How Can I Find New DAO Projects?
Published June 6, 2022.
DAO stands for decentralized autonomous organization. It refers to member-owned communities that function without centralized leadership. DAOs marked a major milestone in the DeFi evolution, offering a trustless solution to global collaboration, where the rules of a DAO are ingrained into its code. Everything is out in the open, which allows for full transparency.
Benefits of a DAO
DAOs offer many benefits that are not applicable to traditional organizations. Here are some of the advantages DAOs have over traditional organizations:
- Traditional organizations are hierarchical. Conversely, DAOs are democratic, as each member has an equal say in decision-making.
- In traditional organizations, people in higher positions can demand and implement changes at their sole discretion. In DAOs, you need to present a proposal for changes, and it is only passed if the majority of members vote in favor.
- A traditional organization requires intermediaries to reach a consensus and implement the decision. In DAOs, smart contracts do the job. Since they are just a set of codes, they cannot be manipulated. Therefore, they are completely unbiased.
- A DAO treasury is managed by the smart contract. As a result, transactions are executed automatically on approval by the community.
- All information regarding a DAO is public.
Having said this, one should always have a balanced perspective before investing in a project, and knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of DAOs is essential.
How to Find New DAO Projects
The success of DAOs like Uniswap, MakerDAO, and AssangeDAO proves that the decentralized vision of DAOs has resonated with the masses. Consequently, DAO tokens are highly speculated. They usually record a massive surge in price just months into going public. This makes it hard to join DAOs without a large initial capital. You need to get hold of DAO tokens in the early stages to profit from their growth.
In this section, we will discuss some of the best ways to find new DAO projects.
- Search #DAO on Twitter You will find updates about hot new DAOs here. Don’t fall for fake giveaways and contests, though. Although the project is in the initial phase, it will be a good idea to analyze the community strength on Twitter, Discord, and Telegram among other social media platforms. A strong community is the backbone of a DAO.
- Visit the official website of the DAO Double-check if the URL is correct. Scammers create fake websites and social media pages to trap users. The website will give you an introduction to the DAO and its vision. You will also find links to the social media pages, white paper, and pitch deck of the DAO here.
- Analysis Analyze the vision, mission, tokenomics, revenue streams, and roadmap in-depth to understand the DAO’s market relevance and competence.
- Research Go through articles, videos, podcasts, and AMAs about the DAO to learn what industry experts have to say about the project. This is also a good way to discover DAO projects.
- Audit reports Make sure the smart contract has undergone a security audit from a reputed company. Go through the audit report to ensure that the flaws in the code have been addressed.
Best DAO Projects to Join
We have listed below the top DAO projects to join:
1. Protocol DAOs
Protocol DAOs use governance tokens for decision-making. Here, you can make changes and updates to underlying protocols using these tokens. They are also used to reward liquidity pool contributors on DEXs.
2. Venture DAOs
Venture DAOs pool and distribute funds for common causes in a trustless, transparent manner. Since the transactions are out for anyone to see and verify, they are widely received.
3. Arts and Entertainment DAOs
These are groups of people tied together by their passion for arts and entertainment. They pool resources and host fun activities for the community.
Media DAOs
Media DAOs aim to create unbiased content without necessarily relying on advertisers for funding. They are rewarded in the native token of the DAO, instead.
Collector DAOs
Collector DAOs allow people to own collectibles as a group, which they can’t individually afford to buy. They can be NFTs or not. The DAO pools money and place bids at auctions.
Related: How to start a DAO
