Blockchains and DAOs have been hot topics over the past years. As I have already written an in-depth article about blockchain (Check it out here if you haven’t!), let me introduce DAO to you this time.
What is a DAO?
DAO stands for Decentralised Autonomous Organisation. What does this mean? Imagine a community where there is no central authority governing body. In simpler terms, they are a place for like-minded individuals to connect and work towards a common goal, and everyone shares the same power to control daily operations.
DAO Vs Traditional Organisation
- Democracy is brought by decentralisation, the major difference between a DAO and a traditional organisation that made it so attractive is the level of democracy that it provides. As mentioned earlier, DAOs are decentralised meaning that they have no hierarchy within the group. Everyone shares the same power and volume. Think about Twitter’s new legacy verification guidelines. A used-to-be free blue checkmark authenticating a person’s identity is now a paid subscription item because Elon Musk said so. As users, we are forced to succumb to his policy with grace. However, this would not happen in a DAO as all users share the same number of votes and power in the matter.
- Participation as everyone in a DAO is entitled to have the same level of freedom and respect, and people would feel more empowered to speak out. The inclusive feature allows people to express their opinions freely without violating community rules.
- CommunityThe DAO is a safe haven for like-minded individuals to share their thoughts and ideas. It is assumed that there will be no scams nor ads within it as there is a real person behind every profile. Therefore, do not hesitate if you have any creative ideas to share!
- TransparencyWithin a DAO, everything is transparent and accessible. All members of the group are entitled to cast votes and make decisions on their behalf. As all votes will be viewable publicly on blockchains, this encourages actions that benefit the organisations and eliminates trolls.
Limitations
Although a decentralised community has many pros, it is a new technology and concept that requires improvement.
- Time-consumingSince all decisions are made by all members of the community, new policies and implementations would take a much longer time to install whereas a small party makes decisions in a centralised organisation hence changes can be done within a short period of time.
- LegalUnfortunately, DAOs are not fully recognised legally at the moment. There are concerns regarding ownership and liabilities such as taxation. At the same time, as the DAO community are token-gated, it is not available to everyone, and it might be difficult to reach the community outside of web3.
Build a Greener Future with DAO
DAOs are places for like-minded individuals to come together and build their vision. This holds true for members of the sustainability community. In a green-driven DAO, members make collective decisions to tackle the climate crisis and construct a home suitable for everyone to live.
Currently, the mainstream media presents blockchains and tokens as excessive and energy-consuming. Although it is true that some of the popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are extremely energy-demanding, new validation mechanisms like Proof of State (PoS) have been introduced to address the problem.
The same goes for our token, $GREEN which runs on PoS. Green Token is committed to providing a safe and cosy platform for everyone to live and we wish to achieve our goal by driving down the green premium. Join our Discord and Telegram group to learn more about what we do and meet others who share your ideology.
Real-world examples
Plenty of DAOs out there share a common goal – promoting an ethical and sustainable future. They all count on blockchains and cryptos to create a better tomorrow. Here are some of the interesting ones that you should not miss.
Toucan tokenise carbon offsets through their Toucan Carbon Bridge. Carbon offsets are an activity that reduces or removes GHG emissions in the atmosphere. This can be achieved in various ways including large-scale reforestation, renewable energy power plant constructions, carbon capture etc. Once the tokens are purchased and used, they would be ‘retired’ before recording them on blockchains. In other words, these tokens will no longer be tradable on the market.
Similar to Toucan, KlimaDao is a DAO that sells bonds and distributes rewards to its token holder, KLIMA. It is used as carbon credits so you can buy them to offset your carbon emissions. It is actually a launch partner of Toucan which operates in the carbon market using Toucan Carbon Bridge so that users can convert their carbon to KLIMA directly. These tokens have various utilities including staking, trading and liquidity farming.
DAO is an emerging and constantly evolving concept. They have only been put into existence for a short stretch of time. There are certainly some limitations like legal and time consumption. However, its capabilities and future are boundless, and it can be an amazing tool for building a better future.
