DAO: a code-based community

In recent years, cryptocurrencies have impacted nearly every industry in one way or another, but one innovation in particular is the use of blockchain technology to fundamentally alter the way organizations are structured, coded, and governed.

In the latest deep dive from Kraken Intelligence, the team takes a closer look at the unique history of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and how they are poised to drive innovation across a number of industries.

What is a DAO?

A DAO is an Internet-native entity owned and managed entirely by its members. DAOs have their own treasure chests that are often protected by a distributed multi-signature wallet. ‘Multi-sig’ wallets divide ownership of a treasury’s private key among multiple parties to prevent unauthorized use of funds and ensure access to funds is granted through collaboration and consensus. A DAO’s assets can be accumulated from a variety of contribution sources, and members vote on how best to use these funds to fulfill the organization’s mission.

What makes DAOs unique?

Unlike traditional organizations, DAOs create low-level opportunities for people from around the world to coordinate assets and ideas to accomplish a mission with minimal upfront costs. Transparent and trustless activity logs from DAOs foster and support a highly collaborative organizational culture. DAOs are revolutionizing traditional organizations and driving the expansion of Web3 on an exponential scale. DAOs can mobilize members to accomplish anything they set their minds to, including running a $20 billion decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol like Curve Finance, buying land through CityDAO, or financing development through large-scale projects for the wider Web. 3 community through Gitcoin.

In this report, the Kraken Intelligence team explores why DAOs exist, how they are structured, and which DAOs are currently making waves.