During my web3 journey, one of the first things I encountered was DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). Through diving into speculative news about Bitcoin and some technical things about how blockchain works, I came across The DAOist, and from there began my interest in this amazing form of organization.
Being a web3 citizen it’s usual to be a part of one or more DAOs, as it is the most normal way to organize a project with the goal of decentralizing. I have been and continue to be part of several which has helped me draw connections between them and other structures.
Before we see the similarities between the DAOs form of organization and nature, let’s look into the history of DAOs. The term “DAO” was coined by Vitalik in 2013. He found inspiration from the novel Daemon by Daniel Suarez, although he also credits Daniel Larimer for the concept of the "Decentralized Autonomous Corporation" (DAC).
According to Artem Minaev in a 2023 article, the history of DAOs goes back further to different moments where in an initial way they start exploring the idea of decentralization, then seen from medicine with Werner Dilger, seen from science fiction, until the emergence of Bitcoin as the first decentralized organization. In 2015/16, DAOs started to become relevant with the emergence of Dash DAO, MakerDAO, The DAO, Aragon, and Golem, among others. After 2017, many of the other DAOs we know and follow today took shape, for example, Uniswap, Snapshot, Gnosis, and many more.
After reading SixtyKey's great article "What DAOs Can Learn From Nature" and listening to Kevin Owoki's Green Pill podcast, more specifically, to a recent episode with Daniel Ospina, where he talked about the similarity of DAOs with swarms in nature, I became even more curious about the similarities between this form of organization and the animal world.
The other day, I was working on my laptop in my backyard. Suddenly I noticed that in the garden there was a large line of ants coming out of the plants, headed to an uncertain destination. I remembered that I had read/heard about the similarities between autonomous organizations and nature. It certainly made me question how this works with ants, which began my adventure of reading deeper into how they function in groups.
Ants have a highly organized social structure, known as a colony, which resembles a super organization in which each individual has a specific role. This primarily includes the queen, workers, males, and soldiers.
Let's start with the most important one, the queen, whose main task is to lay eggs. Here she can be compared to the Council of a DAO because they are the ones who take care of the most important tasks of organization, future, and decision-making (in general terms). The tasks of DAO Councils are very important because a council has to be ratified via a vote by the community. First people apply and the community decides who they're the most aligned with in terms of the person’s core values and core objectives for the DAO. Following this, they vote on the nominees, on-chain or off-chain.
Then we have the workers, who are responsible for collecting food, followed by general care and maintenance and defense of the ecosystem. I imagine that all DAO contributors fit into this category. Daily, they share their ideas, upload their proposals to the governance forum, vote on Snapshot, and build the DAO through each of their working groups, all tasks equally important to the continued life of the organization.
Finally, the soldiers, who are in charge of the defense and maintenance of the colony, are the biggest ones with the strongest jaws. I visualize them as the ambassadors who, of course, are the ones who go out to do battle to share more information about our web3 solution (protocol, dApp, etc.), to attract more users, developers, and builders to our ranks. Ideally, they are experts in their field who can communicate effectively with their communities, groups, and friends. They are indispensable for the DAO to have a greater presence and adoption.
Now, how do ants communicate?
They have very well established processes and they are very resilient to the adversities brought on by nature, which makes it easier for them to recover and reorganize themselves as many times as necessary. To remain vigilant, they communicate through pheromones. These chemical signals dictate how they coordinate to: search for food, warn the rest of the community of incoming dangers, reproduce, build, coordinate complex tasks, and agree to act together towards a common goal. This level of social organization and specialization allows ants colonies to be incredibly efficient and adaptable, which contributes to their success as one of the most dominant insect groups on the planet.
No doubt DAOs have a lot of this when the members of the organizations are aligned to the values and share common goals. Today, it is easier than ever to find a way to coordinate to achieve just about any vision you can imagine. With the right tool stack, i.e., with the use of web3 tools such as Charmverse, Snapshot, Tally, governance forums, and NFT or token-gated Push Group Chats, people can organize their efforts in a decentralized fashion more simply than ever before. This also makes it easier than ever before to resolve complex tasks and find new ways to interact, while developing the so-called "proof of work" of the DAO’s members in a reliable fashion.
After writing this text, I’m left with more questions than answers about the similarities between DAOs and the animal world. Still, it’s the beginning of something greater. Share with us on our socials what you think about it, and let's keep building a better Push DAO. #KeepPUSHing 🔔💜
About Push DAO
Push DAO is the community that governs, drives and shapes the future of Push Protocol through grants, community building, and ecosystem development to expand the open communication layer that allows any crypto wallet/frontend to tap into the Push network and get any communication across. The Push DAO Council addresses and executes the vision of the DAO, introducing multiple programs for contributors and builders to participate in paddling together toward greater progressive decentralization.