What Co-ops and DAOs Can Learn From Each Other

The sooner cooperative ownership is enshrined as a legitimate form of organization through DAO structures, the sooner we can build first-class structures for our future cooperatives. DAOs even present a unique opportunity to do so. The LLC is designed for a small set of owners. The public corporation is designed for mass ownership by capitalists. B... See more

Cooperative culture was largely formed as a way to help oppressed or financially disadvantaged people meet each other's basic needs. This is worth noting because there’s a disconnect between the historical roots of the cooperative movement and the way it’s showing up in the tech world at the moment, with whimsical projects like Constitution DAO get... See more

When DAOs are needed The growth of DAOs in general and the massive success of some of the most innovative ones inevitably result in the perception that the route to growth and robust network participation requires a DAO structure. In times of ebullience, market forces make it easy to assume that every organization, community, or project needs a DAO... See more

-Cryptonetworks and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as the future of internet-native co-ops: Such networks address two major issues that have prevented traditional cooperative businesses from becoming pervasive: access to capital and complexity of governance. With the issuance of a token, cryptonetworks can benefit from market specula... See more

In 2021, a DAO could be described as a voluntary association with the operating principles of digital cooperativism. As voluntary associations, they are a cross-jurisdictional way for strangers, friends, or unlikely allies to pseudonymously come together toward common goals, supported by a token model, incentives, and governance.

Collaborative, internet-native organizations like decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) especially offer shared narratives (memes), economic incentives (money) and more flexible local governance structures (management) to move us in the right direction.

Tokens may be one key to unlock the ownership economy, but to reach a more equitable version of this future, we must participate in crafting the culture around token distribution, mediation, and governance now. This becomes important because, unlike shares in cooperatives, many tokens that double as governance rights can be sold on secondary market... See more