In 2023, decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) had a turbulent year filled with cyberattacks, lawsuits, and furious resignations. A number of trends that could influence the development of DAOs and related entities are starting to emerge as 2024 approaches. One such trend is the division of powers, whereby numerous DAOs use a variety of techniques to allocate governance authority in an effort to improve efficiency and create a strong system of checks and balances. For instance, Optimism’s DAO uses a bicameral structure, where the retroactive public goods programme is funded by identity-based governance in the Citizen House and the Token House, which is led by the OP token.
An additional tendency is the emergence of “rage quits,” which provide disgruntled DAO members a pro-rata portion of the treasury as a means of minority protection. Rage quits have had a mixed early impact on DAOs, meanwhile, with some suffering large treasury losses as a result of members abusing the mechanism.
Finally, as the price of DAO treasuries’ native tokens rises and funding becomes more competitive, treasury squabbles have become more common. Concerns with venture capital-backed projects receiving public goods funding have been raised by certain members of the Optimism ecosystem, and Arbitrum‘s $4.2 billion treasury has been the subject of several funding disputes. These tendencies are probably going to have a big impact on how DAOs develop in the future.
