Despite the increase in the number of blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations(DAOs),there is no consensus on what constitutes a DAO.This paper provides an in-depth study of DAOs by analyzing their defi...Despite the increase in the number of blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations(DAOs),there is no consensus on what constitutes a DAO.This paper provides an in-depth study of DAOs by analyzing their definitions,characteristics,and emerging developments.Existing definitions in the literature hardly recognize common functionalities and intermingle coded DAOs,DAO deployment platforms,and blockchain DAOs.We developed a comprehensive DAO definition by reviewing the literature and empirically analyzing 1,859 DAOs.The findings show that many DAOs were inactive and that a threshold of 20 tokenholders is a tipping point for DAOs to survive over time and maintain sustained levels of activity.Finally,based on an empirical analysis of 9,845 perceived DAOs,we identified the emerging development of off-chain voting.This emerging development challenges the autonomous nature of DAOs.We recommend further research to investigate the effect of governance structures on their long-term sustainability and viability for both on-chain and off-chain DAOs.展开更多
文摘Despite the increase in the number of blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations(DAOs),there is no consensus on what constitutes a DAO.This paper provides an in-depth study of DAOs by analyzing their definitions,characteristics,and emerging developments.Existing definitions in the literature hardly recognize common functionalities and intermingle coded DAOs,DAO deployment platforms,and blockchain DAOs.We developed a comprehensive DAO definition by reviewing the literature and empirically analyzing 1,859 DAOs.The findings show that many DAOs were inactive and that a threshold of 20 tokenholders is a tipping point for DAOs to survive over time and maintain sustained levels of activity.Finally,based on an empirical analysis of 9,845 perceived DAOs,we identified the emerging development of off-chain voting.This emerging development challenges the autonomous nature of DAOs.We recommend further research to investigate the effect of governance structures on their long-term sustainability and viability for both on-chain and off-chain DAOs.
