A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), sometimes called a decentralized autonomous corporation (DAC),^{[lower-alpha 1][1]} is an organization managed in whole or in part by decentralized computer program, with voting and finances handled through a blockchain.^[2][3][4] In general terms, DAOs are member-owned communities without centralized leadership.^[5][6] The precise legal status of this type of business organization is unclear.^[7][8]

A well-known example, intended for venture capital funding, was The DAO, which amassed 3.6 million ether (ETH)—Ethereum's mining reward—then worth more than US$70 million in May 2016, and was hacked and drained of US$50 million in cryptocurrency weeks later.^[9] The hack was reversed in the following weeks, and the money restored, via a hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain. Most Ethereum miners and clients switched to the new fork while the original chain became Ethereum Classic.

The governance of DAOs is subject to controversy. As these typically allocate and distribute tokens that grant voting rights, their accumulation may lead to concentration of power.^[10]

Although the term may be traced back to the 1990s, it was not until 2013 that it became more widely adopted.^[1] Although some argue that Bitcoin was the first DAO, the term is only understood today as organizations deployed as smart contracts on top of an existing blockchain network.^[1]

Decentralized autonomous organizations are typified by the use of blockchain technology to provide a secure digital ledger to track digital interactions across the internet, hardened against forgery by trusted timestamping and dissemination of a distributed database.^[2][3][11] This approach eliminates the need to involve a mutually acceptable trusted third party in any decentralized digital interaction or cryptocurrency transaction.^[3] The costs of a blockchain-enabled transaction and of the associated data reporting may be substantially offset by the elimination of both the trusted third party and of the need for repetitive recording of contract exchanges in different records. For example, the blockchain data could, in principle and if regulatory structures permit it, replace public documents such as deeds and titles.^{[2]: 42 [3]} In theory, a blockchain approach allows multiple cloud computing users to enter a loosely coupled peer-to-peer smart contract collaboration.^{[2]: 42 [12]}

Vitalik Buterin proposed that after a DAO is launched, it might be organized to run without human managerial interactivity, provided the smart contracts are supported by a Turing-complete platform. Ethereum, built on a blockchain and launched in 2015, has been described as meeting that Turing threshold, thus enabling such DAOs.^[2][13][14] Decentralized autonomous organizations aim to be open platforms through which individuals control their identities and their personal data.^[15]

DAO governance is coordinated using tokens or NFTs that grant voting powers. Admission to a DAO is limited to people who have a confirmed ownership of these governance tokens in a cryptocurrency wallet, and membership may be exchanged. Governance is conducted through a series of proposals that members vote on through the blockchain,^[16] and the possession of more governance tokens often translates to greater voting power.^[10] Contributions from members towards the organizational goals of a DAO can sometimes be tracked and internally compensated. Inactive holders of governance tokens can be a major obstacle for DAO governance,^[4] which has led to implementations allowing voting power to be delegated to other parties.

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• Decentralized Finance
• Decentralized application
• Decentralized computing
• Distributed computing
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• List of highest-funded crowdfunding projects
• Open value network
• Smart contract
• The Social Contract