A Prehistory of DAOs

When not fantasizing about the next 1000x moonshot, many crypto-natives dream about how DAOs will transform the way people collaborate. DAOs are imagined as flat and fluid organizations, the opposite of the rigid, pyramid-like structures dominating the corporate world today—an organization where every stakeholder gets to speak their mind and be hea... See more

At the end of the day, the best framework for an organization may not be a choice between a cooperative or DAO model, but a blend of both. Incorporating cooperative values into crypto networks could take the form of a traditional cooperative that bootstraps its network through on-chain tokenized contributions. Alternatively, a DAO could decide to a... See more

But the management and organizational ‘overhead’ of traditional associations often exceed the will and ability of potential participants. If you’ve ever been part of a community or school group, you understand the often prohibitive burden. It’s not only the time commitment of planning meetings — it’s the social dynamics where a few very active memb... See more