Title: "DAOs, A Canon"

Authors: Sonal Chokshi, Zoran Basich, Guy Wuollet

Compiled by: Rhythm Research Institute

DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Nowadays, DAOs are becoming increasingly well-known and important, with more people starting to view them as an organizational structure that transcends traditional companies. The decentralized organizational structure adopted by DAOs distributes decision-making and profit-sharing rights more fairly and reasonably among all participants, thereby incentivizing individual initiative and encouraging people to contribute voluntarily to the community.

This is not a distant reality. Last week, a traditional VC investor shared their feelings about transitioning from a traditional institution to working in a DAO (“Why I Joined Gitcoin DAO”). The form of DAOs has begun to attract attention and genuine participation.

To allow more people to experience this organizational form that may replace existing companies in the future, top investment firm a16z has compiled a DAO learning guide, gathering high-quality articles and podcasts about DAOs for everyone to learn and understand.

Rhythm BlockBeats has translated and organized the full text as follows.

What is a DAO? Why is a DAO important? How does a DAO integrate with Web3, Crypto, the creator economy, future work styles, and many other fields?

Inspired by our earlier published “NFT Introduction Article Recommendations” (and the earliest published “Crypto Introduction Article Recommendations”), we have compiled a resource list for those who wish to understand, establish, and participate in “DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations),” representing community, collaboration, future work styles, and much more. If you have better suggestions, please let us know.

Definitions, Conceptual Foundations, Evolution

“Why Decentralization Matters”: Decentralized networks are not a panacea, but they offer a better solution than centralized systems. ------Chris Dixon

“The Meaning of Decentralization”: This is one of the most common yet poorly defined terms; why we should decentralize; three types of decentralization. ------Vitalik Buterin

“Clarification of Terminology”: Definitions of “decentralization,” “autonomy,” and “organization,” all enabled by blockchain. ------Alex Pruden, Sonal Chokshi

“Defining D, A, O”: This organization, or DAO, is a tool for coordinating human activities; transcending organizations towards organisms. ------Philippe Honigman

“What is D, What is A, What is O”: What is a DAO? ------Aragon

“Defining a DAO: The Big Picture”: From traditional organizations to internet-native organizations. ------Aragon

“Scissor Labels”: About the divergences in narratives, incentives, and terms. ------John Palmer

“Terminology Guide”: Smart contracts, autonomous agents; decentralized applications, decentralized organizations, decentralized companies. ------Vitalik Buterin

“Who Will Control the Software Powering the Internet?”: Moving towards an internet managed by open, community-controlled services. ------Chris Dixon

“DAOs: A New Organizational and Governance Paradigm”: Conceptual introduction. ------Louis Grx

“Who is the Successor to the ‘Organizer’? The ‘Blockchain Person’”: On cooperation, a world without transaction costs, and “protocolism.” ------Taylor Pearson

“On Cryptocurrency Communities”: What’s different about building companies versus building cryptocurrencies. ------Nick Tomaino

“The Slow Death of the Firm”: Why firms exist now; enabling broader adoption of decentralized organizations. ------Nick Tomaino

“Bootstrapping a Decentralized Autonomous Organization”: Encoding a corporate mission statement into code. ------Vitalik Buterin

“Companies, Platforms, Crowds (a16z Podcast)”: The DAO vs DAO; automation, emergent events, smart contracts; will companies disappear? ------Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, Frank Chen, Sonal Chokshi

“Past, Present, Future: From Cooperative Organizations to Crypto Networks”: How cooperative governance can be both efficient and representative. ------Jesse Walden

“On Web3 and Participatory Governance”: Policy framework for the third generation of the internet. ------a16z Crypto

“DAOs and Legal Issues”: On legality, legal consequences, and more. ------Priyanka Desai, Aaron Wright

“The Rise of ‘Lex Cryptographia’”: A new legal subset governed by self-executing smart contracts and DAO management rules. ------Aaron Wright, Primavera de Filippi

Overview & Guide

“The History of DAOs”: Defining a hybrid term; the hierarchy of DAOs; cooperatives, gaming guilds, and future networks. ------Kei Kreutler

“A Beginner's Guide to DAOs”: Definitions, mindsets, tools, examples. ------Linda Xie

“The DAO of DAOs”: NFTs and DAOs; why DAOs, how DAOs can be a source of competitive advantage; types of DAOs now and in the future; the LEGO set of DAOs. ------Packy McCormick

“DAOs, NFTs, and the New Creator Economy”: DAOs allow their creators, supporters, contributors, and audiences to become owners collectively. ------Jarrod Dicker, Brian Flynn, Patrick Rivera

“The Basics of DAOs”: Internet-native constitutions; how DAOs automate companies, and more. ------Theodor Marcu

“The Future of DAOs and Online Organizations”: Public goods on the internet; managing and funding projects. ------Chris Dixon interviewed by Steven Johnson

“A Panorama of DAOs”: Different types and use cases of DAOs; how DAOs evolve. ------Cooper Turley

