Will DAOs replace Corporations?

NounsDAO, has in less than two months amassed a community-controlled treasury worth $20M, growing by roughly $500K a day. (My third thought: What!?? I am ngmi 😭)

As the treasury grows, more and more ambitious projects that increase the value of Nouns can be undertaken. If those projects succeed, the treasury gets even bigger. For now the ideas are simple, but you could imagine wild projects like designer merch, a private IRL clubhouse, TV shows, theme parks, giant bronze sculptures in every major metropolit... See more

Of course there are some cynical people that are on the web3 bandwagon despite privately believing it’s all driven by a bullshit narrative designed to trick greater fools into paying hyperinflated prices for worthless jpegs. But I don’t think short-term flipping is the main cause of what’s happening right now. Genuine long-term belief in the paradi... See more

DAOs are basically like if you started a business that went public on day 1, and held shareholder votes way more often.

With most NFT projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, the initial run of NFTs are claimed by early adopters, who can then sell them and keep the profits, with a small percentage of each transaction going to the project creator. NounsDAO is different. In their case, 100% of the proceeds from the daily Noun auction get put into a communit... See more

The big question, the thing I haven’t seen any clear thinking on, is what NounsDAOs strategy is for converting cash into demand for Nouns. Honestly I’m skeptical. But it’s worth taking a moment to remember they currently have $20M in their bank account after being in business less than two months.

If DAOs really are the future, if they end up supplanting joint-stock corporations as the best and most common way to organize economic activity, then I believe key early experiments like NounsDAO have a good shot at retaining their value. It would be like owning a piece of art connected to the East India Company. But this is only possible if the N... See more

DAOs believe “ask the audience” is the winning strategy, and if you set up the right decision-making systems, collective wisdom is greater than individual vision.