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DAOs: The Future of Decentralized Governance
In 2021, crypto has been one of the biggest trends shaping tech and finance, and according to mainstream news headlines, DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are set to be a force to be reckoned with in crypto in 2022. Mark Cuban called them the “ultimate combination of capitalism and progressivism.” However, while DAOs are relatively easy to understand conceptually, they’re a segment of the crypto market in a state of rapid flux, with many innovative use cases emerging.
What is a DAO?
The purest definition of a DAO is inherent in the name. An organization is a group of people and entities with a common goal or idea. It’s decentralized, so there is no CEO or board of executives responsible for decision-making, and it’s autonomous, meaning it’s self-governing. Self-governing means that there are governance rules programmed into blockchain-based smart contracts, and members of the DAO vote on matters affecting the DAO according to those rules.
One of the earliest DAOs, a project called The DAO, illustrates one of the most straightforward use cases of a DAO and also happens to be pivotal in the history of DAOs. The Genesis DAO, as