Are DAOs the LLCs of the digital age?
An interview with Kevin Owocki on the DAO road to mainstream
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Despite blockchain technology making constant progress in its capabilities, memecoins and the like are still sucking up all the oxygen of public discourse from more groundbreaking developments. Thus, I was all the more happy that a new book once again picked up the idea of decentralized autonomous organizations: "How to DAO: Mastering the Future of Internet Coordination" by Kevin Owocki. It was an elightening read as you can see in my recent book review. So I got in touch with Kevin directly and asked him about some of the many questions his book had sparked.
As the founder of a number of Web3 projects, Kevin is recognized in the crypto space for his commitment to building public goods and pioneering new models of incentivizing open-source contributions. He has experienced first-hand the rapid progress DAOs have gone through since their inception ten years ago.
Igor: Every techno-economic era has a predominant form of organization. The mercantile age was dominated by chartered companies, the industrial age by LLCs. Will DAOs likewise come to dominate the digital age and replace LLCs?
Kevin: I don’t know that DAOs replace LLCs outright, but I do think they’ll be the native coordination mechanism of the digital age. LLCs are tied to nation-states and offchain legal systems. DAOs are native to the internet - borderless, global, and blockchain-based. In the same way LLCs were a response to the needs of industrial-era coordination, DAOs are emerging as a response to the needs of digitally-native communities that want to organize capital and work in new ways. The internet frontier needs internet-native organizations, and that’s what DAOs are.
Igor: I can clearly see DAO use cases in the world of finance in areas such as lending or investing. What non-finance use cases are the most promising in your opinion?
Kevin: Great question - finance is just the first use case because it’s the low-hanging fruit. But some of the most exciting spaces are:
Public goods funding - Gitcoin is an example, but imagine DAOs funding open-source software, journalism, or even local infrastructure.
Social DAOs - groups like FWB (Friends With Benefits) function like internet-native social clubs or creative collectives.
DAO-based education cohorts - like what we’re doing with How to DAO, where groups learn Web3 together.
Prediction markets and bounties - DAOs enable new ways to forecast outcomes or reward work on demand.
The core idea is creating new multiplayer digital experiences where coordination is native, not bolted on.
Igor: Would a DAO be capable of managing physical goods as well? I am thinking about projects like the Constitution DAO, where the creators tried to buy a physical copy of the US constitution to display it in museums. This would involve negotiating with museums, organizing logistics, signing legally-binding contracts and so on. Could a DAO do that?
Kevin: Absolutely - though it gets tricky because you're bridging the on-chain/off-chain world. ConstitutionDAO showed us that DAOs can rally capital and community for real-world objectives. But when it comes to executing real-world contracts, logistics, or negotiating with museums, you still need a legal wrapper or trusted intermediaries.
That’s why many DAOs spin up an LLC or foundation to interact with the physical world. The DAO directs the strategy, but the legal entity signs the contracts. Over time, I think we’ll see infrastructure that makes these crossovers smoother.
Igor: DAOs have been around since 2015. What are the major ways DAOs today are better than back then?
Kevin: Night and day difference. In 2015, The DAO experiment showed us what not to do. It was too complex and got hacked. Now, DAOs prioritize simplicity and security -think Gnosis Safe or MolochDAO’s minimalism.
What’s new today:
Tools like Snapshot and Tally make voting seamless.
Gnosis Safe secures billions with plugins that extend what DAOs can do.
New primitives like prediction markets, retroactive funding, and airdrops are unlocking powerful new use cases.
AI is collapsing context and making information flow inside DAOs smoother.
We’re evolving from “let’s pool money” experiments to full-stack digital organizations.
Igor: What are some of the indicators you are watching to see if the adoption of DAOs is picking up?
Kevin: For me, it’s:
Growth in DAO treasuries - are more resources being managed by DAOs?
Activity on platforms like Snapshot and Tally - are votes happening?
How many people are earning their first crypto through DAO bounties or grants?
The rise of social DAOs and non-financial DAOs - when that hits, it’s a sign that the design space is opening up.
Tools and protocols launching that make DAO creation easier.
Igor: Do you see any corporations or banks jumping into the DAO-arena or are DAOs completely incompatible with corporations?
Kevin: I think they’re parallel universes - DAOs won’t replace corporations but will create new models that live alongside them. Some corporations will experiment - especially in governance or tokenized assets - but their DNA is so different.
Banks and big players may adopt DAO-like tools for internal governance or partnerships, but fully embracing DAO culture? That’s harder. DAOs are internet-native. Corporations are legal-native. That’s the tension.
If you want to go deeper on the future of DAOs, you can check out the book’s website or get the a copy directly from here:
Want to find out more about Kevin’s work on DAOs? Then check out his corporate webpage at Allo.Capital or follow him on X.
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