Governance

DAOs, as their name imply, aim for decentralization. But their behavior and design may be corrupted towards a centralized state. While most DAOs have to deal with temporary centralization vectors—like governance attacks and admin paralysis—sometimes, centralized status becomes permanent. This goes against the core doctrine of diverse participation prevalent in DAO discourse. Instead of distributing governance action to its community, a DAO may fall into governance absolutism. We’ll go over four types of governance absolutism related to DAOs: ...

As DAOs evolve, they must anticipate future challenges and opportunities. Prospective governance is a design and management approach that tackles these issues proactively, instead of reacting as they appear. By acknowledging DAOs’ temporal complexities, we can enhance governance outcomes from the start and through their lifecycle. We’ll share a brief guide to prospective governance—from design philosophy to structural reinvention. This topic goes far beyond the scope of this article, but we hope at least to persuade DAO enthusiasts of its importance. ...