DAO Governance: The Continuation of Power Decentralization and a New Type of Social Experiment

The concept of governance originates from classical Latin, initially referring to the exercise of authority within a specific scope. It involves the political process of reaching consensus among multiple interests to implement plans. The earliest governance primarily concerned the modes of behavior and regulatory mechanisms of governments.

In the 1990s, with the development and growth of social autonomous organizations, the public management field began to rise, and the concept of governance gradually entered the public's view. Prior to this, governance had no direct relevance to ordinary people.

Throughout human history, the distribution of power has undergone a long evolution. In primitive societies, women held an important position due to their gathering and reproductive abilities. After the advent of agricultural civilization, men's advantages in farming and warfare made them the dominant force. The arrival of the industrial revolution and the information age has gradually shifted power down to ordinary people.

The emergence of blockchain technology has provided new possibilities for the decentralization of power. DAO(, as a new type of social model, continues the trend of power decentralization in the real world while also repeating the governance processes of the real world.

Tokens in blockchain projects not only capture the value of the protocol but can also be used for governance voting. This mechanism further decentralizes power, allowing every token holder the opportunity to participate in governance. Although decentralizing power can bring together more ideas, it also increases the difficulty of formulating and implementing governance rules.

The core of DAO lies in the pursuit of cohesive power, achieving breakthrough goals by re-aggregating dispersed authority. This is a repetitive process: disperse - aggregate - re-dispense - re-aggregate.

Currently, research on DAO governance is still in its early stages and faces many challenges. In particular, there have not been significant breakthroughs in decentralization. However, this social experiment has a long-term nature. From a historical perspective, how far our generation can develop DAO and how much valuable reference it can provide to the real world depends on our patience and determination. DAO governance is not an endpoint, but a continuous process.