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WoW Foundation - World of Women

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A DAO is short for a ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’. 

But what exactly does that mean?

Well, a DAO is an organization that lives on the internet and isn't governed by a single leadership entity. 

Instead, power is shared among all the members who can be based anywhere in the world. 

![image4.png](https://wow-studio-foundation-cms-staging-public.s3.amazonaws.com/image4_b9f0c3cff4.png)

Every member shares a common goal, and rules are enforced by smart contracts on the blockchain. These rules are decided by proposals and voted on by members of the DAO.

A real-life example would be a grassroots campaign where decisions aren’t made by those at the top, but rather by those organizing on the ground. 


What is a DAO?

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.

How DAOs work

In this lesson, we'll show you what a proposal would look like in DaWoW.

![image2.png](https://wow-studio-foundation-cms-staging-public.s3.amazonaws.com/image2_6368adf7a0.png)

Here is a sample DAO vote to rename the World of Women token name you see on Opensea from “Woman” to “WoW”.

![image3.png](https://wow-studio-foundation-cms-staging-public.s3.amazonaws.com/image3_a1cca2b9a8.png)

As you can see, the change did happen. Here was the final result:

![image1.png](https://wow-studio-foundation-cms-staging-public.s3.amazonaws.com/image1_405eca5bb7.png)

To have a say and vote in DaWoW, you would have to own a WoW. 1 WoW = 1 vote, so if you own multiple WoWs you receive multiple votes.

DaWoW Example

So how are DAOs different from regular organizations?

Well, most traditional organizations are structured hierarchically.

You have the decision-makers at the top of the structure and very little input comes from the other people below them.

Decision-making is made by a select few and made behind closed doors.

Take a CEO or manager, for example, deciding with which company to form a partnership.

This decision would usually be made without involving everyone else in the company, even if the majority of the other employees disagree with the strategy.

Of course, the decision-making process isn’t always this straightforward in large corporations but the general idea still holds.

A few decide for all.

Unlike traditional organizations, DAOs democratize decision-making. 

Every person gets a say on the “big decisions” being made and any changes or amendments are publicly visible on the blockchain for everyone to see.

This governance process is coordinated using tokens (which may be cryptocurrencies or NFTs) which, by their nature, means that votes can be made from anywhere in the world in a decentralized manner.

For this reason, some believe that democracy itself will evolve and become stronger as a result of DAOs.

![image5.png](https://wow-studio-foundation-cms-staging-public.s3.amazonaws.com/image5_cf64d77e00.png)



DAOs vs. Traditional Organizations 

DAOs are quite significant because they challenge the way traditional organizations are run and present a real alternative to existing ways of governance. 

But while they make room for innovation, there are also some notable downfalls. 

Remember, not all DAOs are the same, but here are some general disadvantages to keep in mind.

### Time-consuming

You see, the democratic nature of DAOs can make decision-making a time-consuming process.

Instead of a few people making decisions quickly, the voting mechanism requires time to gather votes.

In an emergency, the organization can lose valuable time deciding what needs to be done.

The same also applies to more trivial decisions as well. If each step requires consensus from DAO members, then it can take weeks or even months to complete something that would otherwise take much less time.

### Concentration of voting power

As mentioned before, one of the ways that voting power is decided is through the number of tokens owned.

The more tokens someone owns, the more voting power they get.

This can give rise to a situation where a wealthy investor can accumulate a large number of governance tokens, and thus, voting power.

One way to combat this problem is to perhaps have a time-weighted system where the length of time that you have invested is proportional to the voting power you receive.

Some could argue that this would again skew power towards a few, early investors, which is perhaps also true.

There is no perfect way of running a DAO and ultimately it comes down to the members themselves to decide which way they prefer.

### Vulnerability of code

This refers to the security of the DAO which is facilitated through smart contracts.

If there is a flaw in the code, then hackers may exploit this to steal funds and assets from the organization.

Significant technical expertise is needed to ensure that the best security measures are implemented and this can be both cumbersome and expensive to achieve.

DAOs are ever evolving and transforming to this day. If you have a perfect example of a DAO, we’d love to hear from you, tweet us your thoughts at [@WoWFoundation_](https://twitter.com/WoWFoundation_) 😊

Pros and cons of DAOs 

DAOs.svg

DAOs 

How is web3 managed? 

A DAO is short for a ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’. 
But what exactly does that mean?
Well, a DAO is an organization that lives on the internet and isn't governed by a single leadership entity. 
Instead, power is shared among all the members who can be based anywhere in the world. 
<figure><img src="https://wow-studio-foundation-cms-staging-public.s3.amazonaws.com/image4_b9f0c3cff4.png" alt="image4.png" title="image4.png"><figcaption>image4.png</figcaption></figure>
Every member shares a common goal, and rules are enforced by smart contracts on the blockchain. These rules are decided by proposals and voted on by members of the DAO.
A real-life example would be a grassroots campaign where decisions aren’t made by those at the top, but rather by those organizing on the ground.

A DAO is short for a ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’. 

But what exactly does that mean?

Well, a DAO is an organization that lives on the internet a...

What is a DAO?

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Web3 Communities

What is a DAO?

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