DAO - Revision history

TiberiusB at 19:39, 19 April 2026

2026-04-19T19:39:13Z

TiberiusB: /* Design Elements */

2026-03-17T18:28:49Z

Design Elements

TiberiusB at 18:27, 17 March 2026

2026-03-17T18:27:37Z

TiberiusB: /* External links */

2026-03-17T18:17:44Z

External links

TiberiusB: /* DAO and OVN */

2025-07-26T00:27:16Z

DAO and OVN

TiberiusB: /* DAO and OVN */

2025-07-26T00:27:05Z

DAO and OVN

TiberiusB at 00:25, 26 July 2025

2025-07-26T00:25:47Z

TiberiusB: /* Comparative Summary: DAOs vs. OVNs */

2025-07-26T00:09:09Z

Comparative Summary: DAOs vs. OVNs

TiberiusB: /* External links */

2025-07-26T00:08:30Z

External links

TiberiusB: /* Definition */

2024-01-04T06:35:55Z

Definition

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:39, 19 April 2026
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−	In short: DAOs model governance, but struggle to model economics beyond fund allocation.	+	In short: DAOs model governance, but struggle to model economics beyond fund [[allocation]].

@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 =Design Elements=
 DAOs can be designed for a great number of organizational functions to serve different objectives. They use various blockchains and blockchain technology and services.
 DAO ontology affects DAO design

