A DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) is a group that formed for a common purpose, like investing in web3 startups or to crowdfund artworks. DAOs are new organisational structures that operate based on smart contracts – programmes stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met – with the goal of minimising or even removing human input entirely. In a DAO, decisions are not made by an individual (i.e. CEOs, or central authorities like banks), but by the organisation’s members. They are run by its members who are incentivised with crypto-tokens to ensure that its collective goals are met. These tokens usually have certain rights attached, such as the ability to manage a common treasury or vote on certain decisions.

Essentially, DAOs evolved from the “Candies” economy propagated by Web2 platforms (such as Facebook & YouTube) and “Sharing” economy spearheaded by the open-source software/platforms, where users contribute and down/up-vote content, but do not necessarily benefit financially from their contributions.