Can DAOs Change The World?
What are DAOs?
DAOs are Decentralised Autonomous Organisations. In other words, they are non-hierarchical organisations in web3 funded and owned by crypto investors or communities.
DAOs are popularly known for their lofty ambitions. But can they change the world as we know it? Let’s find out from the following examples!
AssangeDAO
In early February, AssangeDAO came into the limelight as the social crusade DAO that pulled in more than $50 million (17,422 Ether)on JuiceBox, Ethereum’s fundraising protocol, to finance the legal expenses of the embattled Australian whistleblower Jullian Assange who was fighting an extradition battle in British court.
Through AssangeDAO, the WikiLeaks founder’s cause struck the right cord with many of his supporters spread across various crypto communities,and it was the desire to set him free that led to the creation of a DAO with millions of American dollars pouring into its crypto treasury.
No sooner was AssangeDAO formed than it trended on Twitter and gained a huge press coverage in the mainstream media. But within the crypto community the spotlight was on the new record it had set as the highest funded DAO on JuiceBox, a position that was previously held by ConstitutionDAO, the $47 million DAO that wanted to buy a rare copy of the US constitution in 2021.
At the fundraising level, AssangeDAO was a massive success story in the history of web3 funding as a result of its ability to rally a section of society to Assange’s fight for freedom. But this would not halt the scepticism that was soon to engulf it.
FUDists, crypto haters, and the George Soros of this world had a field’s day booing AssangeDAO and laughing about its adopted posture of readiness, while others predicted that the hype surrounding it and the excitement it had inspired within the crypto community and beyond would not last longer than the decline of Constitution DAO.
However, AssangeDAO was at its height before the extradition battle was lost to the US government in May. But the power of blockchain technology to bring people together in the fight for justice is what it represents to many within and outside the crypto space to this day.
MoonDAO
MoonDAO, an internet collective founded in November of 2021 to decentralise access to space, is another public spirited DAO exemplifying how DAOs can harness both human resources and capital for social change. It is consistently ranked as the fourth-highest funded DAO on JuiceBox, the Ethereum-based fundraising protocol, and it recently sponsored Coby Cotton of the Dude Perfect fame to outer space on the Blue Origin’s NS-22 mission.
The founding of MoonDAO stemmed from a funny idea to bid for lunar asteroids at the Christie’s but it later transformed into a social project to sponsor ordinary people to space and open up access to its economy. The loftiness of its mission was such that it raised a whopping $8.3 million on JuiceBox within a short window of time and to the vast astonishment of the crypto community.
When viewed through the social impact lens, it is at least plausible to say that MoonDAO is uniting humanity, shaping the future of space travel and building a space-fairing civilization. After all, decentralizing access to the space industry means empowering ordinary people to explore the terrain and experience zero-gravity and high-altitude conditions, something which is considered to be the luxury of the ultra-rich.
Finally, on the 4th of August, MoonDAO, represented by popular YouTuber Coby Cotton, became the first DAO in space following the successful launch of Blue Origin’s NS-22 mission. This milestone mainly represented MoonDAO’s resolve to reach new frontiers in space exploration and travel in the coming years.
Ukraine DAO
When the Russian-Ukrainian war entered its first week, the global community became increasingly alarmed by the devastation that the war was to unleash on the citizens of Ukraine. And for the first time in history, an internet collective with nothing but a pile of assets or an official war chest(ukrainedao.eth) rallied the world to a cause that made Russia the aggressor.
The founding of Ukraine DAO was a timely response to aid the prosecution of the war by the Ukrainian soldiers who were bound to put up a fierce resistance against the invading Russian army. And what began as a Twitter account run by Alona Shevchenko few days to President Putin’s official declaration of war soon became a political cause to aid Ukrain’s military efforts and a global campaign to stop the raging war.
The sterling example that UkraineDAO has come to represent in crypto gives one a deeper understanding of the potential benefit of a crypto community and how much power it has to move the world with the speed of a gazele, the commitment of an army, and the power of the world’s most disruptive technology.
DomainDAO
Talking of disrupting a billion dollar industry, let’s get excited about the value proposition of DomainDAO, which, in a nutshell, is to register .(dot)dao as a top level domain(TLD)under the ICANN rules and guidelines.
This bold move raises the question of what the future of domain ownership will look like in the years ahead. But one thing is certain, DomainDAO will be able to unleash a torrential amount of disruption in the domain space when DAOs in various ecosystems begin to dump such web 2 TLDs as .(dot)com and .(dot)io.
DomainDAO, simply put, is a solution oriented DAO in the same way that most DAOs can be described when they propose to solve a particular problem as an internet collectiv. It is able to satisfy this requirement by proposing to stand up to the monopoly under whose yoke the domain industry has been writhing, and the good news is that the decade-old anti-monopoly sentiment is in its favour.
As a public spirited entity, the starting point for DomainDAO is the agenda to democratise domain ownership in web 2 for its web3 product and if it is ever able to translate this vision into reality,it would become the DAO standard for emerging DAOs plying the same route. Most importantly, it will usher in a future where ordinary people can shape the domain industry.
Conclusion
The underlying philosophy of a DAO is making a difference in society or impacting an organised sector of the economy. Leveraging a DAO can thus be the most effective way to rally netizens to a cause or the most viable tool for building trust among the various communities in web3 and on-boarding the mass of mankind to the era of decentralisation.
