Five Types of Impact DAOs
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We reviewed the mission statement of over 70 Impact DAOs, and they fall into these 5 categories. Impact DAOs are decentralized autonomous organizations whose core purpose is to do good for people and the planet.
The top 5 emerging Impact DAO categories and what they stand for:
🚀 Enabler
These DAOs enable impact through training, funding, and other infrastructure support. They are meta DAOs and do not directly participate in impact delivery. Examples of enabler DAOs include Gitcoin (funding), LexDAO (legal), and Impact DAO Media (research).
Enablers can be further segmented based on the service they provide such as funding, media, education, or incubator DAOs.
🌱Climate
DAOs engaged in climate change mitigation fall under this category. The current climate DAO’s focus areas include agriculture, carbon credits, land regeneration, and natural assets tokenization. Klima DAO (carbon credits), Kokonut DAO (agriculture), Basin DAO (land restoration), and United Species DAO (community resilience) are examples of climate DAOs.
❤️ Social Impact
DAOs whose mission is to improve the lives of people fall into this category. Social Impact DAOs are currently operating in the space of social and financial inclusion, hyper-local mutual aid, and humanitarian aid. Examples include Human DAO (financial inclusion), Impact Market (UBI), Ukraine DAO (disaster management), and Pact DAO (hyper-local city based mutual aid).
🧬 DeSci
DAOs in the area of scientific research, funding, and innovation. For instance, Vita DAO (longevity), Valley DAO (synthetic biology), FrontierDAO (fusion and Ag tech). Based on the nature of their core activities, DeSci DAOs can be further categorized into research publishing, funding, or scientific innovation incubators.
🌐 Network State DAOs
They are the newly emerging category of Impact DAOs formed around network states, a concept detailed by Balaji Srinivasan in his book, The Network State. Many DAOs are experimenting in this space, as the first step towards a network state is a highly aligned online community. Some network state DAOs have even acquired real-world assets, such as City DAO, Cabin DAO, and Kift DAO.
A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states. - The Network State, Balaji Srinivasan