Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): Field of Research and Avenues for Future Studies

Wegner, Douglas; Zuquetto, Rovian Dill; Grisi, Fernando Correa

doi:10.1590/1807-7692bar2024230183

Douglas Wegner

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8634-5971

Fundação Dom Cabral

Av. Princesa Diana, n. 760, Alphaville Lagoa dos Ingleses, CEP 34018-006, Nova Lima MG, Brazil

dwegner@fdc.org.br

conceptualization

data curation

formal analysis

funding acquisition

investigation

methodology

project administration

resources

software

supervision

validation

visualization

writing - original draft

writing - review & editing

Fundação Dom Cabral, Nova Lima, MG, Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8634-5971

Rovian Dill Zuquetto

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9457-224X

Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos

Av. Dr. Nilo Peçanha, n. 1600, Boa Vista, CEP 91330-002, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

roviandz@outlook.com

conceptualization

data curation

formal analysis

funding acquisition

investigation

methodology

project administration

resources

software

supervision

validation

visualization

writing - original draft

writing - review & editing

Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9457-224X

Fernando Correa Grisi

https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0930-3015

Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos

Av. Dr. Nilo Peçanha, n. 1600, Boa Vista, CEP 91330-002, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

fcgrisi@gmail.com

conceptualization

data curation

formal analysis

funding acquisition

investigation

methodology

project administration

resources

software

supervision

validation

visualization

writing - original draft

writing - review & editing

Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0930-3015

Corresponding author:
Rovian Dill Zuquetto Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos Av. Dr. Nilo Peçanha, n. 1600, Boa Vista, CEP 91330-002, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Editor-in-Chief:

Ivan Lapuente Garrido https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3741-7961 (Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil).

Associate Editor:

Cíntia Rodrigues de Oliveira https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7999-9002 (Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil).

Reviewers:

Carla Marcolin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0260-5073 (Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil). and one anonimous reviewer.

Editorial assistants: Eduarda Anastacio and Simone Rafael (ANPAD, Maringá, Brazil).

This paper was with the author for one revision.

