We need more DAOs - but different and better DAOs.
The original drive to build Ethereum was heavily inspired by decentralized autonomous organizations: systems of code and rules that lived on decentralized networks that could manage resources and direct activity, more…
However, he claimed that since Ethereum’s founding, DAOs in practice have drifted toward “essentially referring to a treasury controlled by token-holder voting.” This, he argued, leaves them open to control by centralized actors and has made many observers cynical about DAOs as a concept.
“We need more DAOs – but different and better DAOs,” Buterin wrote.
Buterin identified two core problems that he thinks must be solved for DAOs to function effectively: privacy and decision fatigue.
“Without privacy, governance becomes a social game,” he said.
Buterin also highlighted the ability of AI to reduce decision fatigue, but warned against putting a mainstream large language model like OpenAI’s GPT or China’s DeepSeek in charge of a DAO.
"DAOs are the future of democratic politics, and just as we don’t want our votes for president in a national election to be public, we don’t want our votes in token governance to be public either," Halpin said, adding that, "Zero-knowledge proofs are one way to achieve that."
"DAOs cannot do real shit without anonymity," she told Decrypt. "Give DAOs anonymity and you give them real political power."
