Unstoppable DAOs for web3 disruption

Conference Paper (2022)
Author(s)

Rowdy Chotkan (TU Delft - Data-Intensive Systems)

Jeremie Decouchant (TU Delft - Data-Intensive Systems)

JA Pouwelse (TU Delft - Data-Intensive Systems)

Research Group
Data-Intensive Systems
Copyright
© 2022 R.M. Chotkan, Jérémie Decouchant, J.A. Pouwelse
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1145/3565383.3566112
More Info
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Publication Year
2022
Language
English
Copyright
© 2022 R.M. Chotkan, Jérémie Decouchant, J.A. Pouwelse
Research Group
Data-Intensive Systems
Pages (from-to)
37-42
ISBN (electronic)
978-1-4503-9928-9
Reuse Rights

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Abstract

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) have the capability of being a disruptive Web3 technology. Their usage of cryptographically secure distributed ledgers shows promise of replacing existing technical and financial intermediaries. However, this promise has not been fully materialised yet: existing attempts typically rely on centralisation as the required decentralised components do not exist or are not mature enough. We present our Web3 Deployment Experiment around a robust decentralised economy to address these issues. Our economy is unique due to the removal of all centralised components and governance. It is resilient against legal and economic attacks as no individual or organisation can compromise its functioning. We dub this characteristic extreme decentralisation. Similar to BitTorrent and Bitcoin, our extreme decentralisation DAOs carefully avoid single points of failure and are effectively unstoppable. Within our experiment around a music economy, we bypass all intermediaries in finance, technology, and the music industry itself with a direct donation to musicians. We demonstrate the viability of collective decision-making within our decentralised economy and present a set of principles for Web3 DAOs. Our implementation shows that the DAO ecosystem is fully deployable on smartphones, allowing anyone to create a DAO without reliance on central authorities or components.