Papers	DAO Concept
Mehar et al. (2020Mehar, M. I., Shier, C. L., Giambattista, A., Gong, E., Fletcher, G., Sanayhie, R., Kim, H. M., & Laskowski, M. (2020). Understanding a revolutionary and flawed grand experiment in blockchain: The DAO attack. Research Anthology on Blockchain Technology in Business, Healthcare, Education, and Government, 1, 1253-1266. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-5351-0.ch069 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-5351-... , p. 6)	“The concept behind a distributed autonomous organization (DAO) is to program the required rules and decision-making apparatus of an organization into code, eliminating the need for governing roles. The DAO leverages the incorruptible digital ledger of Blockchain, and the digital currency and smart contracts of Ethereum to build an organization without the oversight of managers. Corporations at their very core are a set of complex agreements that are executed by managers and employees of the corporation, and the DAO mimics the entire system but replaces humans with its respective technology and code.”
Wang et al. (2019Wang, S., Ding, W., Li, J., Yuan, Y., Ouyang, L., & Wang, F. Y. (2019). Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Concept, model, and applications. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 6(5), 870-878. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2019.2938190 https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2019.293819... , p. 1)	“The so-called Decentralized Autonomous Organization [DAO, sometimes labeled as decentralized autonomous corporation (DAC)], which is a new organization form that the management and operational rules are typically encoded on blockchain in the form of smart contracts, and can autonomously operate without centralized control or third-party intervention.” DAO is a blockchain-powered organization that can run on its own without any central authority or management hierarchy. In a DAO, all the management and operational rules are recorded on blockchain in the form of smart contracts, and the distributed consensus protocols and Token Economy Incentive are utilized [25] to realize organizations’ self operation, self-governance, and self-evolution.”
Zamani and Giaglis (2018Zamani, E. D., & Giaglis, G. M. (2018). With a little help from the miners: Distributed ledger technology and market disintermediation. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 118(3), 637-652. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2017-0231 https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2017-023... , p. 9)	“Cryptocurrencies together with DLT and smart contracts provide the infrastructure for the development of corporations that are fully digital and distributed and, for the first time in history, even entirely autonomous. Cryptocurrencies provide the payment method for transactions, DLT provides verification and validation of these transactions, while smart contracts can be the mechanisms that trigger transactions, essentially setting the entire corporation in motion when certain conditions are met. DACs aren’t an entirely new concept; they first appeared on a conceptual level in 2011 (The Economist, 2014). However, coupled with other technological advancements, such as autonomous agents, the possible applications of DACs may be endless, as there can be ‘pre-programmed’ businesses (Aron, 2014Aron, J. (2014). What’s wrong with Bitcoin? New Scientist, 221(2955), 19-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(14)60271-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(14)60... ).”
Hassan and De Filippi (2021Hassan, S., & De Filippi, P. (2021). Decentralized autonomous organization. Internet Policy Review, 10(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1556 https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1556... , p. 2)	“A DAO is a blockchain-based system that enables people to coordinate and govern themselves mediated by a set of self-executing rules deployed on a public blockchain, and whose governance is decentralised (i.e., independent from central control). The DAC concept was used mostly informally in online forums and chats by early cryptocurrency enthusiasts, using both ‘decentralized’ and ‘distributed’ autonomous corporations interchangeably. While some argue that Bitcoin is effectively the first DAO (Buterin, 2013Buterin, V. (2013, Sep. 13). Bootstrapping a decentralized autonomous corporation: Part I. Bitcoin Magazine. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bootstrapping-a-decentralized-autonomouscorporation-part-i-1379644274 https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/boo... ; Hsieh et al., 2018Hsieh, Y. Y., Vergne, J. P., Anderson, P., Lakhani, K., & Reitzig, M. (2018). Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations. Journal of Organization Design, 7(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-... ), the term is today understood as referring not to a blockchain network in and of itself, but rather to organisations deployed as smart contracts on top of an existing blockchain network.”
Zhao et al. (2022Zhao, X., Ai, P., Lai, F., Luo, X., & Benitez, J. (2022). Task management in decentralized autonomous organization. Journal of Operations Management, 68(6-7), 649-674. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179 https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179... , p. 4)	“The term DAO refers to a scalable and self-organizing community supported by blockchain-enabled coordination mechanisms (Singh & Kim, 2019Singh, M., & Kim, S. (2019). Chapter four - blockchain technology for decentralized autonomous organizations. In S. Kim, G. C. Deka, & P. Zhang (Eds.), Advances in computers (pp. 115-140). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179 https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179... ) to govern its corresponding DApp.”
Hsieh et al. (2018Hsieh, Y. Y., Vergne, J. P., Anderson, P., Lakhani, K., & Reitzig, M. (2018). Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations. Journal of Organization Design, 7(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-... , p. 2)	“... as non-hierarchical organizations that perform and record routine tasks on a peer-to-peer, cryptographically secure, public network, and rely on the voluntary contributions of their internal stakeholders to operate, manage, and evolve the organization through a democratic consultation process (Dietz et al., 2016Dietz, J., Xethalis, G., De Filippi, P., & Hazard, J. (2016). Model distributed collaborative organizations. https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Model_Distributed_Collaborative_Organizations https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Model_Dis... ; Van Valkenburgh et al., 2015Van Valkenburgh, P., Dietz, J., De Filippi, P., Shadab, H., Xethalis, G., & Bollier, D. (2015). Distributed collaborative organisations: distributed networks and regulatory frameworks. Coincenter.).”
Zalan (2018Zalan, T. (2018). Born global on blockchain. Review of International Business and Strategy, 28(1), 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-0069 https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-006... , p. 10)	“a DAO is truly autonomous, in that what the organization does or will do is determined purely by code (Maas, 2017Maas, T. (2017). Understanding ethereum - The full guide. HackerNoon. https://hackernoon.com/ understanding-ethereum-a-complete-guide-6f32ea8f5888 https://hackernoon.com/ understanding-et... ). Thus, together with programmable money (cryptocurrencies) and programmable contracts (smart contracts), a DAO may become a building block of new economic governance (Davidson et al., 2018Davidson, S., De Filippi, P., & Potts, J. (2018). Blockchains and the economic institutions of capitalism. Journal of Institutional Economics, 14(4), 639-658. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137417000200 https://doi.org/10.1017/S174413741700020... ).”

