A comparative analysis of the platforms for decentralized autonomous organizations in the Ethereum blockchain

Abstract Blockchain technology has enabled a new kind of distributed systems. Beyond its early applications in Finance, it also allowed the emergence novel ways governance and coordination. The most relevant these are so-called Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). DAOs typically implement decision-making systems to make possible for their online community reach agreements. As result agreements, DAO operates automatically by executing appropriate portion code on blockchain network (e.g., hire people, delivers payments, invests financial products, etc). In last few years, several platforms such as Aragon, DAOstack DAOhaus, have emerged facilitate creation DAOs. result, hundreds organizations appeared, with communities interacting mediated blockchain. However, literature yet appropriately explore empirically this phenomena. paper, we aim shed light current state ecosystem. We review three main nowadays (Aragon, DAOstack, DAOhaus) which management Thus, introduce differences, compare them using quantitative metrics. For comparison, retrieve data from both Ethereum ( mainnet ) parallel xDai ). analyze 72,320 users 2,353 order study ecosystems across four dimensions: growth, activity, voting system funds. Our results show that there notable differences among terms growth results. Still, consider our work is only first step further research needed better understand communities, evaluate level accomplishment reaching decentralized governance.