, Liu Bing decided to establish a dedicated treasury to promote communication between Nantang and Web3 based on everyone's suggestions. After the issue of funds was resolved, organized work began, and on July 28, 2024, the first proposal of the Nantang DAO, written by Yu Xing, was released, marking the official operation of this innovative organization aimed at integrating Web3 technology with rural governance; a month later, the proposal for the establishment of the Nantang DAO was approved by a certain DAO, marking the beginning of a new chapter.