Authors	Article	Journal	WoS Citations	Scopus Citations
Mehar et al. (2020Mehar, M. I., Shier, C. L., Giambattista, A., Gong, E., Fletcher, G., Sanayhie, R., Kim, H. M., & Laskowski, M. (2020). Understanding a revolutionary and flawed grand experiment in blockchain: The DAO attack. Research Anthology on Blockchain Technology in Business, Healthcare, Education, and Government, 1, 1253-1266. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-5351-0.ch069 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-5351-... )	Understanding a revolutionary and flawed grand experiment in blockchain: The DAO attack	Journal of Cases on Information Technology (JCIT)	121	193
Wang et al. (2019Wang, S., Ding, W., Li, J., Yuan, Y., Ouyang, L., & Wang, F. Y. (2019). Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Concept, model, and applications. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 6(5), 870-878. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2019.2938190 https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2019.293819... )	Decentralized autonomous organizations: Concept, model, and applications	IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems	110	Ni
Zachariadis et al. (2019Zachariadis, M., Hileman, G., & Scott, S. V. (2019). Governance and control in distributed ledgers: Understanding the challenges facing blockchain technology in financial services. Information and Organization, 29(2), 105-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.201... )	Governance and control in distributed ledgers: Understanding the challenges facing blockchain technology in financial services	Information and Organization	104	156
Zamani and Giaglis (2018Zamani, E. D., & Giaglis, G. M. (2018). With a little help from the miners: Distributed ledger technology and market disintermediation. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 118(3), 637-652. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2017-0231 https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2017-023... )	With a little help from the miners, distributed ledger technology and market disintermediation	Industrial Management and Data Systems	57	77
Murray et al. (2021Murray, A., Kuban, S., Josefy, M., & Anderson, J. (2021). Contracting in the smart era: The implications of blockchain and decentralized autonomous organizations for contracting and corporate governance. Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(4), 622-641. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0066 https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0066... )	Contracting in the smart era: The implications of blockchain and decentralized autonomous organizations for contracting and corporate governance	Academy of Management Perspectives	57	74
Hassan and De Filippi (2021Hassan, S., & De Filippi, P. (2021). Decentralized autonomous organization. Internet Policy Review, 10(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1556 https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.2.1556... )	Decentralized autonomous organization	Internet Policy Review	53	96
Zhao et al. (2022Zhao, X., Ai, P., Lai, F., Luo, X., & Benitez, J. (2022). Task management in decentralized autonomous organization. Journal of Operations Management, 68(6-7), 649-674. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179 https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179... )	Task management in decentralized autonomous organization	Journal of Operations Management	23	27
Reyes (2019Reyes, C. L. (2019). If Rockefeller were a coder. George Washington Law Review, 87(2), 373-429. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3082915 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3082915... )	If Rockefeller were a coder	George Washington Law Review	11	8
Hsieh et al. (2018Hsieh, Y. Y., Vergne, J. P., Anderson, P., Lakhani, K., & Reitzig, M. (2018). Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations. Journal of Organization Design, 7(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-... )	Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations	Journal of Organization Design	1	97
Zalan (2018Zalan, T. (2018). Born global on blockchain. Review of International Business and Strategy, 28(1), 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-0069 https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-006... )	Born global on blockchain	Review of International Business and Strategy	Ni	53

