Where DAO Belongs in the NEAR Ecosystem
Meet Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), a replacing mechanism to the traditional hierarchical organizations. Instead of a CEO at the top of the pyramid to give instructions, they are decided via voting process by the community, for the community. Instead of decisions behind closed doors, they're made in the open. Instead of trusting the organization for their promises made, DAO promotes trustlessness when everything is available in the open. The advantages are limitless! Let's see how these factors apply in existing DAOs: the Orange DAO, Unchain.fund DAO (on AstroDAO), Sail GP DAO, and Constitution DAO.
DAO allows community activities coordination. SailGP, an international sailing competition, creates a DAO for their latest competition. Anyone could take initiatives introducing new activities that previously un-think before, either because of restrictions or no tools available to make it happen. Then, they submit proposals to the DAO for voting from the community; if it passes a certain percentage, they get their funds to run the activities. It's not just SailGP, but Unchain.fund uses this multiple-signature (multisig) component (voting process) to distribute their funds to Ukraine humanitarian aids too! Community decides where their donations go. Hence, DAO allow reimagining community-created activities that previously meet roadblocks from higher level hierarchies.
DAO introduces old sports to new audiences. SailGP partnership with NEAR spreads the soul of sailing to a wider community that might never thought of sailing before. As a result, more audiences participate in the sport, or at least try it out. Even if they don't end up competing in SailGP, it could pique audiences' interest to sail casually wherever they are. In fact, one think that if combines with play-to-earn element, it could brings more people to join the sport. Web3 is no longer stuck "on the web" (nfts, crypto only); it had bring itself to the physical world, for people to participate physical activities, with real people whom they could make friends with, in real life (IRL).
DAO also maximizes transparency by having transactions on the blockchain. Traditionally, the distribution of charity funds to desired end parties are done behind closed doors. How much percentage actually goes to the end party depends on what is reported by the organization; and the data requires community's trusting there are no misstatements in funds allocation. Thanks to triple-entry accounting, community can verify how the funds are transferred on the blockchain, including how much funds are left on the DAO. The community do not need to trust the organization; they just need to trust that the blockchain is giving them real result, based on inspecting the source code of the blockchain. In return, community are more willing to donate if they know where their donations go, hence speeding up the process of fundraising. To utilize their funds on the blockchain, Unchain.fund partners with Ukrainian banks to off-ramp them to fiat currency for distribution. After all, fiat is still a widely used currency, while crypto is gaining its traction to wider marketplace.
DAO allows for emotional and cultural resonance. Any group of people sharing a common value can come together to start a new DAO; which people sharing the same value could join if they previously aren't in the group starting the DAO. The bonding between people sharing a common value demolishes literally all friction that prevents something from being put forward. In fact, the Constitution DAO is one of the fastest fundraising DAO, frictionless! This isn't just about holding appreciation token; a token only gains its value if people appreciate it, likes what they do, and find that they belongs in that community. Combining with tools from the NEAR Ecosystem and an agreed-upon deadline, the Constitution DAO motivates its contributors to accomplish something they care about.
Finally, DAO onboard web2 builders on to web3. The Orange DAO, combined with NEAR Ecosystem web2-friendly tools, allows web2 builders to join the community as a Y Combinator (YC) builders (the term YC is confusing, perhaps it's just a name used internally). Anyone can form a team worldwide (the team does not need to be physically close together, members could be from anywhere around the world) to build. In return, NEAR achieves its goal for mass adoption by the community.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the above are just a few use cases of DAO. There are more use cases for the community to discover. These use cases might not be something already existing; new tools provided means new possibilities to what can be done. With more users onboarding to the NEAR Ecosystem and hence building more DAO, community finds a place where they belong in the ecosystem, where their voice matters in that community they joined. Join DAO, join NEAR.
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References
NEAR March Town Hall YouTube Video (final section on DAO discussion).
