Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)

A community-led organization governed by code and decentralized voting, without a central authority. Polkadot has the world's largest DAO.

What is a DAO?

A decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, is a blockchain-based group that makes decisions collectively, without a central authority. DAOs use onchain rules and transparent voting mechanisms to govern themselves. Members typically hold tokens that give them the right to propose, discuss, and vote on changes. DAOs can manage treasuries, fund projects, or make decisions for the future of entire networks.

Polkadot is home to the world’s largest DAO, measured by the number of active unique wallets in the ecosystem. Through its OpenGov system, Polkadot enables anyone who holds the DOT token to influence the direction of the network by submitting proposals and voting on referenda. All DAO activity is recorded onchain, creating a transparent and participatory system for managing digital infrastructure at scale.

How does a DAO work?

A DAO is powered by smart contracts: programs stored on a blockchain that automatically enforce rules without human intervention. These contracts define how proposals are submitted, how votes are counted, and how outcomes are executed. Members hold governance tokens, which give them voting power. In most DAOs, the more tokens a member holds or commits to the vote, the more influence they have.

Use cases of DAOs

DAOs are used to fund innovation, govern protocols, manage treasuries, and coordinate community action. Beyond infrastructure, DAOs can also support open-source projects, steward public goods, or run decentralized applications. Every proposal and vote is recorded onchain, making the process transparent and verifiable. While voter participation and usability are still evolving, DAOs have become a powerful way to organize people and resources across the Web3 ecosystem.