jakiro
Translator’s Preface
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are rapidly rising and becoming a key force in reshaping global governance and resource allocation, and more and more innovative thinking and design models are shaping the future of DAOs.This article is Kevin Owocki’s latest research findings, describing 69 trends in DAO design in 2025, covering everything from AI integration, privacy protection, capital allocation to decentralized governance.This article not only provides practical ideas for DAO designers, but also inspires more discussions and practices about decentralized autonomy, innovative governance and public goods funding.
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I conducted some simple research on DAO design trends in 2025 (https://x.com/owocki/status/1880003004365173059), Here are some of my findings.
Hopefully these contents can provide useful references to DAO designers in 2025 🙂
AI Integration
1. AI x DAO
AI x DAO refers to integrating artificial intelligence into DAO’s operations and is used to perform tasks such as warehousing management, proposal analysis and information flow.AI agents can process massive amounts of data and make decisions or provide advice based on predefined standards and historical patterns.AI agents can run continuously and have the potential to make more objective decisions than human governors.
2. AI Agent Governance Assistant
AI makes governance processes more transparent and efficient by providing data-driven, clear insights to analyze voting patterns, member engagement, and proposal impacts.AI can also compress complex background information into easy-to-understand summary, making governance updates easier to access by all members, thereby promoting the democratization of governance participation.
3. AI circuit breaker switch
An AI circuit breaker is a governance control mechanism used to limit the behavior of AI systems and prevent potential problems.This system can automatically pause or limit AI operations based on trigger conditions, thus ensuring that AI is more secure in DAO applications.
4. AI agency
AI principal agents are a type of artificial intelligence systems that can represent token holders in governance decisions.They can analyze proposals, track voting patterns, and make decisions based on preset standards, thus promoting the development of a more complex and automated governance system.
5. AI is used for design space exploration
AI agents have greatly improved the efficiency of design space exploration in infinite complex environments, and accelerated the innovation process by automatically generating and evaluating diverse architectural configurations.With huge data sets, context windows and computing power, AI can quickly optimize designs around the clock, identifying the best solutions more efficiently than traditional manual methods.This not only speeds up the design process, but also reduces the costs associated with manual exploration and achieves more innovative and economical results.
Example: InfiniteRegen.AI
6. AI is used for information flow
AI and large language models (LLMs) can simplify the flow of information in DAO, highlighting key topics or points of content for quick reference by summarizing discussions or conference content.At the same time, they can analyze the roles and interests of members, provide customized information, and ensure that each user only receives relevant updates.Additionally, an AI-driven knowledge graph can map DAO’s resources, discussions, and contributors, enabling the right people to connect with the right information at the right time.
7. Application of AI in new membership onboarding and member management
AI tools are used to simplify the onboarding process in DAO, by reading resumes, evaluating new members’ qualifications, and even suggesting roles based on skills and historical performance data.This application reduces human bias and accelerates the inclusion process of new members in DAO.
8. AI on-chain capital allocation
AI agents can more effectively perform traceability capital allocation by integrating data from past financing rounds, proposals and performance metrics.They are able to identify underfunded but influential projects through advanced analysis and suggest optimal resource allocation.By automating proposal reviews and prioritizing DAO goals, AI ensures that funds are distributed efficiently and transparently.
9.DAO Management AI
DAO oversees the development of AI to ensure ethical or consistent AI practices.This could involve community-driven AI research and deployment governance, which could ultimately lead to a safer, more responsible AI system.
10.Group intelligence
AI is being tested as a connector between DAO, agent and humans, creating a form of group intelligence where different entities can share knowledge, communicate and coordinate more efficiently, enabling more efficient collective decision-making than individual members.
Financial mechanism
11. Guarantee Contract
Ensure that the contract creates mechanisms to coordinate group action by ensuring that participants will participate only when enough people participate.These contracts help to resolve coordination issues and promote collective action, especially for funding of public goods or organizing collective efforts.
