What is a DAO? Who is in charge of it?
Let’s find out about its behaviors and correlation to blockchain
DAOs are an effective and secure way to work with people all over the world. We can define them as a decentralized autonomous organization that uses a revolutionary method to achieve its goals, making use of votes guarantee a unanimous decision. Making use of smart contracts and blockchain technology, the management is transparent and the rules are inserted into the DAO through its code.
Starting an organization with someone with funds and money involved requires a lot of trust in them. However, it is difficult to trust someone you have only interacted with on the internet. The acronym DAO comes from the English “Decentralized Autonomous Organization”, which implies that it is an organization controlled entirely by computational algorithms. They are known as smart contracts and determine the rules of how the parties involved in the DAO should cooperate. DAOs are not bound to any regulations due to the decentralized nature, the blockchain.
DAOs depend on a number of mechanisms to ensure they function at all times. The backbone of a DAO is its smart contract. Once the contract is active on Ethereum, no one can change the rules except by a vote. In case someone tries to do something that is not covered by the rules and logic of the code, they will fail. With this, the DAO gains the ability to perform actions autonomously, thus without a central authority. The second mechanism is a consensus protocol. Its function is to ensure that decisions made within the DAO are born out of the consensus of all parties. This is possible because smart contracts are tamper-proof once on Ethereum: it is not possible to simply change the code without people being aware of it, because every movement is public.
Advantages and disadvantages of DAOs
Like all types of technology, a DAO can offer its participants several advantages and disadvantages. We’ve grouped together a few points that are worth knowing.
Advantages:
- It allows you to create organizations without any kind of hierarchy with a completely democratic character. Everyone who is part of the organization can contribute;
- Its level of transparency and security is very high;
- Decentralization allows DAOs to create global services that are automatically managed in a decentralized manner, ensuring access for all;
Disadvantages
- Automation of activities and the ability to make decisions is very complex. The DAO case has shown that a single line error can cost millions.
- There are issues with DAO being able to comply with regulations in many countries.
A few years after its creation, DAOs are undoubtedly an incredible technology tool that could be part of any major revolution in the future.
DAOs allow organizations to break free from dependence on traditional institutions. Surely this revolution will end up coming from people not affected by the current limitations of society, visionaries…who knows, maybe that person is you.
