DAOs Are the New Way of Impact Work

Of course, it’s not all fun and games, either — DAOs, after all, are not just an abstract crypto concept, but systems of people. And while they create new models for human coordination around shared principles or goals, they also present new challenges for effective governance, day-to-day execution, and scaling.

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

In summary, eight imagined qualities of decentralized autonomous organizations are autopoietic, alegal, superscalable, executable, permissionless, aligned, co-owned, and mnemonic. Drawn from observation, these qualities trace desires for interdependence growing in the cracks of legacy institutions, as well as the dubious inheritance of cybernetic d... See more

However, anyone that has worked within a DAO in the past year knows this is rarely the case. In reality, many DAOs operate using socialware, relying on documented practices and hoping there is sufficient human attention and coordination to follow these written rules.