DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation)
DAO
A blockchain-based collective that holds a treasury and makes decisions via tokenholder voting.
Most major stablecoin protocols (MakerDAO / Sky, Aave, Compound, Curve) are DAO-governed. DAO operations face challenges around voter apathy, governance attacks, and the legal / tax treatment of the entity itself.
Related terms
- Governance tokenA token whose holders can vote on protocol parameters, treasury allocation, and code upgrades.
- Governance attackAn exploit that uses voting power (acquired or borrowed) to pass a proposal that drains a protocol.
- MultisigA wallet requiring m-of-n signers to authorise a transaction — the dominant operational-control pattern in DeFi.
- TimelockA delay between when a governance action is queued and when it executes, giving the community time to react or exit.