Some may consider my choice of words in the title, “the PIVX DAO Works,” somewhat bold. But, the fact is, it’s worked up to this point, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t work in the future.
Let’s back this up a little; I think I may be getting a little ahead of myself in presenting this the correct way. Let’s first examine what a DAO is, isn’t, and how PIVX uses it to govern. The three letters D-A-O are short for Decentralized Autonomous Organization, a term that has a fairly specific meaning.
The Three Letters ('er words?)
Decentralized - There is no central location for this type of organization. Unlike the corporate headquarters of business in some city, the people who decide on PIVX’s next steps are literally scattered across the globe.
Autonomous - By definition, the word autonomous means to be given the freedom to govern one's own affairs. The PIVX community does just that. Individuals propose changes to anything from alliances with other projects to documentation projects. It’s the 1,600+ Masternode owners who vote yay or nay on the proposals (from around the world).
Organization - As day-to-day affairs of PIVX run, it’s easy to see that there is, in fact, some organization, but it’s not an organization. Instead, the collective group of PIVX is mainly run via daily interaction with its members and the voting sessions.
I highlight “its members” above as I want to draw attention to this particular theme of PIVX. It’s member-led, organized, and built upon. Without a community to help drive innovation and develop newer and better ways of doing things, there’s no reason to have a DAO. It’s akin to symbiosis, the DAO needs the community, and the community needs the DAO.
I think a better, shorter definition of DAO is in order, so how about this: A DAO is a group of like-minded individuals with a goal of improving the product, community, and global affairs. This is a very PIVX related statement indeed. And all three goals are taken very seriously.
What a DAO is not
There are a hundred things a DAO is not. Above all else, one should remember that it’s not a perfect form or forum of governance. I tread on that statement lightly as there are some die-hard DAO-ers (that’s not a real word) out there. Much like any form of government, there is no perfect solution. An easy example could be a proposal to change the official color of PIVX from purple to orange. While orange may be my favorite color, I’m near certain that my proposal would be denied by the voting community (probably overwhelmingly too). The fact that my favorite color will not be the new color of PIVX leaves me unhappy. If it were a perfect system, there’d be a lot of happy people out there.
There is a lot of work to keep the DAO form of government moving forward. Continued improvement to the internal ecosystem needs to be voted on. Changes need people to vote without proxies (other people to vote on their behalf). And sometimes, there just aren’t enough people interested in a topic to vote one way or another. It happens. However, much like cryptocurrency itself, relying on a DAO for a system of governance is a long game.
How the DAO and PIVX meld
I’m going to use a quote directly from the PIVX Governance page,
“Voting in our DAO/Governance can be making important changes or trivial ones just like in real life. So we find it important to act in the interests of everyone who participates and everyone has a chance to.”
I’m not a member of the PIVX community to make money. If I wanted that, I’d take my funds and put them into Bitcoin. Many in the community are here to assist in ushering in a new means of personal finance mixed with some serious data protection. I don’t think the more active members have any delusions that we’re going to take over the banking industry. That stated; however, I do believe that there’s a common goal to make it better.
It’s this goal, and the drive to make a better financial system, where the PIVX and a DAO converge to move forward on a similar path. The development community- I believe that we have three full-time developers today- has a goal they’re working to meet. However, they’d be unable to make this goal a reality unless the like-mindedness of the voting DAO members agreed to fund it.
So what’s next?
Change is inevitable. And in crypto, it’s never a matter of if, but when. Today, at least here in the United States, there is a change afoot in the realm of the DAO. Wyoming recently changed its business licensing structure to allow DAOs to be recognized as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). While that seems pretty awesome on the surface, there is a mountain of legal questions yet to be answered. I don’t think you’ll be seeing PIVX incorporated in Wyoming any time soon.
Short of a major world shift to the DAO structure, I don’t see it changing in the near term. Besides, it would take the DAO to vote itself out of existence- and history has shown that it doesn’t often go well.
Questions, Comments, or Concerns? Contact me via [email protected].