12. COCM (Connection-oriented Cluster Match) Quadratic Funding
The algorithm enhances the traditional quadratic funding model by identifying and reducing collusion among donors.It analyzes the cluster of users based on shared attributes or behaviors to detect coordinated groups trying to unfairly influence funding outcomes.By adjusting matching funds to consider these collusion patterns, COCM ensures that resources are allocated more equitably and efficiently to projects that are truly supported by the community.
Example: Gitcoin Grants Stack
13. Reserve
Reserves provide a treasury management system with specific rules, including rules for fund allocation and expenditure.It can include features such as expenditure limits, approval requirements and automatic allocation.The system helps maintain financial discipline while ensuring that resources are available when needed.
14. Deepfunding
Deepfunding is an initiative that rewards open source contributors to allocate funds to upstream contributors on projects that funder value assessments by leveraging dependency graphs and markets made up of AI or human allocators, supplemented by spot check juries.It aims to reduce the cognitive burden on funders to make funding decisions more efficiently by extending high-quality manual judgments.The project includes a competition with a total prize of $250,000, encouraging the development of models to allocate weights to 40,000 identified Ethereum dependencies.
Example: DeepFunding.Org
15. Direct contract incentives
Guaranteed Contract + If the project fails to meet its funding objectives, ensure that contributors receive additional rewards as refunds, thereby incentivizing participation and reducing risk.
Example: Boost, Royco
16. Lead the guarantee contract
Direct contract incentives embed reward mechanisms directly into smart contracts to create automated and transparent incentive systems.These systems can reward specific behaviors, achievements, or contributions without manual allocation.They help create more efficient and trustless incentive structures.
17. Hamberg Tax
Hamberg Tax creates a continuous auction mechanism in which the holder of the asset must set the sales price and pay taxes based on that price.This creates a balance between effective resource allocation and fair compensation for the current holder.The system helps prevent resource hoarding and ensures that assets are used productively.
18. Impact Proof
Impact Proof provides verifiable certificates to measure and prove the impact in various fields.These systems can track and verify contributions, achievements, and results.They help create more transparent and traceable impact assessment systems.
Example: EAS
19. Impact Certificate
An impact certificate is a tradable token that represents a proof of the positive impact or value created by an individual or organization in areas such as public goods or social initiatives.It can be sold or redeemed in the future, allowing funders to back-incentive for influential contributions.
Example: Hypercerts
20. KPI-based incentives
KPI-based incentives link rewards to specific, measurable performance metrics.These systems can automatically adjust rewards based on the achieved results.They help create more objective and performance-oriented incentive structures.
Example: Metro
21. Private quadratic funding
Private quadratic funding combines privacy technology and quadratic funding mechanisms to prevent collusion.The system allows democratic allocation of funding while protecting voter privacy, helping to ensure funding decisions reflect real community preferences rather than coordinated voting blocks.
Example: MACI
22. Programmable Fund Flow
Programmable fund flows make payment flows continuous in real time rather than separate transactions.This makes it possible to have more meticulous control over payment times and conditions, such as salary flow or service payments.The system can automatically adjust the payment rate according to different conditions or indicators.
Example: Drips, Sablier, Superfluid
23. Programmatic liquidity
Programmatic liquidity uses algorithms to automatically manage market-making and liquidity provision.In DeFi protocols, these systems can adjust parameters such as price curves and pool depths according to market conditions and protocol requirements.This approach helps maintain a stable market and efficient price discovery without constant manual intervention.
Example: Baseline Markets, Cult DAO
24. Proof of Value
Proof of Value (PoV) is a consensus mechanism proposed by the Thrive protocol to measure and verify the actual impact of contributions in the blockchain ecosystem.It uses expert validators (called “Guardians”) to evaluate contributions based on standards such as code quality, financial outcomes, and content accuracy.This ensures fair and effective allocation of funds and is rewarded based on the value provided by the contributors.
Example: Thrive Protocol
25. Quadratic funding + binding curve
The system combines quadratic democratic allocation with a price discovery mechanism for binding curves.The integration creates a dynamic funding system that responds to market signals while maintaining the elements of democracy.It helps balance effective capital allocation with community preferences.