Impact	Positive Impact	Negative Impact	References
Transaction costs	(1) Reduce TCs by controlling and monitoring managerial incentives. (2) Reduce TCs by automating processes. (3) Reduce information costs since it is available for everyone (asymmetry issues). (4) Reduce traceability costs. (5) Every corporate function can be replicated on blockchains and reduce TCs.	(1) Increase in the beginning by involving more external partners and reaching agreements on pain points and shared governance over software. (2) Increase via inflexibility, demanding specialized arbitration. (3) Because intermediaries are not eliminated, it increases costs to identify available options with varying degrees of accuracy, reliability, security, speed, and price. (4) Increase costs to monitor a 51% attack.	Kutsyk et al. (2020Kutsyk, P., Redchenko, K., & Voronko, R. (2020). Management control and modern decentralized technologies. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, 6(4), 98-102. https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2020-6-4-98-102 https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2020-... ) Zhan et al. (2023Zhan, Y., Xiong, Y., & Xing, X. (2023). A conceptual model and case study of blockchain-enabled social media platform. Technovation, 119, 102610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2022.102610 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2... ) Liu and Shang (2022Liu, Y., & Shang, C. (2022). Application of blockchain technology in agricultural water rights trade management. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(12), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127017 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127017... ) Fernando et al. (2021Fernando, E., Meyliana, M., Warnars, H. L. H. S., & Abdurachman, E. (2021). Blockchain technology for tracing drug with a multichain platform: Simulation method. Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems Journal, 6(1), 765-769. https://doi.org/10.25046/aj060184 https://doi.org/10.25046/aj060184... ) Lacity (2022Lacity, M. C. (2022). Blockchain: From bitcoin to the internet of value and beyond. Journal of Information Technology, 37(4), 326-340. https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962221086300 https://doi.org/10.1177/0268396222108630... ) Murray et al. (2022Murray, A., Kim, D., & Combs, J. (2022). The promise of a decentralized internet: What is Web3 and how can firms prepare? Business Horizons, 66(2), 191-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.06... ) Zalan (2018Zalan, T. (2018). Born global on blockchain. Review of International Business and Strategy, 28(1), 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-0069 https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-006... ) Murray et al. (2021Murray, A., Kuban, S., Josefy, M., & Anderson, J. (2021). Contracting in the smart era: The implications of blockchain and decentralized autonomous organizations for contracting and corporate governance. Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(4), 622-641. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0066 https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0066... ) Kim and Sarin (2018Kim, S., & Sarin, A. (2018). Distributed ledger and blockchain technology: Framework and use cases. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3373347 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3373347... ) Augustin et al. (2023Augustin, N., Eckhardt, A., & Jong, A. W. (2023). Understanding decentralized autonomous organizations from the inside. Electronic Markets, 33(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00659-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00659... )
Hierarchy and disintermediation	(1) Replace centralized intermediaries such as asset ownership tracking, trade financing, digital identity provision, and supply chain traceability.	(1) Intermediaries are not eliminated since new types will arise to play roles in mediating blockchain-based economic transactions.	Hsieh et al. (2018Hsieh, Y. Y., Vergne, J. P., Anderson, P., Lakhani, K., & Reitzig, M. (2018). Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations. Journal of Organization Design, 7(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-... ) Murray et al. (2021Murray, A., Kuban, S., Josefy, M., & Anderson, J. (2021). Contracting in the smart era: The implications of blockchain and decentralized autonomous organizations for contracting and corporate governance. Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(4), 622-641. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0066 https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0066... ) Zamani and Giaglis (2018Zamani, E. D., & Giaglis, G. M. (2018). With a little help from the miners: Distributed ledger technology and market disintermediation. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 118(3), 637-652. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2017-0231 https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2017-023... )
