How DAOs are impacting the evolution of ecosystem strategy

In this episode of the Think Ecosystem podcast series, Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain Leader, welcomes Manasi Vora, co-founder of the Komorebi Collective, an investment DAO focused on funding female and nonbinary crypto, and Jeffrey Hojlo, Research Vice President, Industry Ecosystems & Innovation Strategies at IDC, to dive deep into the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

DAOs are fast emerging, member-owned organizations whose rules of governance, voting rights and financial transaction records are encoded in a smart contract on the blockchain.

While Web3 promises to disintermediate traditional business transactions, DAOs go one step further by decentralizing organizations themselves, doing away with the need for conventional hierarchical leadership structures. They are beginning to radically disrupt the way organizations are formed, governed and operate on a day-to-day basis, creating new and innovative ecosystems along the way.

DAOs are flat entities in which members vote on any changes to operation, policy and approach and can verify the software code running the DAO at any time.

Advocates see DAOs as neutral, trusted digital platforms for sharing, collaboration and innovation – platforms which enable ecosystems to grow and evolve and which empower owners to make decisions at great speed.

In this episode, our thought leaders will, among other things, explore the extent to which DAOs will increase in importance as organizations continue to expand their ecosystems beyond their core industries.

Key takeaways:

• DAOs are increasingly recognized for their ability to create new forms of collaboration and serve as platforms to support the growth of blockchain and Web3 ecosystems.
• A key concern among businesses regarding ecosystem business models is the level of trust between participants. The democratic governance structure inherent in DAOs is uniquely suited to ensure that all participants (with their varying areas of expertise) have their voices heard on key decisions, and the principle of shared ownership ensures that participants are all incentivized by the success of the ecosystem.

For your convenience, a full text transcript of this podcast is also available. Read the transcript.