You're reading State of the DAOs, the high-signal low-noise newsletter for understanding DAOs.
DAO contributors come from all walks of life, and contribute to all kinds of DAOs. No matter what the protocol, purpose, or profile pic, DAO life will involve decision making. Because DAOs value decentralized, non-hierarchical processes over the traditional corporate ‘chain of command’, the path forward will need to be agreed by the community.
So how does a community agree on how to agree? If you’ve ever found yourself ‘swimming against the tide’ in a group discussion, you’ll understand that when DAO dialogue turns to impasse the result can be frustration and stagnation. In this issue’s editorial, HiroKennelly examines the difference between aiming for consensus and achieving consent, and explains how the concepts of authority, autonomy, and agency intersect to form the basis of quality governance processes in DAOs.
Also in this issue, get acquainted with the latest Gitcoin Grants round (GG18) — the good news is that you can decide all by yourself which of the array of projects you’d like to support. If you’re interested in DeSci, read the survey report about Gitcoin Round 15 funding for decentralized science organizations. There’s also a look at what the data from popular DAO-voting platform Snapshot tells us about DAOs, a thought-provoking take on the evolution of social DAOs into social protocols, and a look at the pros and cons of decentralization in relation to network security.
Last but not least, don’t miss Other Internet’s report titled Web3 Work: The DAO Contributor Perspective. It’s a wonderfully informative deep dive which will tell you all you need to know about the State of the DAOs.
Contributors: angelspeaks, Quilia, Warrior, Vi-Fi, Kornekt, trewkat, siddhearta, HiroKennelly
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Author: HiroKennelly
Image credit: trewkat
One of the phrases that gets batted around in modern democracy is the idea that a government’s legitimacy and right to power is conferred by the consent of the people. In fact, this concept is found in one of the U.S.’s founding documents, the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,...
But as anyone who has spent time trying to organize people knows:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/rLmGwwCXTn8ijJ-AAdnZsArSJNYfe4ggrjlgJ7T7egQ9TK1j87HBr83oYfB0ucefhnFHp5wjaQbT-SXb8nMbsYSwV_9qK7_wfNkw91_eLb0XZIn1WKM_73s9teRhQU5embs6pO_rshl6IRlWBzoQDrs