Democracy and voting mechanisms	(1) Promote pro-democracy groups based on reputation, voting, and tokenization principles. (2) Strategic voting - vote on shared goals - to improve operational performance.	(1) Promote terror organizations and criminal syndicates that trade anonymously. (2) Decision-making is biased by token price and not project value. (3) Voting on operational decisions may worsen operational performance.	Saurabh et al. (2022Saurabh, K., Rani, N., & Upadhyay, P. (2022). Towards blockchain led decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) business model innovations. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 30(2), 475-502. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-10-2021-0606 https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-10-2021-0606... ) Krishnan (2020Krishnan, A. (2020). Blockchain empowers social resistance and terrorism through decentralized autonomous organizations. Journal of Strategic Security, 13(1), 41-58. https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.13.1.1743 https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.13.1.1... ) Myalo (2019Myalo, A. S. (2019). Comparative analysis of ICO, DAOICO, IEO and STO. Case study. Finance: Theory and Practice, 23(6), 6-25. https://doi.org/10.26794/2587-5671-2019-23-6-6-25 https://doi.org/10.26794/2587-5671-2019-... ) Zhao et al. (2022Zhao, X., Ai, P., Lai, F., Luo, X., & Benitez, J. (2022). Task management in decentralized autonomous organization. Journal of Operations Management, 68(6-7), 649-674. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179 https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1179... ) Chen et al. (2020Chen, J., Cai, L., Bruton, G. D., & Sheng, N. (2020). Entrepreneurial ecosystems: What we know and where we move as we build an understanding of China. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 32(5-6), 370-388. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2019.1640438 https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2019.16... ) Jirásek (2023Jirásek, M. (2023). Klima DAO: A crypto answer to carbon markets. Journal of Organization Design, 12(4), 271-283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-023-00146-w https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-023-00146... )
Security and traceability	(1) Increase security. (2) Increase traceability of goods.	(1) Some DAOs had security issues (e.g., TheDAO).	Liu and Shang (2022Liu, Y., & Shang, C. (2022). Application of blockchain technology in agricultural water rights trade management. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(12), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127017 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127017... ) Myalo (2019Myalo, A. S. (2019). Comparative analysis of ICO, DAOICO, IEO and STO. Case study. Finance: Theory and Practice, 23(6), 6-25. https://doi.org/10.26794/2587-5671-2019-23-6-6-25 https://doi.org/10.26794/2587-5671-2019-... ) Kaal (2020aKaal, W. A. (2020a). Decentralized Autonomous Organizations - Internal governance and external legal design. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3652481 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3652481... )
Law and regulation	(1) Workers, as well as investors, may easily join or leave DAOs.	(1) Fundraising success depends on country legislation, which may vary by state and limit scalability. (2) Private laws may not assure consumer protection. (3) Public laws may not collect taxes or prosecute criminal offenders.	Myalo (2019Myalo, A. S. (2019). Comparative analysis of ICO, DAOICO, IEO and STO. Case study. Finance: Theory and Practice, 23(6), 6-25. https://doi.org/10.26794/2587-5671-2019-23-6-6-25 https://doi.org/10.26794/2587-5671-2019-... ) Schuppli and Jafari (2021Schuppli, B., & A. Jafari, G. (2021). Piercing the digital veil: A case study for a DAO legal framework under swiss law. SSRN Electronic Journal, 12(4), 331-346. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3951804 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3951804... )

