Pawel Pinio
ABSTRACT
The emergence of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) represents a paradigm shift in the organizational structure enabled by distributed digital ledger technologies such as blockchain. Exclusively digital web-based entities, DAOs function independently through blockchain-based smart contracts that rely on distributed governance, community coordination, and incentive mechanisms rather than top-down hierarchies. As DAOs continue to foster an environment conducive to a new class of digital participants, they are becoming increasingly prominent in the digital cryptocurrency economy, raising questions regarding their structure, sustainability, and adoption. Being collectively owned and managed by their members, DAOs exhibit characteristics of both non-zero and zero-sum dynamics, thereby posing a challenge to conventional centralized and hierarchical management models. This mixed-methods study examines DAOs within modern information ecosystems through a literature review, blockchain analysis, and comparative organizational analysis. The literature review synthesizes academic discourse on DAOs, highlighting key theories, such as decentralization, digital governance, and distributed decision-making. Blockchain analysis of 10 leading DAOs provides engagement and activity metrics. Comparative analysis considers the DAOs’ advantages and challenges in relation to traditional centralized organizations, focusing on aspects such as governance, efficiency, and adaptability. The findings reveal DAOs' innovative potential and adoption barriers, such as reliance on token incentives and difficulties with coordinated decision-making due to reasons like concentration of voting power and others. Although DAOs possess advantages in terms of decentralization, community alignment, and transparent algorithmic execution, traditional organizations currently maintain superiority in terms of stability and legal standing. This study provides an interdisciplinary academic perspective on the concept and implementation of the DAO by combining conceptual understanding, empirical blockchain evidence, and comparative analysis. It is concluded that realizing the transformative potential of DAOs requires synthesizing multidisciplinary insights and overcoming substantive adoption hurdles. The proposed framework serves as a foundation for further research on the evolution and integration of DAOs into organizations of the future.
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