FWB originated as an internet-native group of friends with a shared interest in crypto and culture. Just a few years later, it has blossomed into a global community of over 4,000 members. With such a diverse group of participants and so many initiatives across our DAO, it’s no wonder that FWB means many different things to many different people.

Before this next chapter unfolds, there’s an opportunity to hear from all voices in the room about what FWB means to each of us, where we want it to go, and how we can collaborate to get there.

To make that happen, FWB introduced our first Census this summer — a comprehensive survey to understand where we are now, and where we’re heading.

The goal of conducting the survey was to:

• Develop a deeper understanding of what our members find most meaningful and valuable about the FWB community, while identifying areas that need improvement
• Communicate and publicize our findings with the broader community to generate collective insights
• Establish shared starting points and common ground to inform major upcoming structural, economic, and mission-oriented proposals

Below, you’ll find the key takeaways from FWB’s first Census. It’s a synthesis of multiple-choice and write-in responses from the 454 FWB members who responded voluntarily and anonymously. By sharing these results publicly, we’re committing to building our infrastructures transparently and contributing our learnings to the broader web3 community.

To see complete data from the Census, go here.

CENSUS KEY TAKEAWAYS

The main reason people join FWB is for the curated community.

When asked what they see as the most important reason for participating in FWB, nearly 74% of members cited “access to a curated community of like-minded people.” This was by far the most popular response—underscoring curation as a north star to inspire and focus our DAO’s future development.

Throughout write-in responses, there was also a sense that members deeply value 1:1 engagement with other members, and would appreciate further opportunities to connect and work together. When asked, “What is the number one area FWB could improve that would positively impact the organization the most,” one respondent synthesized what many others suggested by writing, “Focus on facilitating more friendships and true community in crypto.”

Additionally, when asked what interactions within FWB felt most valuable, the greatest percentage of respondents (24%) said it was “[meeting] new friends they wouldn’t have met anywhere else.” Moving forward, finding ways to foster more direct interactions and friendships among FWB members will be a priority.

FWB is made up of web3 leaders and builders who want to ensure that our tools and processes reflect our commitment to decentralization.

Almost 75% of FWB members either defined themselves as “leaders and major contributors” in the web3 space, or as “active in web3 [by] supporting, contributing, and building.” This illustrates that FWB is primarily a community of creators, builders, and supporters who are deeply engaged in culture and crypto, and who have a strong belief in web3’s potential.

Multiple respondents also expressed a desire to further decentralize FWB’s initiatives by using web3-native tools, and advocated for FWB to act as more of a leader in the space by sharing our web3-focused insights with the broader community.

More than half of our members have experienced FWB IRL, and there’s strong support for expanding our events program.

Census responses confirmed that FWB throws some of the best events in web3. From music performances to happy hours to full-on festivals, the resounding feedback was that members love our events, and would like to see even more IRL gatherings in the future.

Fittingly, over half of our global community has gone to at least one in-person event, with a full quarter of respondents having gone to three or more IRL events. However, 46% of our community has never been to an in-person FWB event, which indicates that our community is almost evenly split between digital-only and IRL participants. Based on write-in responses, it seems that many more members would attend IRL events if they were available in their city, and we plan to introduce new programs to make that possible.

With lots to experience and many ways to engage, the FWB Discord is full of potential. It can also be overwhelming.

While our community’s primary interest is web3, we have a huge variety of other interests—and our Discord shows it. When asked which channel topics members spent the most time engaging with, a quarter of respondents said “NFTs,” while another quarter said “Creative.” “Learning” and “Lifestyle” were the next-most-popular topics in the Discord, demonstrating that our members are equally interested in crypto and culture.

Based on write-in responses, it’s also clear that members find the Discord to be overwhelming at times. There is a resounding desire for the experience to feel more digestible, whether by expanding our community-written newsletter or finding other ways to compile key events, governance votes, and other news.

FWB members want to continue investing energy and resources into events, products, and curation.

When asked what FWB should do next, 19% of respondents were excited about “increasing the creation and curation of creative IP,” 18% wanted us to focus on “developing one key software product that adds value to the majority of the community,” and 17% believed we should “increase the number of IRL events.”

The above results were fairly well mirrored in the next question, “Which initiatives create the most sustainable value for FWB long term?” Here, 25% believed IRL events would make FWB more sustainable, 18% believed in software products, and 17% were excited about curatorial initiatives.

Based on these responses, FWB members agree we can tackle a lot of initiatives—especially given the unique talent of our group—and that we should keep experimenting with new models for how we can keep our DAO both creatively innovative and sustainable.

What’s next

Moving forward, the FWB Census will be a regular way to gather actionable feedback across the entire FWB ecosystem. Survey data will play an important role in establishing common ground for all stakeholders when we define our priorities and initiatives while ensuring that everyone has a voice in the DAO’s future vision.

Tune into upcoming major governance proposals about FWB’s future.