DAOs: The Rise of a New Governance Model Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are considered one of the most prominent examples of innovation that blockchain technology can bring. The fact that the number of DAO establishments increased by 50% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, coupled with a significant growth in assets under management (AUM) through them, demonstrates that this technology is evolving from a mere experimental project into a mainstream economic and organizational model. However, the evolution of DAOs is becoming a topic that requires deeper discussion not only among individual investors and general organizations but also within Korean society. A DAO, or Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is a new form of organization operated based on blockchain technology. Unlike traditional organizations that operate through hierarchical pyramid structures and directives from central managers, DAOs make decisions centered around a distributed community rather than a single controlling entity. Automated rules, exemplified by smart contracts, handle all processes transparently, allowing participants to vote or make decisions based on these rules. Consequently, they operate by leveraging the inherent trust system of blockchain technology while enhancing transparency and democracy. Recently, DAOs have been expanding their reach beyond digital environments like NFTs and the gaming industry, into offline sectors such as finance, research and development, social contribution, and real estate investment. In the real estate sector, in particular, small-scale investors are exploring the possibility of accessing ownership of collective assets through DAOs. In the United States, several real estate investment DAOs have been established and are conducting joint investments in commercial buildings and residential facilities worth millions of dollars. This movement can be analyzed as a result of the combination of technological advancement and expanded financial accessibility. And that's not all. DAOs are now growing to the extent that they are considered an alternative to traditional organizations, bringing changes to collaboration and decision-making models across various sectors of society. In the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, DAOs are already playing a crucial role. A prime example is MakerDAO, a DAO that issues and manages the stablecoin DAI, where participants determine key financial policies such as collateral ratios and interest rates through voting. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap also determine protocol upgrades and fee structures through DAO governance. These cases prove that DAOs are not just theoretical concepts but practical organizational forms that manage billions of dollars in assets. At the heart of these developments lies the DAO governance model. Early DAOs were based on a one-person, one-vote system, but over time, they began to adopt more sophisticated and realistic approaches. Recently, there have been cases where delegated voting systems allow users to transfer their voting rights to specialized representatives. This acknowledges the practical limitation that not all participants can have an in-depth understanding of every agenda item, enabling more efficient and informed decisions by delegating decision-making to experts. Furthermore, identity verification systems to prevent Sybil attacks and weighted voting systems to protect minority opinions are actively being experimented with. A Sybil attack refers to a method where one person creates multiple fake identities to unfairly secure voting rights; to prevent this, some DAOs are introducing methods such as biometric authentication or social verification. A weighted voting system assigns voting power not simply proportional to token holdings, but by considering factors such as participation duration, contribution, and expertise. These experiments are regarded as processes through which DAOs are forming more inclusive and realistic decision-making structures. Challenges and Tasks Facing DAOs Furthermore, some DAOs are experimenting with an innovative voting method called Quadratic Voting. This allows voters to cast multiple votes on a specific agenda item, but the cost of additional votes increases quadratically, designed to ensure that minority opinions with strong preferences can also be reflected. These diverse governance experiments demonstrate that DAOs function not merely as technological tools but as social laboratories for democracy and collective decision-making. However, there are not only positive aspects. DAOs still face several challenges. The most commonly raised issue is the delay in decision-making speed. Since all decisions are made through voting, immediate responses can be difficult when urgent decisions are required. Matters that executives in a traditional company might decide within hours can take days to weeks in a DAO, going through proposal drafting, discussion periods, and voting per
Related Articles