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You're reading State of the DAOs, the high-signal low-noise newsletter to understanding DAOs.
Authors: Bankless DAO Writers Guild (authors)
This is the official newsletter of the Bankless DAO. If you were a Premium Member of the Bankless Newsletter as of May 1st, 2021 you have been subscribed to this newsletter at launch.
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Author: scottyk
If you're new to crypto and you're looking to get more involved, then you’ve probably started to explore the world of DAOs. If you’ve been in crypto for a while, you’ve probably joined and contributed to a few DAOs. So let’s all take a step back and make sure we’re all on the same page here. What exactly is a DAO?
We all know it’s a “decentralized autonomous organization”, that much is clear and agreed upon. However, beyond that there really isn’t much in agreement. Why is that? Because it’s a broad tool and it’s really new.
History of DAOs
As with all things crypto, it basically started with Bitcoin. Although most people will never call Bitcoin a DAO, the network itself is run and governed by consensus on-chain and thus could be thought of as the original DAO. However, many people will consider The DAO the first true DAO. It was launched in 2016 and eventually led to a massive hack and subsequent chain split between ETH and ETC.
However unfortunate the outcome was for The DAO it was the genesis of a revolutionary new way for people to work and organize. The DAO raised $150m in ETH from 11,000 people with the intent of pooling the funds and allowing the members to pick how the funds would be dispersed. Basically like a big on-chain VC funding mechanism.
These primitives to this new organizational structure have evolved quite significantly since those early days. There are now a plethora of tools, guides, and other resources to help you along your journey now. However far the ecosystem has advanced, the general premise of The DAO continues to remain the same.