Research Summary: What is a DAO? Conceptual Foundations - Governance and Coordination - Smart Contract Research Forum

TLDR: DAOs have become a popular concept, albeit with divergent and often conflicting definitions. To address this concern, the authors reviewed the pre-history and early history of DAOs to frame central themes in understanding DAOs. We then identified five conceptual lenses that allow us to conceptualise the telos of DAOs; conducted a study with 155 participants to identify the key ‘qualities’ associated with DAOs; and arrived at a definition of DAOs that satisfies our research purposes. C...