Here are the tools most DAOs use.
All About DAO (Part V): DAO Infrastructure and Tools
DAO Infrastructure and Tools
At the end of 2021, according to our own research, we calculated that currently, there are about 240 active Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) around the world. That’s a 100% increase from 2020!
We talked about DAO as an investment vehicle and also as an operational project. Last time, we covered the strengths and weaknesses of DAOs. These are the tools most commonly used to build and operate DAOs in this day and age.
Communication Tools
According to a survey conducted by Gitcoin DAO, communications tools Discord, Twitter, and Telegram are in the top three of most commonly used, discord taking the first place (which is not mind-blowing). However, the fourth most used tool and perhaps the most surprising is email.
DAO members also use Web3 native tools such as modern forum software Discourse, secure messaging app Status, amongst others. Some DAOs also use other Web2.0 tools such as Slack, WeChat, Notion to name a few.
Photo by Tim Samuel from Pexels
Layer 1 Blockchain
According to a survey of 422 people from 223 DAOs in 290 cities around the world featured on CoinYuppie, the most used layer 1 blockchain by DAOs is Ethereum. Its usage is 40% more than the next blockchain, Binance Coin. Third place goes to Solana, followed then by Bitcoin at fourth.
Governance Architecture
From this part of our series, decision makings in DAOs are unified and with no hierarchy. Member’s votes are collected and the computer programs execute the decision, but usually, the DAOs do not build such computer programs by themselves from scratch.
One such pioneer in the infrastructure layer for DAOs is Moloch, a simple, open-source DAO framework that was first launched in 2019. The LAO, which is the DAO that pushed Wyoming State to legally accept the existence of DAO, had worked with Moloch to develop MolochDAO V2, a framework that is used by several pioneer DAOs (e.g. MetaCartel, Flamingo) to build their governance structure.
There are also other DAO infrastructures that are one-stop solutions for anyone to build a DAO on top of. Aragon and DAOHaus are two of the leading players in the current landscape.
On the other hand, there are also some infrastructure providers that allow developers to build DAOs in a modular way that allows developers to choose different tools for different functionalities, and even integrate some of the modular tools into non-DAO organizations.
According to DAO data analysis organization DeepDAO, the most popular combination is using Snapshot for a voting system and Gnosis Safe for the treasury and execution functions. DAOStack is another open-source framework where you can launch a DAO in a modular approach. Boardroom and Tally are less popular alternatives to Snapshot. Fireblocks is an expensive alternative to Gnosis Safe, as it is not open source, but a paid product.
Some crypto funds that are registered as traditional Limited Partnership instead of DAO have also adopted Snapshot and Gnosis Safe in their operations.
Other Tools
POAP is a new way of keeping a reliable record of life experiences. Each time the users take part in an event, they get a unique badge that is supported by a cryptographic record. These badges are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) and they allow event organizers to better engage with their audience. According to a survey by CoinYuppie, POAP is the commonly used Web3 tool.
Rabbithole allows users to explore and learn how to use and contribute to decentralized apps, earning tokens based on their on-chain activity. The users can earn on-chain credentials that demonstrate their mastery of core skills and knowledge. Crypto projects, on the other hand, can attract more users via Rabbithole.
