D for DAO

DAO is a community with a shared bank account and an intimidating full form — Decentralised Autonomous Organisation.

DAOs are member-led communities, which means there is no CEO to come up with a new idea that all members have to blindly follow. Any new initiative has to be proposed to the members, who then vote on it to be either passed or rejected.

All members have ownership in the DAO by the virtue of holding its native tokens/crypto. As the value of these token increase, the wealth of DAO members also grows. This is in contrast to the traditional companies where employee salaries do not grow at the rate of the company’s valuation.

The voting rights and rules around spending DAO funds are governed by a code baked into the DAOs network (aka smart contracts). This code also makes it easier for people to trust strangers on the internet, because like everything built on blockchain, it is immutable.

To get DAO membership…

One can either buy DAO’s native token or win bounty projects (gig projects). Buying DAO tokens gives the person the power to vote on proposals. The second way to become a member is to contribute to bounties and earn DAO tokens/membership as rewards.

For Akhil BVS, entry point into Superteam DAO was his side project - Buy Me A Crypto Coffee.

Superteam DAO was giving out grants to support blockchain projects and Akhil was able to bag one such grant along with the DAO membership. Hear from him, in this audio clip

Other types of DAOs

People have varied interest and communities reflect that. There’s something for everyone — from Philanthropy DAOs, to Social DAO, to Venture DAO, Grant DAO and even Collector DAOs.

A Social DAOs like OgclubDAO enables Web3 founders to connect with investors, and other ecosystem builders. This is done through Web3 meetups, social media groups, Twitter spaces, Startup pitch days, etc.

When asked about the revenue model, Subhendu Panigrahi, founding member of OGClubDAO told me, “We plan to tokenize the DAO and are even working on launching an NFT soon for members.”

Further, Philanthropy DAOs, as the name suggests, help in progressing a social cause through donations. Venture DAO is the Web3 parallel of angel networks or VC firm which pool funds to invest in Web3 startups and projects.

Similarly, Collector DAO also pool funds but to invest in blue-chip NFT art and other collectibles. These NFTs might be too expensive for one person to own but as a DAO, every member can own a share of these collectibles.

In case you are motivated to join a DAO

Here is a tech writer’s take on how she contributes to multiple DAOs. Osheen Mahajan is a core contributor of Superwomen DAO. She actively contributes in the role of a community builder and tech writer. In her own words…

How did it all start?

In May 2016, some Ethereum community members launched ‘The DAO’, also known as Genesis DAO. ‘The DAO’ came with a creation period in which anyone could exchange Ether with DAO tokens.

The DAO was able to gather 12.7 million Ether in this creation period, which was worth about $150 million at that time. People were able to pitch ideas to The DAO and raise funding if the members voted for it.

Things were looking great, until June 17, 2016, when a hacker found a loophole and drained funds from The DAO. Almost 3.6 million Ether was stolen in the first few hours of the hack, which was equal to $70 million at the time.

The identity of DAO hacker is one of the big mysteries of Web3. Media organisation Forbes has an opinion on who that person might be. But the person denies it and says Forbes’ investigation is factually incorrect. Either ways, makes for an interesting watch:

My journalism professor used to say that an educator’s job is to make learners curious. So I hope this edition made you curious about DAOs. ??

That’s all from the D for DAOs edition. If you recall any other Web3 terms starting from the letter D, please leave a comment and I will include them in later editions.?

Until next time!