DAO

Eine dezentrale autonome Organisation (DAO), manchmal auch genannt dezentrales autonomes Unternehmen (DAC), ist eine Art von Organisation die durch eine Reihe von Regeln in Betrieb gehalten wird, welche durch Computer-Programme, in diesem Fall smart contracts, definiert sind. Die Regeln der Programme und auch die finanziellen Transaktionen einer DAO sind in einer Blockchain-Datenbank hinterlegt. Der genaue rechtliche Status einer solchen geschäftlichen Organisation ist bis zum heutigen Tag ungeklärt.

Ein bekanntes Beispiel hierfür, in Bezug auf Wagniskapital-Gründungen, war die The DAO, die mit einem durch Crowdfunding gesammelten Budget in Höhe von 150 Millionen US-Dollar im Juni 2016 an den Start ging. Gleich zu Beginn wurde das Projekt durch einen Hackerangriff lahmgelegt und verlor dabei 50 Millionen US-Dollar in Form von Kryptowährungen auf einen Schlag. Der Hack wurde zwar in den Folgewochen rückgängig gemacht, auch das Geld zurückgeholt, allerdings hatte dies einen Hardfork der Ethereum-Blockchain zur Folge. Sichergestellt wurde der Fork durch eine Abstimmung der Mehrheit über die Ethereum-Blockchain.

Hintergrund

Decentralized autonomous organizations have been seen by some as difficult to describe. Decentralized autonomous organizations are typified as the ability of blockchain technology to provide a secure digital ledger to track financial interactions across the internet, hardened against forgery by trusted timestamping and by dissemination of a distributed database. This approach eliminates the need to involve a mutually accepted trusted third party in a financial transaction, thus simplifying the transaction. The costs of a blockchain-enabled transaction and of the associated data reporting may be substantially offset by the elimination of both the trusted third party and of the need for repetitive recording of contract exchanges in different records: for example, the blockchain data could, in principle and if regulatory structures permitted, replace public documents such as deeds and titles. In theory, a blockchain approach allows multiple cloud computing users to enter a loosely coupled peer-to-peer smart contract collaboration.

Daniel Larimer first proposed the concept of a "Decentralized Organized Company" in an article published on September 7, 2013.

Vitalik Buterin proposed that after a DAO was launched, it might be organized to run without human managerial interactivity, provided the smart contracts were supported by a Turing complete platform. Ethereum, built on a blockchain and launched in 2015, has been described as meeting that Turing threshold, thus enabling DAOs. Decentralized autonomous organizations aim to be open platforms where individuals control their identities and their personal data.

Examples

DAOs lead to decentralized economy. Tokens allow contribution to collective works micropayments and tracks metrics allow algorithmic measures of contribution utility.

Examples of DAOs are Dash, The DAO and Digix.

Issues

It can be difficult for a DAO to retain an attorney, or enter any kind of written contract because nobody in the company is interested in putting their personal name on agreements.

Social

Shareholder participation in DAOs can be problematic. For example, BitShares has seen a lack of voting participation, because it takes time and energy to consider proposals.

Legal liability

The precise legal status of this type of business organization is unclear; some similar approaches have been regarded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as illegal offers of unregistered securities. Although unclear, a DAO may functionally be a corporation without legal status as a corporation: a general partnership. This means potentially unlimited legal liability for participants, even if the smart contract code or the DAO's promoters say otherwise. Known participants, or those at the interface between a DAO and regulated financial systems, may be targets for regulatory enforcement or civil actions.

Security

The code of a given DAO will be difficult to alter once the system is up and running, including bug fixes that would be otherwise trivial in centralised code. Corrections for a DAO would require writing new code and agreement to migrate all the funds. Although the code is visible to all, it is hard to repair, thus leaving known security holes open to exploitation unless a moratorium is called to enable bug fixing.

In 2016, a specific DAO, The DAO, set a record for the largest crowdfunding campaign to date. However, researchers pointed out multiple issues in the code of The DAO. The operational procedure for The DAO allows investors to withdraw at will any money that has not yet been committed to a project; the funds could thus deplete quickly. Although safeguards aim to prevent gaming the voting of shareholders to win investments, there were a "number of security vulnerabilities". These enabled an attempted large withdrawal of funds from The DAO that was initiated in mid-June 2016. However, after much debate, on the 20th July 2016, the Ethereum community arrived at a consensus decision to hard fork the Ethereum blockchain to bail out the original contract.

Legacy

In 2017, Italian entrepreneur Stefano Covolan conceived of and implemented through his company, Korporatio, a DAO derivative system he has named a Compliant Blockchain Company or CBC, with the aim of overcoming the inherent flaws in the DAO concept. These CBCs are purportedly legal entities, specifically Republic of Seychelles International Business Companies.

Siehe auch

• Decentralized computing
• Distributed computing
• Incentive-centered design
• List of highest funded crowdfunding projects

Externe Links

• Digix.io

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"The DAO of accrue: A new, automated investment fund has attracted stacks of digital money". The Economist. 21 May 2016. 

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Aitken, R. (23 April 2016). "Digital Gold 'Done Right' With DigixDAO Crypto-Trading On OpenLedger". Forbes. 

SEC Charges Bitcoin Entrepreneur With Offering Unregistered Securities. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 3 June 2014.

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M. Levine: Blockchain Company Wants to Reinvent Companies. In: Bloomberg View: Wall Street. Bloomberg News. 17 May 2016.

M. Peck: Ethereum's $150-Million Blockchain-Powered Fund Opens Just as Researchers Call For a Halt. In: IEEE Spectrum. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 28 May 2016.

M. del Castillo: The DAO: Or How A Leaderless Ethereum-Based Organization Raised $50 Million (Even Though No One Quite Knows What It Is). In: CoinDesk. 12 May 2016. Abgerufen am 13 May 2016.

Vigna, P. (16 May 2016). "Chiefless Company Rakes In More Than $100 Million". Wall Street Journal. 

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N. Popper: Hacker May Have Taken $50 Million From Cybercurrency Project. New York Times. 17 June 2016.

R Price: Digital currency Ethereum is cratering amid claims of a $50 million hack. In: Business Insider. 17 June 2016. Abgerufen am 17 June 2016.

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https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/07/20/hard-fork-completed/