Welcome to the first edition of the crowdsourced playbook on successfully building DAOs, with contributions from >60 DAOists from across the DAO ecosystem.

This playbook contains experiences from 8 years of DAOing, and it should help understand DAOs, why people are building them and how to actually build one. As the field is everchanging, we’ll be updating the playbook at least once a year.

We believe DAOs are the future of coordination, and together we will make it so.

• peth, summoner of DAO Accelerationism

Sponsored by

DAOhaus, Optimism, Public Nouns, MetaCartel, Push Protocol, MetaGame, MangroveDAO & Hats Protocol.

Note: funding was split between DAOcember, DAO Playbook and DAO Spring.

Table of Contents

Act I: Understanding DAOs

1. WTF are DAOs

2. Why DAO

3. Becoming the Ultimate DAO Contributor

4. The Artful Philosophy of DAO Dynamics

Act II: Summoning a DAO

1. Narrowing Vision and Focus

2. Tending to Your Growth, Sustainability & Community

3. Toward Collective Intelligence

4. Right Tool for the Right Job

5. Perfect Governance for Your DAO

6. Membership, Authorities, Rewards and Compensation

7. Going from 0 to 1 in Building a DAO

8. Building Healthy Communities

9. Transparency, Accountability, and Privacy in the DAO Ecosystem

10. Preventing Capture and Censorship in Decentralized Organizations

Act III: DAO Growth & Thriving

1. Internal and External Communications in DAOs

2. Towards Product or Community Market Fit

3. A Guide to Constructive Conflict Resolution

4. Funding Via Grants

5. Rhythms & Feedback Loops

6. Legal Structures and Concerns

7. DAO Canvas

8. DAO Death, Decomposition, and Resurrection

9. Future of DAOs

Authors

SourcesSky, Willy Wonka, Ralph, Chuy Garcia, Chris Carella, Gus, Jennifer, Elco, peth, Boiler, Penguin, Ann, Travis, Ian LeViness, Zemm, Victor Rich, Boluwatife, Andrej, Ivan, b3nn, Eugene, Joshua, Kyle (StarGarden), Jack Du Rose, Bryan (BPetes), PhilH, Richard Bartlett, David Ehrlichman, Travis Wyche, Grace Rachmany, Frisson, Q, Katerina, Sid, Zakku, The Beyondr, Bryn (Skrillah), Kevin Owocki, Oliver, Christina (BorrowLucid), Simona Pop, Stephen Reid, Spencer, Anna, Coffee Crusher, Rika, Caolán, Schlomo, Nick Naraghi, Rafa, Jeremy Ackers, Links (Al Mithani), Daniel Ospina, Jawna, Pablo, Adam Miller, Jason, 0xJustice, Dr. Nick, Auryn Macmillan, Juan Carlos, & Rolf Hoefer

Writerspeth, Franklynstein, Zanne, Elizabeth Cusma & KAF

EditsFranklynstein w/ smol edits from Lica, Qdev, Alexis, Hana, Humberto, Patrice, IM & Michelle Baldwin

Links

• read or export epub from The DAO Playbook v1

• join the DAO/acc announcements channel

• join the DAO/acc community group

• subscribe to the DAO/acc newsletter

• follow us on X or Farcaster

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