The fun of analyzing and classifying DAOs doesn’t end here—there are many other frameworks for assessing DAOs and you should take the liberty to create other metrics and categories as you see fit for the questions you want answered.
For example, Marlene Marz has created a fantastic graphic outlining the various DAOs by their aggregator, type, and number of DAOs found per category.
source: Marlene Marz, How to classify DAOs according to their mission? — Part 2: comparing DAO explorers?
Additionally, Christian Zeigler and Isabell Welpe have created this taxonomy of DAOs:
You can find DAOs on aggregators like DeepDAO, Messari, and DAOcentral.
An incomplete list of a kind of analysis that you may do to scan the landscape.
Investment DAOs – These are DAOs that want to invest in startups, collect NFTs, or other collectively invest asset classes. Examples include Hydra DAO, Chainforest, Metacartel, and Social Graph Ventures. They are usually anywhere from 1 to 200 members, track membership with a whitelist or non-transferable token, and use blockchain SPVs to invest into startups.
NFT DAOs – These DAOs are formed around an NFT collection and often use treasury funds to market their NFT by hosting events and projects that spread their brand. Examples include Pudgy Penguins, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Solana Monkey Business (SMB). These DAOs limit members to holders of the NFT, yet may also have an elected board of delegates that oversees their treasury and is compensated.
DeFi protocol DAOs — DAOs that govern over DeFi protocols and their treasuries.
L1s – Ethereum, Solana
L2s – Arbitrum, Optimism, TreasureDAO
LSDs – Lido, Rocketpool
AI – TAO
DEXs – Uniswap, Jupiter
DeSci DAOs – Organizations that seek to improve scientific institutions by funding impactful research or solving structural problems. Examples include VitaDAO and ResearchHub Foundation.
Ecosystem grants DAOs — DAOs with the aim to distribute grants to projects, typically open source projects with minimal or no revenues that have a disproportionate impact on the blockchain ecosystem they belong to like Arbitrum, Celo, and Aave.
Quadratic funding grants DAOs — DAOs with the aim to distribute grants using more equitable methods that let the community decide who to give to and how much to give from a matching pool. Typically open source projects with minimal or no revenues that have a disproportionate impact on the blockchain ecosystem. Examples include Gitcoin and Octant.
Guilds – DAOs that organize workers and work as contractors to earn revenues. Examples include Content Guild, Vector DAO, and Bankless DAO. There are many different types of guilds that can focus on different niches, like growth, but they are characterized by their members working on behalf of the DAO for payment from external companies.
Network states – DAOs that organize using the philosophy of Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State manifesto. From the website, “A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.” Examples include Epoch and Praxis.