Decentralized Autonomous Organizations
DAOs coordinate people and capital using smart contracts instead of traditional hierarchies. Governance tokens enable on-chain voting, treasuries hold collective funds, and multisigs provide operational security.
35 min•By Priygop Team•Last updated: Feb 2026
DAO Components
- Governance token — Voting power proportional to holdings or stake. Can be gamed by wealthy holders (plutocracy problem)
- Snapshot voting — Off-chain, gasless voting using token balances at a snapshot block. Results executed on-chain via Safe multisig
- On-chain governance — OpenZeppelin Governor + TimelockController. Proposals → voting → 48h timelock → execution. Fully decentralized
- Quadratic voting — Vote weight = √(tokens). Reduces plutocracy, requires identity/Sybil resistance (Gitcoin Passport)
- DAO Treasury — Usually held in Gnosis Safe 5-of-9 multisig. Diversified: ETH, stablecoins, protocol tokens
- Workstreams — Sub-DAOs for development, marketing, grants. Each with budget and autonomy. Contributors paid via streaming (Superfluid)
- Rage quit — Moloch DAO pattern: disagree with a vote → exit with your share of treasury before execution
- Examples — MakerDAO (manages DAI), Uniswap DAO ($1B+ treasury), ENS DAO, Arbitrum DAO