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The future of DAOs in finance - in need of legal status

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  • Naudts, Ellen

Abstract

Despite the crypto-market crash in the spring of 2022 and the collapse of FTX in November 2022, decentralised finance (DeFi) proponents are still predicting that DeFi may soon go mainstream. As well as the increasing involvement of regulated financial institutions in the DeFi area, the incipient presence of regulatory, supervisory and oversight frameworks may lead to more mainstream acceptance of DeFi. Many DeFi projects are structured in the form of a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), a virtual organisation built and run on code and blockchain technology. As this new DAO corporate structure has benefits appropriate for the era of digitalisation and decentralisation, the number of DAOs is growing. However, most countries around the globe do not yet have in place a specific legal regime for DAOs. Until now, DAOs have been operating outside of regulatory financial frameworks, even though they may perform functions that are similar to regulated financial institutions or market infrastructures. The legal characterisation of DAOs depends on national laws that may or may not apply, depending on how the DAO itself is actually set up and on court judgements. This paper introduces the DAO structure and how it relates to other methods of organisation in finance. The paper lists use cases and describes the benefits and drawbacks of the DAO structure, taking a closer look at (inter)national regulatory frameworks, guidelines and recommendations in order to discuss whether, how and to what extent DAOs might comply. A policy position on the desirability and conditions under which DAOs could bring efficient, safe and stable innovations to the financial sector depends on the specificities of the individual DAOs, the potential applicable regulatory frameworks and the continuously evolving technical developments, as well as (inter)national guidelines and recommendations. This paper proposes that the establishment of regulatory frameworks on crypto-assets and crypto-asset s JEL Classification: F38, F39, G23, G32, K22, L22, L31

Suggested Citation

  • Naudts, Ellen, 2023. "The future of DAOs in finance - in need of legal status," Occasional Paper Series 331, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbops:2023331
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ellen Naudts & Timothy Aerts & Leonard Franken & Aimo Pieterse, 2021. "Governance in systems based on distributed ledger technology (DLT): a comparative study," Working Papers 718, DNB.
    2. Jonathan Chiu & Charles M. Kahn & Thorsten V. Koeppl, 2022. "Grasping decentralized finance through the lens of economic theory," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1702-1728, November.
    3. Eva Kaili, 2021. "Regulating Blockchain in the EU: Building a Global Competitive Advantage," Springer Books, in: Eva Kaili & Dimitrios Psarrakis (ed.), Disintermediation Economics, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 267-279, Springer.
    4. Hassan, Samer & De Filippi, Primavera, 2021. "Decentralized Autonomous Organization," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 10(2), pages 1-10.
    5. Ying-Ying Hsieh & Jean-Philippe Vergne & Philip Anderson & Karim Lakhani & Markus Reitzig, 2018. "Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 7(1), pages 1-16, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bindseil, Ulrich & Coste, Charles-Enguerrand & Pantelopoulos, George, 2025. "Digital money and finance: a critical review of terminology," Working Paper Series 3022, European Central Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    crypto; DAO; DeFi; financing policy; international financial policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F38 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Financial Policy: Financial Transactions Tax; Capital Controls
    • F39 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Other
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

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