Every member of a DAO has access to certain rights and voting power depending on how the DAO is organized.

In some cases, voting power is proportional to the number of tokens owned. In other words, the more tokens you have, the more voting power you get.

Other DAOs may give greater voting power according to the length of time a member has been a part of the project. This means that the earlier you joined, the more of a say you get.

It all depends on the rules agreed upon by the core team of community members.

Voting

What exactly can a DAO member vote on?

Each DAO functions differently. As a core concept, members vote on the direction of the DAO, the actions it may or may not take, and even its very existence.

Examples include voting on which companies to partner with, which charities to contribute to, and what new features to be added to a platform.

If there is a treasury, or a shared sum of money members have access to, members can vote on how the funds can be spent.

However, the money is only accessible with the approval of members who vote on proposals.

Did you know: Sometimes DAO proposals are voted on using emojis 👍😍 🗳️

Proposals

So, how can you vote on proposals in a DAO?

First things first. To become a part of a DAO, you must first buy a cryptocurrency, a token or an NFT, or sometimes all. By holding an asset, users have the power to vote on proposals.

As we briefly mentioned earlier, DAOs are facilitated through smart contracts. Smart contracts are simply lines of computer code that run automatically when a certain criteria is met.

This event can be triggered when, for example, DAO members vote on a proposal.

The option with the highest number of votes gets executed after the voting period is over.