Against the backdrop of a sharp decline in venture investments in various traditional industries (this is clearly related to the global economic situation), but against the backdrop of certain upheavals in the crypto industry, the question arises of a driver that can become one of the «pillars» of the development of a decentralized industry.
And, in addition to facilitating the threshold for entering the industry, the participation of customers in the industry itself subsequently becomes no less important. This approach is provided by Decentralized Autonomous Organization or DAO - decentralized autonomous organizations, the system of activities of which and the interaction of participants goes without centralized management. Centralized control is being replaced by algorithms based on smart contracts and direct user decisions, such as voting. DAO was a very trendy topic a few years ago, and now, supposedly, its popularity has taken a toll. Actually, it is not.
Let's start with the fact that the shocks that the crypto-industry experienced were only a consequence of «blowing off the foam» - strong and promising projects not only survived, but also significantly increased their power. In addition to the significant growth in transactions in stablecoins, the industry experienced a record increase in investment until 2022 - and now so many projects have huge potential and a lots funds for development.
On the other hand, the paradigm of user behavior in web3 projects has changed. A significant subsidence of the NFT market, a drop in interest in web3 games that are not based on any mechanics that are interesting as a setting or gameplay - all this demonstrates one simple thing. The approaches used at the time of the «explosion» of the market cease to work. Users want to be partners in the work, co-founders of the product, they want to have leverage - and under such conditions they are ready to invest their time and effort in the product.
It is not for nothing that filecoins have grown so much.
In 2023, it is DAO that becomes the very point that can give interest to continue interacting with web3 products to users who have already passed onboarding. In fact, we see five main trends in the development of DAO right now:
· Media DAO - a community that sponsors independent journalists on the principle of crowdfunding;
· DeSoc - Decentralized Social - people on-chain reputation & ownership of their content (Mastodon);
· Talent Marketplaces - make sure the person is reliable in one click (Hirechain);<
· Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) - challenge to scale a hardware network to viability;
· Data Integrity - "real-world" data that is transferred into cryptocurrency through oracle services (Chainlink).
And in the future, DAOs stand for the cutting-edge idea of digital democracy – such verticals as:
· DAO Legal Liabilities;
· DAO Treasury Management;
· DAO’s scale up to governance;
· Purpose-driven Metaverse to tackle World's Most Pressing Challenges;
· Transformation of DAOs into enterprises.
In fact, now we see the development of DAO on the principle of «not quantity, but quality». And this quality, as it seems, has already moved to the very level to make a tectonic shift in the entire web3 industry.
Stas Ustenko