From Decentralized Finance to Decentralized Politics: How Decentralized Autonomous Organizations are Transforming Social Institutions

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of studying the possibility of developing political decentralized networks based on or following the example of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), which are becoming increasingly common in the digital space. Their potential impact on the social institutions of society, including the system of state power, is analyzed. The article traces how the technological embodiment of antimonopoly and anti-state ideologies that have been actively developed in cyberspace can lead to a change in the very foundations of social institutions due to the absence of the need for a "third party" to guarantee the implementation of contracts and building responsible social relations. The development of cyberspace is viewed through the prism of clashes of state interests seeking to establish control over the system of digital interactions, and multiple interest groups developing technological capabilities for autonomizing action by building protection based on cryptography. If not loosening, then breaking holes in the financial systems of states is an indicator of the success of decentralized finance projects, which means it stimulates the further development of DAOs and their possible transformation into decentralized political networks. The article also analyses the components of the new discipline Cryptonomics or Cryptoeconomics, showing serious scientific and methodological foundations for the development of DAO, which indicates in favor of the possibility of considering them as experimental platforms for the development of more global projects. The article considers the special nature of the management of decentralized autonomous organizations based on financial incentives. A forecast is made regarding the next stage of confrontation between state structures and decentralized platforms. Conclusions are also drawn about the importance of the DAO for the development of the information society and the role of the intellectual elite in this confrontation.