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-DAO stands for ''Decentralized Autonomous Organization''.
+DAO stands for ''Decentralized Autonomous Organization'' or ''Distributed Autonomous Organization'', depending on its structure and on who you're asking. Thus, the DAO is a term to describe a new type of [[organization]].
-The DAO movement is intimately connected to the development of blockchain technology, more below. We can say that the DAO is a term to describe a new type of [[organization]] that is enabled by the blockchain technology, striving to exploit the full potential of this new technology. Our observations made until 2024 make us conclude that most organizations that brand themselves as a DAO fail to understand and to harness the full potential of p2p technologies. When we look under their hood, we see a mix bag of incoherent processes, most of them inherited from traditional firms, within an environment that strives to detach itself from traditional organizational patterns.
+The DAO movement is intimately connected to the development of [[blockchain]] technology, more below. We can say that the DAO is a term to describe a new type of [[organization]] that is enabled by the blockchain technology, striving to exploit the full potential of this new technology. Our observations made until 2024 make us conclude that most organizations that brand themselves as a DAO fail to understand and to harness the full potential of p2p technologies. When we look under their hood, we see a mix bag of incoherent processes, some inherited from traditional/centralized firms, within an environment that strives to detach itself from traditional organizational patterns. As of 2026, DAOs seem to be transitory organizations, trying to detach from traditional models, migrating towards more decentralized, democratic forms, but still struggling with legacy structures, values/culture.
-Thus, to understand the DAO it would not be wise to ask ''what is a DAO'', but rather ''what is the potential of the blockchain technology in terms of new organizational models''. The attitude should be oriented towards the future, ''what can become'', not ''what it is''. Imagine that back in the 80's you'd ask someone ''what is the Internet''. Most people would say that it is a way to network computers to share resources. Today, the Internet is the backbone of the information society, it is at the core of the infrastructure for the global economy, it is also the medium of a new cultural revolution, and so on. But the Internet is still evolving and the question ''what is the Internet'' may have a different answer in the near future. Similarly, society hasn't fully grasped the potential of the blockchain technology and the question ''what is a DAO'' is less revealing than considering the ''DAO as a collective effort to explore the new space of possibilities in terms of organizational models, enabled by the constant development of the new p2p digital technology''. This way of looking at it allows us to compare DAO to [[OVN]], which is addressed at length on this wiki. In fact, we can see OVN and DAO as parallel and complementary efforts, and we can ask ourselves if these two collective endeavours will merge at some point in the near future.
+Thus, to understand the DAO it would not be wise to ask ''what is a DAO'', but rather ''what is the potential of the blockchain technology in terms of new organizational models?''. The attitude should be oriented towards the future, ''what can become'', not ''what it is''. Imagine that back in the 80's you'd ask someone ''what is the Internet''. Most people would say that it is a way to network computers to share resources. Today, the Internet is the backbone of the information society, it is at the core of the infrastructure for the global economy, it is also the medium of a new cultural revolution, and so on. But the Internet is still evolving and the question ''what is the Internet'' may have a different answer in the near future. Similarly, society hasn't fully grasped the potential of the blockchain technology and the question ''what is a DAO'' is less revealing than considering the ''DAO as a collective effort to explore the new space of possibilities in terms of organizational models, enabled by the constant development of the new p2p digital technology''. This way of looking at it allows us to compare DAO to [[OVN]], which is addressed at length on this wiki. In fact, we can see OVN and DAO as parallel and complementary efforts, and we can ask ourselves if these two collective endeavors will merge at some point in the near future.
-Other groups have forked the DAO movement to explore the same space of possibilities under a different [[ethos]]. It is worth mentioning the DHO or ''Decentralized Human Organization'', a term popularized by [https://hypha.earth/ Hypha]. We can also find the DAC or Decentralized Autonomous Corporation. All these variations have in common a reliance, do various degrees, on blockchain, while differing on their emphasis on social relations or compatibility with the traditional economy.
+Other groups have forked the DAO movement to explore the same space of possibilities under a different [[ethos]]. It is worth mentioning the '''DHO''' or ''Decentralized Human Organization'', a term popularized by [https://hypha.earth/ Hypha]. We can also find the '''DAC''' or Decentralized Autonomous Corporation. All these variations have in common a reliance, do various degrees, on blockchain, while differing on their emphasis on social relations or compatibility with the traditional economy.
@@ Line 14: / Line 13: @@
 =Blockchain and organizations=
-Currently, the DAO movement is [[blockchain]]-centric, i.e. it is composed by individuals who explore the space of new possibilities in terms of organizational models introduced by blockchain technology. In contrast, the [[OVN]] movement started by looking at the new space of possibilities introduced by web2 technology and was heavily influenced by the preexisting p2p movement, which emphasizes decentralized, distributed, and collaborative models of organization and interaction. p2p is a technology agnostic movement of disintermediation, trying to reduce reliance or to make obsolete centralized processes or hubs and move key processes to the edge of a network. Thus the OVN movement adopted the blockchain technology as yet another set of tools that can further the same agenda of developing an inclusive, decentralized global economy. The DAO movement started with the advent of the blockchain technology and seems to be in a process of discovering the preexisting and more generic p2p movement, i.e. in a process of generalizing its approaches beyond web3.
+Currently, the DAO movement is [[blockchain]]-centric, i.e. it is composed by individuals who explore the space of new possibilities in terms of organizational models introduced by blockchain technology. In contrast, the [[OVN]] movement started by looking at the new space of possibilities introduced by web2 technology and was heavily influenced by the preexisting p2p movement, which emphasizes decentralized, distributed, and collaborative models of organizing and interacting. '''p2p is a technology agnostic movement''' of disintermediation, trying to reduce reliance or to make obsolete centralized processes or hubs and move key processes to the edge of a network. Thus:
-[[Permissionless]] decentralized [[blockchains]] provide an infrastructural foundation to facilitate coordination among strangers by reducing transaction costs. Moreover, [[smart contracts]] allow automation of certain type of processes as ''if-this-than-that'' patterns, in an immutable way, eliminating the need to trust the other parties (trust is displaced in the infrastructure and it is realized through: 1. transparency of the code, which is released under open source licenses, and 2. immutability. i.e. once set, no one can change it.
+[[Permissionless]] decentralized [[blockchains]] provide an infrastructural foundation to facilitate coordination among strangers by reducing transaction costs. Moreover, [[smart contracts]] allow automation of certain type of processes as ''if-this-than-that'' patterns, in an immutable way, eliminating the need to trust the other parties (trust is displaced in the infrastructure and it is realized through:
-To understand this DAO movement we need to go to its origin, ''The DAO'' on Ethereum.
+To understand the DAO movement we need to go to its origin, ''The DAO'' on Ethereum.

