Many jurisdictions have introduced or are introducing
formal structures for the regulation and governance of
decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs). This new type of
vehicle, involving decentralised governance conducted on blockchain
or distributed ledgers, however, has proved a challenge for
legislators and regulators.
Since the launch of the original DAO (Decentralised Autonomous
Organisation) in 20161, there have been a proliferation
of DAO structures established with a focus in sectors including
DeFi as well as arts and culture. According to analytics service
DeepDAO there were in early March 22, 274 DAOs live holding over
$40 billion in treasury assets2.
While the flexibility of governance models of DAOs – which
can comprise a mixture of contractual provisions, code (including
smart contracts and protocol arrangements) as well as
administrative arrangements, has made them popular with developers,
DAOs have proved more challenging from a legal