Impact	Opportunities	Challenges	Authors
Democracy	(1) In a DAO, the data are open, real-time synchronized, and built by multiple parties working together. This will change the way decisions are made.	(1) The development of high-level innovation pillars for such a complex context may not be able to capture all elements and relationships. Making decisions will be more challenging.	Liu and Shang (2022Liu, Y., & Shang, C. (2022). Application of blockchain technology in agricultural water rights trade management. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(12), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127017 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127017... ) Zhan et al. (2023Zhan, Y., Xiong, Y., & Xing, X. (2023). A conceptual model and case study of blockchain-enabled social media platform. Technovation, 119, 102610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2022.102610 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2... ) Jirásek (2023Jirásek, M. (2023). Klima DAO: A crypto answer to carbon markets. Journal of Organization Design, 12(4), 271-283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-023-00146-w https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-023-00146... )
Governance	(1) Network-level decisions can be made more easily.	(1) Distributed governance: the balance of integrity and autonomy, decision rights, control mechanisms, and incentive structures. There is a significant risk of members exploiting a DAO’s well-established reputation and community trust for personal gains.	Lacity (2022Lacity, M. C. (2022). Blockchain: From bitcoin to the internet of value and beyond. Journal of Information Technology, 37(4), 326-340. https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962221086300 https://doi.org/10.1177/0268396222108630... ) Zachariadis et al. (2019Zachariadis, M., Hileman, G., & Scott, S. V. (2019). Governance and control in distributed ledgers: Understanding the challenges facing blockchain technology in financial services. Information and Organization, 29(2), 105-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.201... ) Li and Chen (2024Li, S., & Chen, Y. (2024). Governing decentralized autonomous organizations as digital commons. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 21, e00450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00450 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e004... )
	(1) A DAO may become a building block of new economic governance.	(1) How do DAOs solve the universal problem of organizing activities and resources? What are the implications?	Davidson et al. (2018Davidson, S., De Filippi, P., & Potts, J. (2018). Blockchains and the economic institutions of capitalism. Journal of Institutional Economics, 14(4), 639-658. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137417000200 https://doi.org/10.1017/S174413741700020... ) Hsieh et al. (2018Hsieh, Y. Y., Vergne, J. P., Anderson, P., Lakhani, K., & Reitzig, M. (2018). Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations. Journal of Organization Design, 7(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-018-0038-... )
	(1) Distributed governance: the balance of integrity and autonomy, decision rights, control mechanisms, and incentive structures.	(1) DAOs challenge the underlying assumptions for the firm’s existence, which relies on hierarchical governance to coordinate global trade and investment.	Zachariadis et al. (2019Zachariadis, M., Hileman, G., & Scott, S. V. (2019). Governance and control in distributed ledgers: Understanding the challenges facing blockchain technology in financial services. Information and Organization, 29(2), 105-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.201... ) Zalan (2018Zalan, T. (2018). Born global on blockchain. Review of International Business and Strategy, 28(1), 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-0069 https://doi.org/10.1108/RIBS-08-2017-006... )
Hierarchy	(1) DAOs are truly autonomous in that what the organization does or will do is determined purely by code.	(1) DAOs have no centralized authority that assigns tasks to each member.	Maas (2017Maas, T. (2017). Understanding ethereum - The full guide. HackerNoon. https://hackernoon.com/ understanding-ethereum-a-complete-guide-6f32ea8f5888 https://hackernoon.com/ understanding-et... ) Lumineau et al. (2021Lumineau, F., Wang, W., & Schilke, O. (2021). Blockchain governance-A new way of organizing collaborations? Organization Science, 32(2), 500-521. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2020.1379 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2020.1379... )
Security and regulation	(1) Confidence in DAOs can grow with the increase of new cases worldwide.	(1) DAOs have conflicts with the current corporation and securities laws. Other challenges include performance, privacy, and flexibility issues.	Wang et al. (2019Wang, S., Ding, W., Li, J., Yuan, Y., Ouyang, L., & Wang, F. Y. (2019). Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Concept, model, and applications. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 6(5), 870-878. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2019.2938190 https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2019.293819... ) Kim and Sarin (2018Kim, S., & Sarin, A. (2018). Distributed ledger and blockchain technology: Framework and use cases. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3373347 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3373347... ) Laptev and Feyzrakhmanova (2021Laptev, V. A., & Feyzrakhmanova, D. R. (2021). Digitalization of institutions of corporate law: Current trends and future prospects. Laws, 10(4), 93. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10040093 https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10040093... ) Li and Chen (2024Li, S., & Chen, Y. (2024). Governing decentralized autonomous organizations as digital commons. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 21, e00450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00450 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e004... )
Entrepreneurship and employment	(1) Blockchain and smart contracts offer new opportunities for digital entrepreneurship.	(1) There is still a lack of regulation on jobs and employment in DAOs.	Ilyushina and MacDonald (2022Ilyushina, N., & MacDonald, T. (2022). Decentralised Autonomous Organisations: A new research agenda for labour economics. Journal of the British Blockchain Association, 5(1), 50-53.) Kaal (2023Kaal, W. (2023). Reputation as capital-How Decentralized Autonomous Organizations address shortcomings in the venture capital market. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 16(5), 263. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm16050263 https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm16050263... )

Key Features	Forms			DAO
Key Features	Market	Hierarchy	Network
Normative basis	Contract	Employment contract	Complementary strengths	Smart contract
Methods of conflict resolution	Laws and regulations	Supervision	Reciprocity	Hard fork
Flexibility	High	Low	Medium	Very low
Commitment among parties	Low	High	Medium	Dependent on the project
Means of communication	Prices	Routines	Relational	Routines
Emphasis	Individual	Individual	Collective	Varies
Strategy	Competition	Cooperation	Coopetition	Coopetition
Relation among parties	Independent	Dependent	Interdependent	Interdependent
Power	Market share	Hierarchical job position	Reciprocity	Dependent on the rules encoded

[1] Corresponding author:
Rovian Dill Zuquetto Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos Av. Dr. Nilo Peçanha, n. 1600, Boa Vista, CEP 91330-002, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Brasil

Brasil

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): Field of Research and Avenues for Future Studies

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