What Is a DAO?

A DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, is a group that manages shared funds and makes decisions through member votes recorded on a blockchain instead of through a CEO or board. It matters because it lets people who've never met pool money and coordinate around rules that are visible to everyone and hard to change in secret. Decisions usually happen through token-based voting: each member proposes an action, others vote, and if a proposal passes, code executes it automatically. MakerDAO, which oversees the DAI stablecoin, holds regular votes where token holders set interest rates and approve collateral types. Most DAOs still rely on a mix of smart contracts and human judgment, and disputes over voting power or slow decision-making remain common growing pains.