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by Astin Apr 08. 2022

DAOs: Absorbing the internet

요약 버전

Actionable insights  

DAOs are a new way of organizing people.


DAOs seek similar ends — the creation of value similar to company structure — but rely on a decentralized framework in which workers, users, and other stakeholders have true ownership of the entity.


Various types of DAOs have emerged to serve different use-cases.


There are DAOs for investing, DAOs for building new products, DAOs for socializing, and many iterations both between and beyond.

Meaningful assets are being managed by these entities.


We’re still early when it comes to DAO infrastructure.


DAOs have many of the same needs as corporations, but must often deal with greater complexities given their scale, fluidity, and technical stack.

DAOs have clear vulnerabilities that have yet to be fully addressed.



Introduction

We did not always work for companies.  

1820 just 20% of American population worked for an organization

after industrialization and by 1950, 90% of the populace depended on companies

consolidation of workers under large organizations with centralized command systems


A better alternative; DAOs  

Definitions. Explaining what a DAO is and how we might think of them.

History. The origins of a new organizational structure.

Categories. The diverse types of DAOs that exist.

Culture. The values and philosophies that underpin the space.

Landscape. Key players and the tools they use.

Starting a DAO. Exploring the benefits of going decentralized, and the tactics needed. Legal issues. Promising developments in Wyoming, and open questions.

Against DAOs. The vulnerabilities of the structure and its unproven potential.

Frontier. Exploring what the future might hold.


History and lore

Ethereum Whitepaper

[DAOs are] a virtual entity that has a certain set of members or shareholders which, perhaps with a 67% majority, have the right to spend the entity’s funds and modify its code.


2 Types of DAOs

Decentralized Autonomous Corporations (DAC1)  

1 share = 1 vote

Decentralized Autonomous Communities (DAC2)  

1 member = 1 vote

The DAO  

hacking issue


What is a DAO?

Simply put — decentralized autonomous organization

Critically  

Decentralization and autonomy are sliding scales

DAOs — are entities geared towards a shared purpose: the creation of value


Characteristics

How DAOs differ from other organizations


Ownership  

distribute ownership to a variety of stakeholders in the ecosystem

DAOs are owned by the ppl who create value in them

Organization  

stakeholders choose their own labor and self-organize


Frameworks

How DAOs operate tactically


DAOs as companies  

DAOs have departments which have a team lead that guides and supports other members

Teal organization

DAOs as coops  

owned and controlled by the workers that contribute to it

DAOs as networks  

distribute ownership to a range of different stake holders

most useful framework in DAOs

13 ways of looking at a DAO

https://twitter.com/divine_economy/status/1453480931487006728?s=20


Types of DAOs

Similar as what types of LLCs exist? — technically oriented or socially-oriented


Technically-oriented DAOs  

focus on building in the crypto space

on-chain actions

Socially oriented DAOs  

bring together groups of people

find ways to interact and convene

Protocol DAOs  

collaborative entities that exist to help build a protocol

MakerDAO, Sushi, Uniswap, Compound

Social DAOs  

to create a powerful community

FWB, Seed Club, CabinDAO, Bright Moments

Investment DAOs  

to aggregate capital and investor for deployment

The LAO, Flamingo, Neptune, MetaCartel

Grant DAOs  

many early DAOs geared toward patronage, operating as Grant DAOs

seek to advance broader ecosystem, promising projects

Uniswap, Compound, Audius grant program

Service DAOs  

talent aggregators

pulling together human capital directed towards certain projects

RaidGuild, PartyDAO, DAOhaus, Yam DAO

Media DAOs  

produce public content collaboratively

Forefront, Bankless, DarkStar

Creator DAOs  

fan clubs + contributor

social tokens

Roll, Leaving Records, Personal Corner

Collector DAOs  

unite contributors around certain assets or collectibles

curators for certain projects

SquiggleDAO, MeebitsDAO, PleasrDAO, NounsDAO


Philosophy and culture

two traits seem to be particularly commonplace across the DAO landscape


Acting like owners  

elevate the individual and give users a chance to contribute and own


Radical transparency  

establishes trust between all players

incentivizes collaboration over competition

empowers individuals to take ownership because of their deep understanding of organizational context


