Over the past two years, there’s been a lot of talk and hype about the future of finance, especially across the crypto field, with the surge in value of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. The thriving peer-to-peer crypto network is becoming a standard part of a diverse crypto portfolio, grabbing the attention of consumers, invebstors, mainstream media, and billionaires alike. Looking at the numbers, the total value locked (TVL) on DeFi-based platforms has skyrocketed from nearly $8 billion at the start of 2019, to over $95 billion, as of writing.
This growth has been supported partly by the growth of DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, which gives users a seat at the table allowing them to govern and make proposals on the functioning, upgrades and improvements of the platforms. Nonetheless, the DAO ecosystem is growing at a faster pace, branching out with more use cases on DeFi than governance and finance. In this piece we look at some of the top DAO projects that aim to revolutionize the industry in 2022.
1. CanDAO
Our top pick DAO project is Candao, a decentralized social network that enables seemingly seamless communication between blockchains, and provides an overlaying set of tools and solutions that connect crypto communities from disparate environments. The platform also provides a portfolio of social-oriented, blockchain based utility features, and value based on three fundamental values recognised by the community: People, Consensus and Gamification.
Some of the top features available on CanDAO’s platform include Matchify, CanDAO Pad, CanDAO Shop, CanDAO ID, Meta Scan, CanDAO Group, CanDAO Chain, and CanDAO Messenger. These features unlocks people’s value by letting them tokenize the value they create, liquefy assets, and connect existing assets in order to build a joint venture and sustainable communities.
2. Bit DAO
Second on our list is Bit DAO, a decentralized treasury that holds more than $2.5 billion in assets through several mega-raises. The community has attracted some of the biggest players in the crypto and finance industry including Peter Thiel, Alan Howard, and Founders Fund. Bybit, a Singapore-based derivatives cryptocurrency exchange, has also committed 0.025% of its total trading volume (or about $1 billion) per year to the DAO as well.
The BitDAO community aims to create financial value through its DAO Treasury by allowing staking, lending and incentives models on the platform. Additionally, the platform is building an ecosystem of autonomous entities (AEs) that are funded in part by the BitDAO treasury and bring together some of the best partners to help develop Web3 across art, entertainment, finance, and technology and more.
3. Decentraland DAO
Amidst the rising case for the metaverse, our final entry is Decentraland DAO, a decentralized governing body that is in charge of Decentraland’s parcels of virtual land. The DAO widens the scope of decentralized governance, bringing autonomous governing protocols into the metaverse. The DAO gives the virtual land owners voting power that is dependant on how much virtual property they own.
This represents the first-of-its-kind DAO that allows people to have a say on governance in the metaverse. This opens up a world of possibilities such as staking, lending, and borrowing funds using your virtual land as collateral.
Final words
Since the launch of DAOs in 2016, with the Ethereum DAO, decentralized governance protocols have witnessed a sudden growth and rapid innovations. Today, DAOs offer much more than governance. DAO-based protocols are changing the finance industry creatively and innovatively to create value for the community. With platforms such as CanDAO offering an array of features to token holders, the community has more utility on the platform, other than a vote.
