Published in

UFOstart

6 min readDec 2, 2021

Welcome to DAOs Part I

Everyone talks about it. But what is a DAO, really?

In this article, we want to introduce you to the hot topic of the blockchain universe –decentralized autonomous organization.

Additionally, below is a little map to our piece.

Examples and use cases
Why do we need DAOs?
What are the possible benefits of joining a DAO?
Are DAOs for everyone?
How do we join a DAO?
How can we work for a DAO?

Let’s dive in!

To make more sense out of it, let’s have a solid example:

In a normal company, the decision making process is usually top-down. There is often a CEO or a group of committees who control the progression of the company. However, in DAOs, the decisions or proposals are created as well as controlled by all company members. Additionally, a proposal has to get enough votes by the members to go into operation.

In the end, it is the members who decide collectively what is good for the company, and not a lonesome riding CEO.

That being said, of course DAOs have more use cases. Another example could be a charity accepting memberships as well as donations from anyone in the world. Moreover, those who contributed have the right to decide how to or where to spend the collected money.

At this point, it is crucial to mention that DAOs are created based on smart contracts. This means, once the community of the above example charity sets a vote on “how to spend the money”, no one can manipulate and change the voting to something else because there is no central authority controlling the outcome of a vote. Furthermore, once the voting process is over, the implementation of the outcome takes no time.

Why do we need DAOs?

There are some keywords that we can mention when talking about DAOs:

Trust, open-source, transparent, clarity, collectiveness, non-hierarchical, non-centralized…

No one should fully trust a single person, e.g. a manager, when it comes to important decisions about the company– especially when it’s regarding the employees.

The reason is simple: It is human nature to act according to our own interest. However, this behaviour is not desired when it comes to achieving business goals.

With DAOs however, misconduct is off the table. Any transaction that has ever been made is transparent, open-sourced and non-centralized. This enables everyone to see exactly what is going on with the processes they are involved in.

What are the possible benefits of joining a DAO?

It is super easy to join a DAO. The space is open for new members and the best way to get involved is to start networking via social platforms. You can easily send a message to a member of a DAO and they will definitely be open to having a chat. There is no need for serious interview talks, you just need to be enthusiastic about becoming a part of the community!
You are free to make your decisions on how to contribute. This means that you can decide about your work flow as well as how much you want to be involved in the organisation. No one cares if you worked 5 or 8 hours last Tuesday or whether you took 30 or 45 minutes off. Your input is what matters.
There are no traditional contracts. There are only smart contracts. It means that all the rules are put in a computer code which secures the rights of a member. The problem of “interpretation of the manager” just solved itself!
No managers — no problem. The whole management of a company is automated through blockchain. Therefore DAOs do not have to deal with issues caused by people managing the people. For example, an executive would try to hide a serious mistake in order not to get degraded to a lower position. Another example is people fighting over promotions. The solution found by DAOs helps with prioritising the business goal instead of the level of authority.
There is still a way to measure the importance of an employee compared to the hierarchical structure. In a DAO, our influence in the company grows according to how important our contribution is to the project. Members gain merits — in the form of tokens — according to their engagement and the knowledge they provide. The token allows the organisation to find a balance and reward the members who really deserve the kudos for their hard work.
Each member can participate in the decision making process. Through the platform, each member can leave their feedback or vote that will count in the final decision. It helps with building a sense of collective responsibility. Keep in mind that people with more merits (tokens) still might have a stronger voting power.
Transparency and holistic overview are provided to and by all the members. The decision is no longer left to a CEO who makes the decision based on a bunch of reports.
Lastly, you can learn so much in a DAO.

If you’re a person who is fair, questions the status-quo and loves to explore new things, then just give DAOs a try!

Are DAOs for everyone?

Ideally they are for everyone.

You can be whoever you want. What is taken into account is only your feedback, ideas and enthusiasm.

You can be wherever you want. Germany, USA, Australia, Vietnam, the North Pole… DAOs operate remotely and there are no restrictions regarding where you have to come from to be able to participate.

So really, DAOs’ main goal is to be open for everyone.

However, from the tech point of view, people who are not so confident with their computer skills might find it harder to participate in the voting processes. The future goal of DAOs is that anyone, regardless of their technical skills, finds it super easy to use DAO platforms.

How do we join a DAO?

As mentioned earlier the key to getting started is networking. All blockchain enthusiasts have a Twitter account and if you want to reach them, you should definitely get one too. LinkedIn is also an option but Twitter is a rather tech-oriented than a business-oriented space, which at this point is more suitable for a DAO community.

Once you have the Twitter account you should search for hashtags such as #DAO, #DAOs, #blockchain etc. and follow DAO accounts. Try engaging with the community and check which DAO fits your preferences. Then just get in touch with a person working for the organisation via Twitter. They will reply for sure and it will help you to dive faster and easier into the organisation.

There is no reason to be shy.

The other option is that once you have chosen a DAO you simply go to their website and start participating in the proposals. DAOs are an open space and you can join them independently.

Let’s sum up the previous steps:

Set up a Twitter account
Start networking and find the DAO(s) you want to join
Message a member of the organisation
Go through the website and get familiar with the proposals and voting processes.

How can we work for a DAO?

There are two ways to contribute to a DAO.

Participate in the voting processes, work on gaining the merits and contribute with your feedback to the growth of the organisation.
Find a gap that needs to be filled in the organisation and start fulfilling your function just like in any other company.

In the end, although DAOs are very new there is already a wide variety of them and there is no right or wrong on how to be a member.

Overall, it is important that we are eager to learn and try new things.

So, let’s briefly sum up what we’ve learned in this article:

DAOs are decentrally-run, blockchain-based organisations executed via smart contracts
The main reason for having DAOs is democratization of project’s participation and remuneration.
Everybody can participate in the voting processes.
Merits (tokens) are a tool that determines the voting power of a member.
DAOs are for everyone, everywhere in the world.
In order to join a DAO you should build a network via Twitter or simply start voting on the platform.

Now you should know all the basics about DAOs and be ready to join a new decentralised spaceship!

On our next stop we will be talking in detail about the technicalities of DAOs (for example the mysterious ‘token’) and challenges that DAOs are currently trying to overcome.

Stay tuned and stay safe!

Your UFOstart Team

Hop onto our spaceship🚀