Time Travelling DAOs

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Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have rapidly emerged as revolutionary models of collaboration and decision-making within the blockchain space. As we peer into the horizon of what lies ahead, the future of DAOs brims with excitement and promises of transformative changes. In this article, I delve into key areas that I think pave the way for the evolution of DAOs, exploring how they will transcend traditional boundaries and unlock new realms of possibility. Fasten your seatbelt as we embark on an exploration of the future of DAOs.

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Redefining Voting Mechanisms for Enhanced Governance

Current DAO structures often rely on legacy voting methods that no longer capture the full potential of decentralized decision-making. With single-choice and basic voting remaining the most used voting mechanisms employed by DAOs as shown by Snapshot:  https://twitter.com/SnapshotLabs/status/1668332382724960257?s=20.

These mechanisms have served their purpose. It's time to push the boundaries and embrace voting mechanisms made possible by the modern age. Technology and on-chain governance present an opportunity for expanded options.  Alternative voting mechanisms empower token holders, allowing them to express their preferences more effectively.

There is a myriad of options available, and I will refer you to this excellent article by Max Petkovsek for those of you who want to explore this in further depth. https://www.lemma.solutions/insights/decentralized-voting. The future of DAOs lies in unlocking the potential of diverse and advanced voting mechanisms that truly reflect the collective will of the community.

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Balancing Participation and Delegation in DAO Governance

Recognizing the realities of voter fatigue is essential for the sustainable growth of DAOs. Expecting every member to actively participate in governance on a regular basis is unrealistic. To strike a balance, I believe that DAOs will embrace a middle ground where delegation and sub-DAOs play a crucial role.

Empowering delegates and sub-DAOs to make specific decisions helpalleviate the burden on individual token holders while maintaining the ultimatedecision-making power in their hands.

Safeguards must be in place to protect the interests of tokenholders, ensuring transparency, accountability, and clear restrictions on thedelegated authority. The future of DAOs embraces a pragmatic approach togovernance, combining the wisdom of the crowd with the efficiency of trusteddelegates.

We are already seeing this. Ape DAO is creating a trulydecentralized organization with different working groups. A full breakdown isoutside the scope of this article, but for a brief glimpse see this tweet: https://twitter.com/0xAmplify/status/1669757432489467904/photo/1

VitaDao is currently voting on the establishment of a compensation committee https://snapshot.org/?ref=daotimes.com#/vote.vitadao.eth/proposal/0x108863f11b9cc5724addd6bdcd54ae434bdd007a55073fe2210193d607c04449 The current status of the vote is unknown as VitaDao has implemented Secret Ballot voting(another development that I think will become increasingly common).

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Revenue-Generating DAOs: Unlocking Creative Monetization

DAOs of the future will transcend being mere conduits for collective decision-making. They will become platforms for revenue generation, story creation and club memberships. Imagine a DAO creating a ground breaking interactive series where token holders shape the narrative, decide character directions, or even contribute to plot twists?

By harnessing the power of blockchain and tokenization, DAOs can enable participants to monetize their creativity directly. We are starting to see the first glimmers of this with BAYC #2758 signing a movie deal through Pirexia Films https://twitter.com/rzubiran/status/1662535827988029445?s=20.

The future of DAOs lies in embracing innovative business models not only in revenue generation, but in empowering individuals to monetize their contributions in ways we've yet to fully explore.

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Accountability: Forging Trust in Decentralized Ecosystems

As DAOs redefine collaboration, they must also redefine accountability. In the quest for transparency and trust, DAOs will embrace the need for audits and openness beyond the blockchain. Traditional corporate governance like annual board meetings and audited financial statements were appropriate for the unconnected era. DAOs will be expected to provide better updates on a more frequent basis. This will extend beyond audited financial statements. DAOs will undergo security audits not only for smart contracts but also for key storage and other critical aspects. The CCSS has written a standard for key storage with Fireblocks completing the first CCSS audit in December 2022. https://www.fireblocks.com/blog/fireblocks-achieves-first-ever-ccss-qsp-level-3-certification/

Members of DAO committees will be encouraged to maintain regularcommunication and transparency. This elevated level of accountability ensuresthat token holders have a voice in shaping the direction of the DAO andreinforces trust within the decentralized ecosystem.

Predicting the future is always a tricky business and if I was alawyer, I would have pages of disclaimers for every sentence written above. Wepredict the future to help us build the future, just to discover the predictedfuture is completely different. These are just my rumblings; would love to hearwhat you think about the future of DAOs. Please comment on this article, tweet,or DM me as I would love to engage!

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