Author: OurNetwork

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

From the editorial team:

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are an exciting yet frustrating part of the crypto space.

The concept is very appealing—cryptographic technology allows entrepreneurs for the first time to escape the traditional corporate structures of C corporations and LLCs, and with just a click on-chain, they can create a new organization at minimal cost.

However, on-chain data suggests that true product-market fit has not yet been fully realized. DAOs continue to face issues of low participation rates and poor usability. In fact, a report from Coinbase last week indicated that typically only less than 0.1% of governance token holders regularly participate in votes for large protocols. Clearly, we have a long way to go before achieving widespread adoption of this new technology.

Nevertheless, as the projects below demonstrate, the DAO space remains vibrant and innovative. Especially with the emergence of new tools, participation, voting, and engagement with decentralized organizations have become more convenient. For example, the DAO tool project Realms on Solana saw a surge in active addresses in November.

Artemis

Here are some early signs of product-market fit. As Spencer said, for DAOs, we have the ingredients, now we just need to find the right recipe.

DAOs

Snapshot | Realms | JokeRace

David Truong | Website | Dashboard

Arbitrum's activity and contributor engagement is nearly double that of Optimism

  • In the competition among top Layer 2 (L2) solutions, Arbitrum leads with 1,497 independent topics discussed at the annual forum event, while the Optimism community had 833 topics. This marks a significant contrast to 2022 when the Optimism community dominated. However, in the last few months of 2024, these two leading L2s appear to be reaching a balance, each developing unique communities. To compare the situations of 30 different communities, you can check the dashboard at x23.ai.

x23.ai

  • In DeFi protocols, Sky (MakerDAO) and Aave dominate public discussions. Although Sky's discussion volume has now decreased to one-fifth of the peak in June 2022, Aave's discussion volume has increased 2.5 times during the same period. In contrast, the discussion volumes for Compound and Uniswap have consistently been lower than their competitors.

x23.ai

  • Among independent topic authors, only Arbitrum grew by 81% and Compound by 12% in increasing contributors in 2024. Meanwhile, Balancer and Sky/MakerDAO decreased by 44% and 37%, respectively, while Uniswap's author count remained relatively stable in 2023 and 2024.

x23.ai

  • Trading Focus: As DAO treasuries continue to expand, the potential risks of governance attacks become more apparent. For instance, Compound faced an attack in June, while the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) proposed the establishment of a security committee in July to protect its DAO. These developments underscore the need for tools that promote broader participation and achieve a more balanced distribution of voting power within DAOs.

Snapshot

Maus | Website

85% of governance proposals were completed on Snapshot

  • Snapshot is a voting platform that dominates the governance space. Out of 817 proposals tracked in October, 707 were completed on Snapshot, accounting for about 86% market share. November's situation is roughly the same. However, the total number of proposals has approximately halved since the beginning of the year, and Snapshot's dominance has also declined as the number of proposals on dedicated DAO governance platforms like Nouns and Compound has stagnated.

DAOBase

  • In the past two weeks, the weekly number of voters on Snapshot increased by over 50% compared to the average of the previous weeks. The peak in voter numbers, particularly in May 2024, was driven mainly by stgdao (Stargate DAO).

Dune - trap

  • Snapshot has attracted about 96% of tracked DAOs to join. In October, 166 proposals were launched, and as of now, there are approximately 120 proposals in November. This shows a slight declining trend since the beginning of the year, consistent with the overall decline in governance statistics in the market.

Dune - @pandajackson

Realms

Takisoul | Website | Dashboard

Assets managed by Realms surpassed $1.2 billion

  • Realms is a project on Solana that provides treasury management, voting, and other tools for DAOs. Over the past year, Realms' total value locked (TVL) has skyrocketed to $1.2 billion, and the value of assets locked in Realms/SPL Governance has quadrupled over the past year, indicating that Realms is one of the top platforms for asset custody on Solana. DAOs on Solana continue to grow steadily, and Realms has become their primary platform on Solana.

DeFiLlama

  • In November of this year, the number of active addresses on Realms surged significantly, particularly with a notable increase in new wallets.

Artemis

  • The daily trading volume on Realms reached an all-time high of 2,500 transactions on November 9. Although the trading volume subsequently fell back, it still remains above the levels prior to the peak.

Artemis

  • Trading Highlights: In a successful Bonk DAO vote executed on Realms, the BONK community voted to burn 5 million $BONK. This proposal was programmatically added and executed through Realms' SPL governance contract.

JokeRace

David | Website | Dashboard

JokeRace is close to hosting 700 competitions, with revenue exceeding $130,000

  • JokeRace is a platform for creating and voting on on-chain competitions. The project has two revenue streams: participants must pay a fee to submit their entries; voters must pay a fee to vote for entries. Since monetization was launched in early 2024, JokeRace has hosted 666 competitions, generating $121,000 in revenue, which is split between the protocol and competition creators.

Dune - @socialgraphvc

  • One of the key metrics for JokeRace is the number of votes and voters. Last week, there were 360 independent voters and 493 votes, which is down from the peak of 11,000 voters and 12,000 votes during the L2 competition between ZKsync and Movement at the beginning of October.

Dune - @socialgraphvc

  • JokeRace's development strategy is to convert voters into creators and keep them engaged. Currently, there are 278 creators, of which 37 transitioned from being voters to creators. The retention rate for creators is low, averaging about 10% in the first month after launch, dropping to less than 10% by the third month, with some groups having retention rates as low as 0%. How to improve creator retention is a question worth considering.

  • Trading Highlights: "Where are all the apps?" is a competition aimed at finding the best crypto applications, with the most active participation among contestants and voters. A total of 65 crypto applications participated, and over 1,000 people voted to select the best application. The competition generated $11,000 in revenue. The winner was a sustainability project called Aquari, which received a reward of 1.375 ETH. The second and third places received 0.687 ETH and 0.229 ETH, respectively.