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:17, 17 March 2026
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	[[Sensorica]] is a leading practical example: a post-hierarchical, stigmergic organization using digital traceability to enable meaningful value distribution and collaboration—something that current DAOs can't effectively model.		[[Sensorica]] is a leading practical example: a post-hierarchical, stigmergic organization using digital traceability to enable meaningful value distribution and collaboration—something that current DAOs can't effectively model.
		+
		+	=Some examples of DAOs=
		+	Please review the following list of DAOs and compare with OVN.
		+
		+	* [https://guide.updraft.fund/updraft Updraft]
		+

	=External links=		=External links=

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:27, 26 July 2025
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	See also discussion on [[Computational model]]		See also discussion on [[Computational model]]
		+

	<big>Can Smart Contracts Form the Basis of an Economic Organization?</big>		<big>Can Smart Contracts Form the Basis of an Economic Organization?</big>

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 =DAO and OVN=
 <big>Can Smart Contracts Form the Basis of an Economic Organization?</big>
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 [[Sensorica]] is a leading practical example: a post-hierarchical, stigmergic organization using digital traceability to enable meaningful value distribution and collaboration—something that current DAOs can't effectively model.
 =External links=

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 * Associations
 * Wyoming DAO LLC
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 [[Sensorica]] is a leading practical example: a post-hierarchical, stigmergic organization using digital traceability to enable meaningful value distribution and collaboration—something that current DAOs can't effectively model.

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:09, 26 July 2025
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	\|Suitability for real-world productive orgs \|\|Low to moderate \|\|High		\|Suitability for real-world productive orgs \|\|Low to moderate \|\|High
	\|}		\|}
		+
		+	==Final Thoughts==
		+	DAOs are best seen as programmable governance modules: good for certain automation tasks or community funds, but not for modeling and managing real economic production.
		+
		+	OVNs, especially those built on Valueflows + hREA + Holochain, are capable of representing the full economic grammar of production, coordination, exchange, and accountability—in a distributed, open, adaptive way.
		+
		+	[[Sensorica]] is a leading practical example: a post-hierarchical, stigmergic organization using digital traceability to enable meaningful value distribution and collaboration—something that current DAOs can't effectively model.