“Everything You Need to Know About DAOs”: An introductory read on how DAOs are committed to collectively shaping a new creative economy. ------Foundation

Applications of DAOs: Communities, Creators, the Future of Work, Cities, and More

“15 Ways DAOs are Changing the World”: The role of DAOs in organizational structure, just as the internet does for social interactions. ------Aragon

“DAO Communities”: What makes a DAO a DAO; from group chats to real enterprises. ------Patrick Rivera

“Empowering Communities to Bid”: Fundraising, fragmented ownership, and more. ------John Palmer interviewed by Cooper Turley

“Fantasy Hollywood: The Role of Crypto and Community”: DAOs enable communities to bring new culture and new characters to the world. ------Cuy Sheffield

“DAOs and the Utopian Promise in the Music Industry”: Changing the lifecycle of music and art. ------Resident Advisor

“Why DAOs are Critical for DeFi”: Almost all DeFi applications adopt DAO governance. ------James Beck, Mattison Asher

“Participating in the Crypto World at Minimal Cost”: The capital range needed to have a place in the crypto space. ------Elena Burger

“Squad Wealth”: The trust roles of informal peer-to-peer institutions in squad logic; what squad theory is; new models of team collaboration; can squads scale? ------Sam Hart, Toby Shorin, Laura Lotti

“The Future of Work”: “One day your work object may be a protocol”; earning through creation, then through critique, and finally through participation. ------Stephen McKeon

Stories of DAOs

“From Disdain to Indifference, From Curiosity to Excitement: My Web3 Journey”: What if the Planet Money program on NPR could be re-established as a DAO? ------Adam Davidson

“Constitution DAO”: A great decentralized on-chain experiment. ------by Kate Irwin

“Examples of DAO Economic Empowerment”: Easier organization of human and financial capital to invest in projects and people. ------SyndicateDAO

“What is it Like to Join a DAO?”: Feelings during the first four weeks of joining a DAO. ------Shawn Cubbedge

“The Life of a ‘Protocol Politician’”: Oversight governance, proposing suggestions, voting, and more. ------Cooper Turley

How to Start Creating a DAO

“DAOs and Creators”: Creating a DAO ------ from beginner to mastery. ------Kinjal Shah

“How to Build a DAO”: Beginner knowledge and FAQs. ------Aragon

“How to Join a DAO”: Reasons for joining, goal setting, and initial tasks. ------William Peaster

“How to Build a DAO in Three Days”: DAO stack and components ------ a case study of ConstitutionDAO. ------Packy McCormick

“How to Develop a DAO More Deeply”: From basic integration to creating value, to fully immersing in the work. ------Jack Fancy

Building and Participating in DAOs: Mechanisms, Incentives, Governance, and Regulations

“Progressive Decentralization: A Handbook for Building DAOs”: Product-market fit, community engagement, ownership, and how to avoid pitfalls. ------Jesse Walden

“Coming for Creators, Staying for the Economy”: Market entry strategies and the three phases of creator models, organizational models, and protocol economies. ------Patrick Rivera

“How to Earn from DAOs”: Various ways to contribute to DAOs. ------Lucas Campbell

“Creator DAOs, Web3, and Incentives”: From badges to tokens, the interplay of social finance and intrinsic/extrinsic motivations. ------Jarrod Dicker, Jonathan Glick, Tal Sachar

“Building and Managing DAOs: Governance is Essential”: The evolution of economic incentive mechanisms, how mechanisms work, and the real challenges we face. ------Tarun Chitra

“Beyond Token Governance”: From DeFi to “DeGov,” exploring the design space of governance; solutions to ensure voting and DAO security. ------Vitalik Buterin

“How to Manage Treasury with DAOs”: The role of DAOs in managing treasury expenditures and asset allocation, as well as borrowing and reporting. ------Shreyas Hariharan

“Organizational Legos: The State of DAO Tooling”: The “money legos” of DeFi have seen a Cambrian explosion, but “organizational legos” are still in their infancy. ------Nichanan Kesonpat

“How to Grow Decentralized Communities: Building Token Networks in Communities”: Guiding discoverers to become participants. ------Peter Yuan Pan (pet3rpan)

“How to Assess New Hires for Community Building in Token Networks”: Metrics, interview questions, and performance record evaluations. ------Peter Yuan Pan (pet3rpan)

“On-Chain Vote Buying and ‘Dark DAOs’”: The security of blockchain voting; how to avoid decentralized cartels, private vote buying, and more. ------Phil Daian, Tyler Kell, Ian Miers, and Ari Juels

“Voting, Security, and Governance in Blockchain” (a16z Podcast): Voting in social systems (blockchain, meeting rooms, elections) and game mechanics. ------Phil Daian and Ali Yahya

“The Legal Framework for DAOs”: Issues related to taxation, entity formation, and business matters concerning decentralized autonomous organizations. ------David Kerr and Miles Jennings