Digital tokens reshape ownership, control, and labor: organizing logics in DAOs

We study three decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to explain how governability is sustained when ownership claims, decision rights, and contribution rewards are bundled through digital tokens. Unlike conventional organizations where separating capital, management, and labor is a core design principle for sustaining governance through checks and balances, DAOs cannot rely on formal roles, hierarchical authority, or employment contracts. DAO contributors must continually negotiate stake, authority, reward, and belonging through governance processes. The absence of conventional governance structures should make DAOs difficult to govern. Yet our qualitative analysis reveals three organizing logics through which contributors address this challenge: valorization, which sustains contribution by linking it to token-based value; distribution, which organizes token-based authority for collective action; and collective constitution, which defines the collective to which authority and rewards are oriented. The study contributes to research on DAOs by explaining how digital tokens recombine ownership, control, and labor, thereby creating distinctive organizational tensions. The study further shows how these tensions are mitigated through recurrent organizing logics that render collective governance sustainable.