2022 is the year of the DAOs. Just as we have various sectors in the traditional corporations, DAOs have various types and the number is increasing at a great pace. The whole ecosystem is expanding and more & more people are realizing the value of their contribution, the ease, and the flexibility with which they can work and grow their network.
https://twitter.com/banklessDAO/status/1443975776978837533?s=20
Where some DAOs require you to own some tokens (proof of stake) in order to be a verified member, others require you to contribute (proof of work) and earn your place in the DAO.
Broadly, there are 2 categories of DAOs: “Technically-oriented” and “social-oriented”. Technical ones are solving problems by building in the crypto space. Their operations are usually on-chain. Social ones gather people and contribute in all the non-technical ways. Here, governance is usually off-chain.
But there’s no line that strictly separates them. Both of their components can function on either side. There’s a wide range of sub-categories of DAOs from which you can choose. Depending on your interest area, alignment with the mission, and the “tribe” that you're looking for, you can do some research, start contributing and be a member of the DAO. In this guide, let’s go through the types.
Social DAOs gather people with shared interests, where the members can be both - friends and co-workers. Social DAOs focus on social capital since the goal is to create a strong community. They have strong beliefs in something specific and being surrounded by those who have these shared beliefs gives them power and owning a token gives them the confidence of having skin in the game. They may also extend from digital relations to real-life events where the tribe meets and hangs out.
Examples: Friends With Benefits ($FWB), Radicle ($RAD), Cabin, etc.
Protocol DAOs transfer the power and control of the protocol from a core team to its community. The community issues a token that lets its members propose, vote, and implement any changes to the protocol or decide on how should it evolve in the future. It also involves token distribution and allocation.
Examples: MakerDAO ($MKR), Compound ($COMP), Olympus ($OHM) etc.
In order to support impactful contributors and promote the web3 landscape, Grant DAOs donate funds and promote them by opening various avenues for them.
Examples: MolochDAO, MetaCartel Ventures, etc.
In this, the community works together by pooling and getting into projects which have good potential. They raise funds to invest in digital assets which could be domain names, blue-chip NFTs, early-stage crypto startups, etc. The decision-making is democratic and they have a focus area where they tend to invest.
Examples: Constitution DAO, Flamingo DAO, The LAO, Metacartel, etc.
These are the DAOs that produce content collaboratively. The community members decide on the type of media they want to focus on, brainstorm about the topics, and the rewards are shared across the community. The media that is created has collective ownership, identity, and experience.
Examples: Bankless DAO, Forefront, GCR, etc.
These DAOs are responsible for talent allocation to the web3 projects. They create working groups of individuals who are directed to work on a certain project. In return, they are paid usually in ERC-20 tokens. Service DAOs act like talent aggregator agencies that target a niche and work on specific projects.
Examples: DAOhaus, Yam Finance, HoneyDAO, etc.
These DAOs gather contributors around collectibles such as NFTs and focus on accumulating them. They collect NFTs that they don’t intend to sell at least short-term and they try to create a cult or a fandom around it. They collect pieces (s) of specific artists or platforms and support them by holding and creating a strong affinity with them.
Examples: PleasrDAO, Meebits, SquiggleDAO, etc.
Gaming DAOs can be divided into 3 broad categories:
Gaming Guilds
These DAOs invest the funds which are shared by the community into acquiring digital assets in games. These assets can be held for yield generation, sold for profits, or simply held as growth investments.
Examples: Yield Guild Games, GuildFi, Unix Gaming, etc.
Incubators & Accelerators
These DAOs are focused on growing the web3 gaming ecosystem as a whole by sharing their expertise with founders, funding promising new ventures, and supporting tools and tech solutions that can potentially benefit all web3 games.
Examples: Gamestation, Game7, DivineDAO, etc.
Developers
These DAOs actually work on building games in the web3 world. The community voices their opinions while the game is under development and they share a common idea about the game as a whole.
Examples: Aavegotchi, Star Atlas, DopeWars, etc.
DAOs can exist beyond these categories or they can fall into multiple categories. The space is expanding rapidly and only time can tell how these will evolve and modify themselves to adjust to the current society.