Types of DAO

DAO's based on various use-cases

DAO's are purpose built and have their own use cases. Some of the most common used DAO's is explained below:

  1. Protocol DAOs - Developers want to launch an automated market maker on a new blockchain offering unique privacy attributes and speed.56 Building the protocol requires significant investments of capital and engineering. Ultimately the developers want to mint a token that will decentralise the protocol’s governance by enabling holders to vote on certain of the protocol’s parameters. All of the project's activities will be on chain. Example - ENSDAO.

  2. Social DAO's - A digitally native community that is organised around a particular interest mints a membership token that allows holders to access a token-gated Discord server, as well as participate in snapshot votes about potential group activities. In addition to congregating online, the SocialDAO also hosts fun parties and events. Example - FWB.

  3. Investment DAO's - A group of investors is interested in pooling funds together to invest in Web3 projects, including purchasing digital assets, but also funding projects pre-token launch by investing in equity and token rights. They intend to source investment opportunities from their members and make collective investment decisions by voting their DAO tokens on snapshot. Ultimately, they intend for the digital assets and any profits to be distributed to the members. Example - MakerDAO (utility-collaterals), bitDAO (ventures), PleasrDAO ( collector), SyndicateDAO (automation of DAO investments).

  4. Education DAO's - A digitally native web3 expert community that is organised around sharing the best practices and sharing education, podcasts, training, among others. There are also certain DAO models that provides online education revolving around Web 3 courses which can be paid by contributing to the DAO and earning tokens and NFT's which in turn can be used to pay for Web 3 education. Example - OdysseyDAO.

  5. Philanthropic DAO's - Developers, wishing to promote both financial inclusion and literacy, green initiative, among others, decide to create a DAO to pool donations, and provide grants and scholarships for students studying engineering and projects focused on assisting unbanked persons. They want to mint a governance token for deciding to whom the grants are given, and for which projects. Example - KlimaDAO.

Good to know: Building a DAO involves more than just code; it also requires thoughtful legal engineering to enable the DAO to operate in the real world and protect builders and contributors. DAO's requires a well thought of legal wrappers ( LLC, Inc, Non-profit, foundation etc.) and paired with a framework for understanding how these legal elements interact with the purpose and operations of the DAO.

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