Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) are blockchain-based entities that enable decentralised coordination through self-executing code. Although often associated with financial speculation and crypto-libertarianism, DAOs have also been imagined as democratic, community-owned infrastructures aligned with the solidarity economy. This article explores whether DAOs can be considered solidarity economy organisations in practice by evaluating the type of working conditions they produce. Based on ethnographic research with 38 DAO contributors, rooted in workers’ inquiry, we examine the extent to which DAOs produce working conditions consistent with solidarity economy values, such as decent and stable employment. Our findings show that while many DAO contributors aspire for DAOs to be solidarity economy vehicles akin to cooperatives and mutualist organisations, in practice, DAO labour falls short of this vision. We identify key areas – psychosocial security, financial predictability, and regulatory clarity – that must be addressed for DAOs to realise their solidarity economy potential. Several proposals, generated through research activities with participants, are outlined to improve key issues. This article contributes to ongoing debates on the potential of DAOs and provides the first comprehensive empirical study into working conditions in DAOs.
Merk et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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