The DAO Symposium organized by the ZHAW Institute of Organizational Viability and the UZH Blockchain Center on the 29. November 2022 was a full success! The speakers Florian Spychiger, Michael Lustenberger, Romedi Ganzoni and Isla Munro-Hochmayr wowed the audience at the sold-out TRUST SQUARE in Zurich.
Michael Lustenberger and Florian Spychiger, both researchers at the Zurich University of Applied Science (ZHAW), welcomed the crowd with an introduction to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and their use cases. DAOs are a new form of organization that are coordinated using smart contracts on the blockchain. DAOs are used for a plethora of business cases. There are DAOs that act as VCs or collect art and one DAO even tried to buy a copy of the constitution of the United States of America.
The second presenter Romedi Ganzoni, Senior Legal Associate at MME Law, gave the audience an overview of legal and regulatory pitfalls for DAOs. DAOs without a legal structure have a big disadvantage: all members are unlimited liable. As DAOs are a new form of organization, setting up a DAO that has a proper legal entity can be challenging. Depending on what the DAO is used for and the rights that members of the DAO have, a wide set of legal entities could be chosen, each with unique upsides and downsides. Depending on the structure of a DAO, it also needs to consider the four categories business, regulatory, legal and taxes.
Florian Spychiger then introduced the audience to DAO Suisse, a yet-to-be founded umbrella association for DAOs in Switzerland that focuses on providing guidance and assistance to existing and new DAOs. If you are interested in becoming a founding member, please contact DAO Suisse: https://www.daosuisse.com/.
At the end, Isla Munro-Hochmayr, co-founder of FTW DAO, tackled the question “Are DAOs the future of organisations?”. She presented DAOs as organizations with a shared mission, a shared treasury and community governance or ownership that are using smart contracts. As a member of multiple DAOs, Isla could educate the audience with her hands-on experiences and learnings which lead her to start her own DAO, FTW DAO, that focuses on investing in diverse teams.
Following the presentations, the attendants gathered for an apéro with engaging discussions. We are looking forward to seeing you at our next event. Keep an eye out for announcements.