Landscape

Players across core functions


Formation  

Aragon, Syndicate, Orca, Tribute, Colony

Aragon  

provides suite of applications to create, manage, and govern DAO

Syndicate  

democratize the world of investing

Orca  

Pod Model

https://orca.mirror.xyz/Y2xvPmB4cJH51srGqY6Mm_g38lV-7cwvtyDePnyzfAE

composability

Tribute  

fundamentally modular

Colony  

start a DAO without any coding needed

includes membership management, treasury tooling, infrastructure for governance


Communication  

Discord, Telegram, Twitter


Coordination

coordination especially at scale


Coordinape  

helps DAOs coordinate and distribute resources to contributors

Circle product

- allows DAO contributors to gift tokens

- creates compensation map

Collab.Land  

offers token-gating bot for Discord and Telegram

similar — Guild

SourceCred  

used to measure and reward the contributions of individuals to a project

Grain — used as a wage-equivalent

DAOhaus  

no-code platform for launching and running DAOs on a framework built by MolochDAO


Compensation

how DAOs compensate contributors, payroll for DAOs

Superfluid  

allows for programmable cash flows

streams of value so that compensation automatically flows to a DAO’s contributors

Sablier  

financial streaming platform

truly autonomous

- team that created this project burned their keys


Governance

hardest problems DAOs face today, permissionless access: a double-edged sword

Snapshot  

offchain, gasless voting platform

SafeSnap

- product by Gnosis, allows on-chain execution of off-chain voting

vote off-chain ← saving on gas fees and enacted on-chain later

Discourse  

forum

- for formal discussion and feedback on proposals


Treasury

Llama  

DAO that focuses on assisting other DAOs with treasury management

created dashboards, reports, treasury management guidelines

Parcel  

a treasury suite

Gnosis  

provides a better user-experience for DAO multisig wallets


Other notable organizations

PartyDAO, Mirror, Seed Club, FWB, The LAO, MetaCartel, Moloch, Rabbithole


Why start a DAO?

3 core reasons


1. Ease of capital formation  

easiest ways to pool funds


2. Shared upside  

crypto tokens provide a fluid way of rewarding an array of stakeholders

some DAO tokens have risen → introduced grant programs and fellowships


3. Transparency

DAOs communicate, onboard, transact, and govern in public

Communication  

public channels which anyone can join to learn more about the project

Membership  

on-chain public records

membership composability, rewarding anyone with other DAO’s token

Governance  

members can propose new initiatives and vote on key decisions

DAO structure does not have clear benefits


How to start a DAO

Sell some NFTs, seed your community with cool people, gate a Discord, and drop some tokens


Call to adventure  

mission and vision describing what participants are buying into with a DAO


Distribution of ownership  

airdrop

bounties

purchase of tokens


Governance

Process of building legitimacy in the decisions taken by the DAO or teams operating within the DAO

Most common method of decision making  

Token Weighted Voting

How a bill becomes a law  

Discussion and shaping

Formalization of proposal

Voting on the proposal

Execution of the proposal


Incentivization and reward

DAO incentives include:  

Token rewards

Social capital

Bill-paying tokens

DAO rewards  

Bounties

Grants

Coordinape Circles

Salaries


Working for a DAO

Choosing your discipline  

Community managers

Recruiters and promoters

Scribes

Artists

Engineers

Treasureres

Game designers

Digital marketers

Finding the right role  

no formal discovery process

Onboarding  

ex) weekly new joiner sessions and provides detailed guide

Collaborating

Getting paid


Legal questions

Wyoming  

recently passed a law that grants legal company status to DAOs that operate on a blockchain

Unincorporated Not for Profit — UNA structure  

a group of individuals want to form an association without having to formalize it through registration

Against DAOs  

Fiduciary responsibility

Minority protections


DAO reading list

Squad Wealth by Other Internet

A Prehistory of DAOs by Kei Kreutler

DAO Landscape by Cooper Turley

The DAO of DAOs by Packy McCormick

State of the DAOs by Bankless

Organization Legos by Nichanan Kesonpat

Sushi and the Founding Murder by Mario Gabriele

The New Coordination Frontier by Gitcoin x Bankless

Come for the creator, stay for the economy by Patrick Rivera

A beginner’s guide to DAOs by Linda Xie

Protocols and Creator DAOs by Darkstar

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