DAO Launch Guide: 5 Steps to Start Your Decentralized Autonomous Organization Journey

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are thriving in the crypto space, encompassing various forms including protocol DAOs, creator DAOs, media DAOs, social DAOs, and more. These new organizational formats provide us with unprecedented opportunities and are seen as the future of work.

DAO serves as the coordination layer in the crypto world, enabling people to collectively decide how to allocate resources globally, thereby forming new digital communities. Launching a DAO requires just two key elements: a clear mission and effective communication methods. The rest is completely open and determined by your imagination.

The following are the five key steps to launch a DAO:

1. Establishing the Mission

Establishing a mission is the primary and most important step in creating a DAO. You need to clarify the goals and purpose of the DAO. This will provide DAO members with a clear direction to strive for. The mission of a DAO can vary widely, from funding public welfare projects to collecting artworks, and even to establishing social networks, it can cover almost any field.

2. Establishing a Community

Community building is the most challenging step in the DAO launch process. First, you need to decide on the scale and openness of the DAO. Do you want to establish a large community of thousands of people, or a select small group? This mainly depends on your mission.

Using platforms like Discord and Telegram can effectively gather like-minded individuals. Combining these communication platforms with tools like Collab Land can create a richer Web3 experience. At the same time, establishing a community repository for on-chain addresses is also important, as it will lay the groundwork for future ownership and governance distribution.

3. Manage Funds

The community treasury is at the core of the DAO, determining how to coordinate and deploy funds to achieve its mission. The sources of funding can be diverse, including protocol usage fees, NFT sales, revenue-generating projects, and more. Some DAOs even choose to obtain investments from large funds. Regardless of the method used, the key is to provide sufficient operating funds for the DAO.

4. Establish Governance Mechanisms

Governance is a key aspect of DAO operations. Currently, governance methods are mainly divided into on-chain and off-chain. On-chain governance is primarily conducted through token voting, while off-chain governance includes discussions and forum posts, ultimately leading to formal on-chain voting.

The general governance process includes:

1. Conduct preliminary discussions via chat and phone
2. Propose a proposal on the forum and reach a preliminary consensus.
3. Conduct token voting to reach a final consensus
4. If the proposal is passed and reaches the quorum, then the proposal will be executed.

In addition to comprehensive community governance, delegated governance is also beginning to play a role. Certain working groups may be granted specific rights to improve decision-making efficiency.

5. Distribution of Ownership

Ownership distribution is the final step of a DAO, primarily achieved through fungible tokens (ERC20) or non-fungible tokens (NFT). Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages; ERC20 is more suitable for guiding internal economies, while NFTs are easier for selling membership rights. Future DAOs may utilize both types of tokens to construct more complex ownership and governance structures.

In general, launching a Minimum Viable DAO can follow these steps:

1. Establish the mission of the DAO
2. Build a community on Discord or Telegram
3. Create Shared Vault
4. Build Governance Framework
5. Distribution of Ownership

The rest depends on how you and the community can unleash your creativity. DAO provides humanity with a brand new way to collaborate through the internet and achieve collective ownership. This model is full of potential, and I believe that in the near future, the largest organizations in the world will ultimately become DAOs.