A DAO, or “Decentralized Autonomous Organization,” is a community-led entity with no central authority. It is fully autonomous and transparent: smart contracts lay the foundational rules, execute the agreed upon decisions, and at any point, proposals, voting, and even the very code itself can be publicly audited.

Types of DAOs include, but are not limited to:

• Protocol DAOs – these DAOs, such as MakerDAO, focus on governance of decentralized protocols

• Investment or Grant DAOs – Investment or Grant DAOs such as MetaCartel or Moloch DAO allow members to invest funds as a group.

• Collector DAOs – a Collector DAO allows for members to pool funds, and collect, sell, and issue NFTs.

• Social DAOs – these are communities built around a shared common interest or purpose.