Why DAOs Series Summary
This is a summary of the first three articles in the Why DAOs Series, which lays out the master thesis for the utility of DAOs.
Part 1, Dao or DIE, lays the groundwork for the Why DAOs series by explaining how poor collaboration is the root of all human problems. Poor collaboration results from cases where the best action for an individual is different from the best action for a group, whether it’s a group of just 2 people or an entire nation.
These coordination failures are described in the prisoner’s dilemma, security dilemma, tragedy of the commons, volunteer’s dilemma, and many more. DAOs can help solve these coordination failures and align incentives by leveraging crypto’s irrevocability, transparency, and decentralization.
With nuclear weapons, genetically engineered diseases, and AI, humanity’s survival is uncertain… DAOs could enable international collaboration, preventing nuclear war and the collapse of human civilization. DAOs are a useful and versatile tool that could allow humanity to pass the Great Filter.
Part 2, The New World Order, explains why international cooperation is hard to achieve, and how DAOs can help. DAOs overcome many of the failures of centralized NGOs like the UN, which has many flaws.
A proposed DAO to enable international collaboration is integrated into the world trade system, which will be easier once most international trade is conducted on the blockchain. By making use of irrevocable blockchain contracts that use tools like automatic tariffs, this DAO allows nations to resolve many international relations issues, and prevent them from occurring in the first place. The DAO’s agreement framework is open, so any number of nations can enter an agreement with whatever terms they choose.
This DAO, which acts as a decentralized counterpart to the U.N., avoids the problems of centralization by using on-chain governance. Crypto is an ideal tool for international collaboration because the blockchain isn’t controlled by any nation, or even group of nations, providing a truly neutral forum. International discourse for the DAO can’t be censored and is openly available for all to see, unlike the current system of secret meetings between world leaders being held behind closed doors. DAOs like KlimaDAO are already working to solve climate change using unique DAO tokenomics and incentive structures.
Part 3, Power to the People, explains how monetary economies of scale dominate society. Part 3 explores DAOs including Constitution DAO, PleasrDAO, TungstenDAO, Opolis, and many more. DAOs allow people to organize and challenge the power of large corporations and the ultra-wealthy, providing a counterbalance to late-stage capitalism’s tendency towards wealth inequality due to monetary economies of scale.
DAO collective organizing can counterbalance the power of corporations and governments as DAOs form communities, creating economies of scale with collective bargaining power. These communities act as Unions 2.0, without traditional Union corruption because of on-chain transparency.
Instead of being forced to join a traditional Union to get a job, people will join industry-specific DAOs as their free, uncoerced choice because the DAOs will provide access and discounts to industry tools, taking advantage of their pricing power. I.E. Fitness coaches form a DAO which gets pricing power to access and create fitness coaching tools, same for accountants and car mechanics, etc. These DAOs will also create their own tools for use within the DAO.
Parts 1, 2, and 3 together show the power of DAOs, and why the world needs them. Now, put this knowledge into practice with Take Action: Part 4, Conclusion of the Why DAOs Series.