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:08, 26 July 2025
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	* [https://medium.com/block-science/dao-design-patterns-1193a694fb55 DAO Design Patterns: Components that constitute “Decentralized Autonomous Organizations”]		* [https://medium.com/block-science/dao-design-patterns-1193a694fb55 DAO Design Patterns: Components that constitute “Decentralized Autonomous Organizations”]
	* [https://kelsienabben.substack.com/p/experiments-in-algorithmic-governance?s=w Experiments in algorithmic governance continue]		* [https://kelsienabben.substack.com/p/experiments-in-algorithmic-governance?s=w Experiments in algorithmic governance continue]
		+
		+
		+	=DAO and OVN=
		+
		+	<big>Can Smart Contracts Form the Basis of an Economic Organization?</big>
		+
		+	Yes, but with significant constraints.
		+
		+	What they can do well:
		+	* Automate transactions: Escrow, payments, splits, bonding curves.
		+	* Enforce rules: Immutable logic, conditional execution.
		+	* Provide auditability: Transparent state changes.
		+	* Enable collective decision-making: Token-weighted voting, quorum rules.
		+	* Run minimal governance frameworks: Treasuries, proposals, staking.
		+
		+	Smart contracts work well as narrow institutional primitives, like:
		+	* Shared treasuries
		+	* Simple economic games (e.g. yield farming, auctions)
		+	* Trustless asset transfers
		+
		+	But they're closer to autonomous services, not autonomous agents.
		+
		+
		+
		+	==Limitations of DAOs (as commonly implemented)==
		+
		+	{\|class=wikitable
		+	!Limitation
		+	!Explanation
		+	\|-
		+	\|Reactive only \|\|Smart contracts can't initiate; they wait for transactions. No proactivity.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Low expressiveness \|\|Difficult to model complex business processes, conditional logic, or negotiation.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Governance rigidity \|\|Voting models are crude (1 token = 1 vote), ignoring reputation, merit, or context.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Poor for planning or scheduling \|\|No memory or agency beyond the latest block state.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Centralized dependencies \|\|Oracles are often trusted intermediaries; UI is often hosted centrally.
		+	\|-
		+	\|High cost and friction \|\|Every action costs gas, limiting granularity and expressiveness.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Legal and social ambiguity \|\|DAOs exist as code is law systems, often disconnected from real-world constraints, human nuance, or soft norms.
		+	\|}
		+
		+	In short: DAOs model governance, but struggle to model economics beyond fund allocation.
		+
		+
		+	==OVNs (Open Value Networks) on Valueflows + hREA + Holochain==
		+	What OVNs do differently:
		+	{\|class=wikitable
		+	!Dimension
		+	!OVNs (with VF + hREA + Holochain)
		+	\|-
		+	\|Modeling economic activity \|\|Use REA ontology to explicitly track resources, events, and agents. Every contribution, input, output, and transformation is modeled.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Coordination style \|\|Support stigmergy, reciprocity, and negotiation. Valueflows’ economic events and commitments are coordination primitives.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Distributed agency \|\|Every agent maintains a personal source chain. No global state; only shared context. Agents can act independently.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Granular traceability \|\|High-resolution logs of who did what, when, with what input, and what resulted. Grounded in contribution accounting.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Modularity and openness \|\|hREA is composable; rules are not hard-coded, allowing adaptation to local contexts.
		+	\|-
		+	\|Governance \|\|Can be layered, emergent, contextual, and decoupled from financial logic. E.g., roles and influence can arise from contributions, not tokens.
		+	\|}
		+
		+
		+	==Comparative Summary: DAOs vs. OVNs==
		+	{\|class=wikitable
		+	!Feature
		+	!DAOs (Ethereum-based)
		+	!OVNs (Holochain + hREA + VF)
		+	\|-
		+	\|Core model \|\|Smart contract + token + voting \|\|REA (Resource-Event-Agent) + contribution traceability
		+	\|-
		+	\|Coordination paradigm \|\|Global consensus, voting \|\|Local autonomy + shared semantics + events
		+	\|-
		+	\|State model \|\|Global, replicated ledger \|\|Local chains, peer-to-peer validation
		+	\|-
		+	\|Agency Low – code is passive High – agents can act, plan, and adapt
		+	\|-
		+	\|Economy modeling \|\|Poor – treasury & distribution \|\|Rich – process-based value creation
		+	\|-
		+	\|Governance \|\|Token-weighted proposals \|\|Emergent roles + contextual influence
		+	\|-
		+	\|Adaptivity \|\|Low (rigid contract logic) \|\|High (mutable logic + local context)
		+	\|-
		+	\|Scalability \|\|Limited by consensus (e.g. Ethereum TPS) \|\|High – no global bottleneck
		+	\|-
		+	\|Cost of operation \|\|High (gas fees, complexity) \|\|Low (no mining, local processing)
		+	\|-
		+	\|Suitability for real-world productive orgs \|\|Low to moderate \|\|High
		+	\|}

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 =Definition=
 DAO is an umbrella term for various attempts to explore the space of possibilities that web3 opens for organizational models. There are some attempts to define the DAO, which can be seen as working definitions, serving groups that share a specific ethos and vision of the world.
    DAOs can be defined as computational organizations. DAOs are comprised of humans and technology, thus DAOs are also human-machine systems, where computational components aid coordination.