Example: q/acc by giveth
26. Retrospective funding
Retrospective funding is to reward value creation after the fact, rather than funding future predictive work.This approach reduces the risk of funding ineffective work and creates stronger incentives for valuable contributions.It helps address public goods funding issues by rewarding proven value creation.
Example: Optimism Retro Funding, EasyRetroPGF.xyz
27. Income Routing
The income routing system automatically distributes income to different stakeholders or uses based on predetermined rules or formulas.These systems can handle complex distribution patterns, such as real-time allocation of revenue between contributors, treasury and liquidity providers, automating reducing administrative overheads and ensuring transparent, predictable allocation of funds.
Example: RevNets.app
28. Labor equity
The labor equity system allocates ownership based on work contributions rather than capital investments.These systems can track and evaluate different types of contributions, evaluating them over time.They help to build a more equitable ownership structure based on real value creation.
Example: Collabberry
Governance Model
29. Compound v2
Compound v2 governance introduces complex mechanisms to manage DeFi protocols, including delayed execution, time locking, and delegating.The system allows for regular parameter adjustments and significant protocol changes.It also includes security features to prevent malicious proposals while maintaining flexibility.
Example: Compound Finance, Uniswap, Gitcoin Governance
30. Challenge control
Challengable control systems allow challenging existing control structures under defined conditions.This creates accountability while maintaining stability.The system helps prevent control from being monopolized while enabling necessary changes.
Example: Jeff Strnad’s research
31. Voting for Conviction
Conviction voting is weighted to vote based on how long voters keep their positions, encouraging long-term thinking and reducing voting manipulation.Voters accumulate voting weight over time and can apply it to different proposals.This system helps prevent short-term speculation and encourages more thoughtful decision-making.
Example: 1Hive
32. Decentralized Arbitration
Decentralized arbitration provides an on-chain system to resolve disputes between parties.These systems often use jury pools and economic incentives to ensure a fair ruling.They help build a stronger and self-improved governance system.
Example: Kleros
33. Discuss first and then decide on governance
Discussion and then decision-making governance emphasizes structured discussions and consensus building before formal voting.This approach helps ensure that decisions are well thought out and widely supported, enabling better decisions and strengthen community cohesion.
Example: Harmonica, SimScore
34. Dual governance
Dual governance creates a two-layer governance system that sets different mechanisms and requirements for different types of decisions.This makes it more efficient to handle different decision types.The system helps balance efficiency and safety in governance.
Example: Lido Finance, Optimism bicameral governance (Token House and Citizens House)
35. EigenGov
EigenGov is the governance system of EigenLayer that hand over decision-making power to the domain expert committee while giving EIGEN token holders the ultimate veto power.This structure ensures that people actively involved in the ecosystem drive day-to-day operations while maintaining a balance between expert insights and community oversight.
Example: EigenGov
36. Holographic consensus
Holographic consensus creates scalable decision-making systems that can maintain quality while handling a large number of proposals.The system uses various mechanisms to effectively screen and prioritize proposals, solving the scalability problem of traditional governance systems.
Example: DAO Stack
37. Liquid Democracy
Liquid democracy allows voters to vote directly or delegate voting rights to others, who can further delegate them.This flexible system combines direct and representative democracy and helps balance participation and expertise in governance.
38. New voting strategies
Advanced voting mechanisms are not limited to simple token weighted voting, but also include various weighting schemes (such as quadratic voting), quorum requirements and voting cycles.These strategies can take into account factors such as voter reputation, share duration or expertise, and aim to improve the quality of decision making while maintaining fair participation.
Example: Snapshot Labs
39. On-chain/off-chain connector
These systems create bridges between on-chain governance and legal entities, enabling a hybrid structure that combines blockchain and traditional legal frameworks.This allows DAO to interact more effectively with traditional legal systems, helping DAOs operate better in the real world.
