Polkadot-based DAO aims make decentralized governance more accessible

A new decentralized autonomous organization is determined to become the DAO that serves all other DAOs.

Looking at it narrowly, the goal of SubDAO Labs is to provide small to mid-size organizations with the tools they need to move beyond centralized governance models and form feature-rich, effective, and sustainable decentralized autonomous organizations.

Arguing that the DAO governance model “has gone from obscurity to the preferred form of governance for most blockchain projects,” SubDAO believes one of the biggest stumbling block to its widespread adoption is that “it is not practical for smaller organizations or those without sufficient fund to develop their own governance tools.”

While organizations like Aragon and DAOHaus have made available tools and smart contracts that meet basic governance needs like voting and fund management, other more advanced but common needs — like decentralized arbitration, credit-based lending platforms, DOA-governed social media platforms, and decentralized communication platforms — “are difficult to satisfy with the existing toolchains,” SubDAO says.

More broadly, however, SubDAO is on a mission it refers to repeatedly in blog posts, and its ambitions extend far beyond crypto and blockchain:

“Our vision is to integrate DAO governance into every aspect of life, by exposing everything in the sunlight and eliminating oppression. Ultimately, the hierarchical concept will be removed, and everyone will be able to embrace freedom.”

The DAO structure “makes it possible for the old social system to go through earth-shattering changes,” SubDAO says, predicting that “when DAO is mature enough to replace traditional organizations, there will be a major social change.”

The nitty gritty

To achieve that integration, SubDAO is building a DAO creation and management platform on Polkadot, a nominated proof-of-stake decentralized blockchain. Created by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot powered its way from sub-100 into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization in just a few weeks in August and September.

The core of that creation and management platform is the four-part SubDAO Network, designed to make the creation of customized, feature-rich DAOs a quick-and-easy process of a few clicks in just 15 minutes. The Substrate-based platform includes nodes, a software development kit, a user interface for apps, and a library of SubDAO smart contract templates.

Down the road, the goal is to offer DAO templates for companies, non-profits, educational organizations, VCs and fund management groups, and even governments.

SubDAO is a cross-chain platform providing infrastructure to create and maintain DAOs on Polkadot. It connects those DAOs to DApps that can access off-chain data and create a bridge from the current centralized Web 2.0 to the IPFS-based, decentralized Web 3.0.

Growing support

SubDAO has raised millions of dollars from more than a dozen funds including the OKEx Blockdream Fund, CMS Holdings, Signum Capital, Huobi Ventures, and Hypersphere Ventures.  

The latter came with a new strategic partner, Hypersphere co-founder and former Web3 Foundation Head of Collaborations Jack Platts.

SubDAO was also key in launching the Polkadot DAO Alliance in March, which has now grown to 16 members. Aimed at expanding the development of decentralized governance in the Polkadot ecosystem, its ultimate goal is to help foster the truly decentralized Web 3.0.

Along with infrastructure development and improving DAO governance, the alliance aims to promote and encourage the DAO movement’s embrace of legal and regulatory compliance around the world in order to gain recognition for DAOs and keep them legal.