DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations)
A DAO is an organisation governed by token-holder votes and smart contracts rather than executives and a board.
In depth
Members propose actions — fund a project, change a parameter — and vote with governance tokens; approved actions execute automatically from a shared treasury. DAOs run many DeFi protocols and investment collectives. In practice, participation is often low and large holders dominate.
Why it matters
DAOs are how "decentralised" projects actually make decisions — and where their governance risk lives.