Example: BORGs
40. OP Governance
OP governance allows actions to be automatically executed without being challenged.This approach reduces the governance overhead of conventional decision making while maintaining security through challenging mechanisms.It is especially suitable for low-risk and frequent decision-making.
41. Reputation Voting
Reputation voting allocates voting rights based on accumulated reputation rather than token holdings.Reputation can be obtained through contribution, participation, and other positive behaviors.This approach helps align voting rights with commitment to the project.
42. Role-based governance
Role-based governance allocates different permissions and voting rights based on different roles in the DAO, similar to different levels of authority in traditional organizations.This system allows for more granular control over who can make what decisions, making governance more efficient and professional.Users may acquire or be assigned roles based on their contributions, expertise, or other criteria.
Example: Hats Protocol
43. Enforcement of subjective rules
Subjective rule execution allows manual judgment when applying rules, rather than relying solely on mechanical execution.This provides more flexibility and context-awareness to governance systems, helping to deal with complex situations that cannot be solved by simple algorithms.
Example: Q Blockchain
44. Voting against witch attacks
The voting mechanism against witch attacks ensures fairness of the vote by preventing individuals from gaining additional voting rights through multiple identities.These systems may use human proof, identity verification, or other verification methods to ensure that voting results reflect the true wishes of the community, rather than manipulation.
Example: Gitcoin Passport, Worldcoin
45. Go to the governance
Degovernance eliminates traditional voting mechanisms and uses automated rules and pre-ordered protocols.This approach reduces governance overhead and potential manipulation risks by removing human decisions in routine operations.The system is more like a vending machine than a democratic system, with clear rules and predictable results.
Information Finance
46. Decentralized fact check
Users can stake tokens to challenge or verify the accuracy of information on the platform.If a claim proves wrong, the challenger will receive a reward, incentivizing the community to maintain the integrity of the information.
47. Decentralized News Insurance
A platform where users can jointly contribute to provide insurance for the accuracy of news stories.Investigative journalists or fact-checkers can apply for funds from the fund pool to verify or refute a piece of news.If the news is proven to be false, the funds will be returned to the investor; if it is verified to be true, the investigator will receive a reward.
48. Predicting Market Governance
Predictive Market Governance makes governance decisions by predicting the market, allowing token holders to bet on the results of different proposals.This market-driven decision-making mechanism may be more accurate than traditional voting, helping align governance decisions with expected results.
Example: Butter.money
49. Knowledge of Dynamic Value NFT
Create tokenized forms of proven knowledge (NFTs) that increase the value of NFTs when more independent validators confirm their accuracy and practicality.Institutions or individuals can purchase these NFTs for obtaining proof of high-quality data or expertise.
50. Impact Proof Forecast Market
A forecasting market that tracks and rewards the correctness of the forecast results and the subsequent impact of the event.For example, forecasts about technology adoption can incorporate indicators such as user growth or economic impact to generate richer data sets to support long-term decision-making.
51. Reputation-based lending system
In such a financial system, the ability of an individual or entity to obtain loans and credit is determined by their dynamically updated reputation scores.These ratings are based on community feedback and verified information.
52. Research funding tokenization
Researchers propose projects, a system for communities to fund these projects by purchasing tokens.The success and impact of the research will affect the value of the token, thus aligning economic incentives with valuable knowledge production.
Infrastructure
53. Allo Agreement
The Allo protocol provides the infrastructure for resource allocation for Web3 projects.The protocol includes project metadata storage, funding round management, proposal evaluation and resource allocation capabilities, aiming to standardize and optimize funding processes for Web3 projects.
Example: Allo
54. Aragon OSx
Aragon OSx provides an updated operating system for creating and managing more flexible DAOs.The system includes advanced permission management, plug-in architecture and governance tools, with the goal of making DAO creation and management more convenient while preserving the complexity and functionality of the system.
