Social DAO is a special project for me due to its origin story and the role I’ve played in shaping its direction. After Phaver shut down in early 2025, Tomi and Saska began building what would eventually become Social DAO - essentially a rebranding and philosophical evolution from Phaver. They approached me with initial ideas around “social staking” on Farcaster profiles to earn yield, and this became a catalyst for deeper exploration.
I took the raw concept and began mapping its potential through the lens of InfoFi - the financialization of social data and attention. After studying early experiments like Kaito, I designed and implemented a mindshare-based scoring framework tailored to Farcaster users. This became the foundation of Social Voting, the protocol’s first live product. I also architected the distribution algorithm that powers the weekly prediction market and reward system.
As we moved from idea to MVP, I helped translate fragmented team visions into a unified roadmap, while identifying several friction points that still limit the product’s full potential. These insights are grouped below for future iteration:
Product & Concept Clarity
• The concept of mindshare voting was powerful, but required clearer messaging and educational UX to onboard new users effectively.
• There was still confusion around how $SOCIAL functions beyond the voting layer - as a governance tool, attention asset, or network currency.
• Without a consistent narrative, some users misunderstood Social DAO as just another consumer social app, rather than a modular protocol layer for information markets.
UX & Experience Gaps
• New users were unsure why they should vote or what signals their vote impacts. The connection between voting, rewards, and predictive insight needed better framing.
• Key flows, such as casting a vote, understanding your own mindshare, or tracking predictions - lacked in-product guidance or walk-throughs.
• Visual hierarchy could be improved: CTAs like “Vote,” “View Market,” or “Claim” didn’t stand out, and leaderboard context wasn’t always intuitive.
Strategic & Operational Learnings
• Social DAO’s identity as an InfoFi infrastructure protocol wasn’t consistently conveyed across channels, which limited perceived credibility.
• Multi-chain deployment (Base, Solana, Ethereum) created UX friction, especially without strong liquidity and wallet UX on all networks.
• The DAO needs clearer modularity between products (Voting, Aiden, APIs) and stronger token utility alignment to support long-term governance, growth, and ecosystem value.
"Ali brought clarity to chaos. He didn’t just advise, he architected the foundation of Social DAO. From token design to UX flow, his work turned abstract ideas into a clear, actionable roadmap. A must-have for any founder building in Web3."
- Tomi Fyrqvist, Co-Founder of Social DAO
• Authored the main and sub-theses of the project, translating abstract ideas into a coherent, long-term vision rooted in InfoFi.
• Designed the token-based business model, aligning $SOCIAL utility with protocol incentives and modular product rollouts.
• Wrote the full whitepaper, combining narrative clarity with technical depth for investors, contributors, and builders.
• Provided strategic input on DAO treasury design - proposing structural updates for sustainability and transparency.
• Shaped internal roadmap priorities and helped define the scope of early product milestones and roles.
• Designed the Social Mindshare scoring algorithm - a modular, AI-assisted framework applied across Farcaster and Telegram.
• Audited the full Social Voting experience to improve flow clarity, CTA visibility, and user motivation across sessions.
• Provided actionable UX feedback on DAO dashboard structure, particularly around treasury views and fund tracking.
• Proposed onboarding enhancements to abstract prediction logic for non-technical users without losing core mechanics.
• Helped streamline the voting interface by suggesting clearer hierarchy, simplified language, and better outcome previews.