Example: Aragon Project
55. Cross-chain asset management, voting and token transfer
Through Chainlink’s CCIP, DAOs can manage treasury assets distributed across multiple blockchains, including secure transfer of funds between chains or deployment of multi-chain earnings strategies to optimize treasury growth.
Example: CCIP
56. MolochDAO v3
MolochDAO v2 introduces “loot”, which is non-voting interests, allowing for a more flexible member structure; it also adds the ability to support the Treasury holding multiple ERC-20 tokens, exceeding the single token limit of v1.In addition, v2 introduces “forced ragquit” to remove inactive or malicious members.MolochDAO v2.5 further improves v2, allowing DAO to interact with external smart contracts through a single proposal by integrating “minions”.
Example: MolochDAO
57. Zodiac Modules
The Zodiac module provides a modular smart contract system that allows DAO to add or modify governance functions without changing the core structure.These modules can be combined like building blocks to create a customized governance system.The modularity allows DAOs to evolve their governance structure over time without having to be completely refactored.
Example: Safe
Organizational Model
58. Activity DAOs
Activity DAOs are organized around specific activities or goals, rather than general governance.These DAOs have a focused mission and a specialized governance mechanism that enables the creation of more efficient organizations for specific goals.
Example: PizzaDAO, Blunt DAO, Sauna DAO
59. Combined governance
Combined governance allows different governance mechanisms to combine and interact in a defined way.This approach creates flexible systems that can adapt to different needs and situations, helping DAO build more complex and meticulous governance systems.
60. Modular governance
Modular governance creates a hierarchical structure through sub-DAO and side-DAO, allowing it to run semi-independently.This approach achieves more specialized and efficient governance at different levels while maintaining coordination overall.
61. Pods
In DAO, Pods (introduced by Orca) are small autonomous teams with specific responsibilities designed to improve coordination and decision-making within the organization.Pods enable decentralized governance by decentralizing permissions to manageable, composable subgroups.
Example: Orca
62. Self-management of the registry
A self-managed registry is a dynamic list maintained by core contributors.It achieves transparency and adaptability by allowing members to collectively update the registry based on changes in roles and contributions.
Example: Protocol Guild and other Guilds
63. Cluster
In DAO, clusters (introduced by rnDAO) are flexible, task-oriented teams spontaneously formed to complete specific projects or tasks.They operate in a flexible and autonomous manner, enabling contributors to collaborate dynamically without formal hierarchical structures.
Example: rnDAO
Token Economics
64. Dynamic Unlock
Dynamic Unlock Create a flexible token ownership schedule that can be adjusted according to various metrics or conditions.Unlike simple time-based attribution, tokens can be unlocked based on project milestones, market conditions, or participant behavior.This approach helps align incentive mechanisms and adapt to changing environments.
65. Governance of pledge
Tokens must be locked in order to participate in governance, which helps strengthen the alignment mechanism.The system helps create a more sustainable token economic model.
Example: Unichain, Arbitrum Governance, Tally Staking
66. Re-pled
Re-pled connects pledged assets with governance rights, strengthening the connection between economic rights and voting rights.The mechanism can include multiple ways to manage pledge and voting rights, helping to integrate more closely with economic and governance incentives.
67. Social token allocation
This approach allocates tokens based on social media campaigns and engagement, creating a more organic and contribution-based distribution model.It can take into account factors such as content creation, community engagement, and trust networks, help align token allocations with actual community contributions and influence.
Example: Farcaster, Lens Protocol
68. Token launch platform
The token launch platform provides infrastructure for the issuance of new tokens, including complex pricing mechanisms such as binding curves.These platforms often offer features such as fair start-up, progressive distribution, and price discovery, helping to prevent common problems such as price manipulation and excessive concentration of tokens.
Example: Pump.fun
69. Ve/Gauge Governance
Ve/Gauge governance combines voting locked tokens with metrological weight emissions to create a complex token allocation system.Tokens must be locked in order to participate in governance, a mechanism that further strengthens the alignment of incentives and helps to establish a more sustainable token economic model.
Example: Aerodrome, Mode, Puffer, Pendle
