Vitalik’s DAO Dilemma: A Tale of Tokens, Turmoil & Too Much Voting 😱

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A Most Pertinent Discourse

  • Mr. Buterin, with no small measure of exasperation, declares that present-day DAOs suffer from an excess of simplicity and a lamentable susceptibility to the whims of the wealthy.
  • He proposes, with the air of a man weary of folly, that superior DAOs must be fashioned to serve as oracles, arbiters of disputes, curators of reputable lists, and stewards of nascent ventures.
  • With the optimism of a gentleman who has not yet abandoned hope, he suggests that innovations such as zero-knowledge proofs, artificial intelligence, and refined discourse may yet redeem these beleaguered institutions.

The esteemed co-founder of Ethereum, Mr. Vitalik Buterin, has seen fit to issue a clarion call for the reformation of DAOs, asserting with all the gravity of a man announcing the arrival of an unexpected guest that the ecosystem requires “more DAOs-though decidedly improved ones.”

In a missive of considerable length, Mr. Buterin recollected that Ethereum’s inception was inspired by the notion of decentralized autonomous organizations-entities of code and principle that might govern resources and direct endeavors with greater efficiency and resilience than their corporeal counterparts.

We require more DAOs-though of a superior variety.

The original impetus behind Ethereum was profoundly influenced by decentralized autonomous organizations: mechanisms of protocol and regulation that resided upon distributed networks, capable of administering assets and guiding enterprise, more…

– vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 19, 2026

Alas, Mr. Buterin lamented, the intervening years have witnessed the degeneration of DAOs into little more than communal purses, wherein decisions are rendered by the vulgar exercise of token-weighted suffrage. While this arrangement does, in a manner of speaking, function, it is-as he noted with the weariness of one forced to endure a tedious ball-both sluggish and prone to domination by those of considerable means, failing utterly to address the human and political tribulations DAOs were intended to remedy.

This state of affairs has, unsurprisingly, led many to abandon faith in DAOs altogether. Yet Mr. Buterin, ever the optimist, insists the fault lies not in the concept itself, but in its execution. His prescription? A bold reimagining incorporating ZK-privacy, AI-assisted deliberation, and governance models of a decidedly convex disposition.

In Which the Necessity of Superior DAOs Is Most Ardently Expressed

“We require DAOs,” he penned with the urgency of a gentleman whose tea has gone cold, emphasizing that enhanced iterations are indispensable to Ethereum’s future. He enumerated several domains wherein improved DAOs are most urgently required, commencing with oracles.

These mechanisms furnish indispensable intelligence for DeFi, stablecoins, and prognosticative markets. Mr. Buterin cautioned, with the air of one who has witnessed one too many scandals, that token-based oracles are distressingly vulnerable to manipulation by those of substantial holdings, observing that “fundamentally, a token-based oracle cannot possess a cost of attack exceeding its market valuation.”

Mr. Buterin further contended that DAOs might serve purposes far beyond the mere administration of treasuries. These include adjudicating on-chain disputes for sophisticated applications such as insurance, maintaining communal resources-lists of reputable applications, standardized interfaces, and authenticated token addresses-and facilitating the rapid assembly of capital for ephemeral endeavors.

He also posited, with the hopefulness of a man who has not yet despaired of human ingenuity, that DAOs might sustain long-term projects, permitting communities to perpetuate endeavors even after their original architects have withdrawn.

Of Privacy, Fatigue, and Other Inconveniences

Mr. Buterin expounded that governance systems ought to be tailored to the nature of the dilemmas they address. Some circumstances favor broad participation and compromise, whilst others demand resolute leadership tempered by accountability. Present DAO models, he intimated with the delicacy of a man treading upon eggshells, excel at neither.

He identified two principal obstacles requiring resolution: privacy and exhaustion. “Absent privacy, governance devolves into a most tiresome social performance,” he wrote, cautioning that public voting transmutes decision-making into a contest of popularity. He further observed that incessant balloting induces “decision fatigue,” wherein participants gradually disengage, much like guests at a particularly dull dinner party.

A Most Provocative Proposition

The most contentious portion of Mr. Buterin’s treatise concerns the nexus between privacy and efficacious governance. He maintains, with the conviction of a man who has pondered the matter at length, that without Zero-Knowledge (ZK) instruments, voting is little more than theater. He referenced ZK tools for confidentiality, artificial intelligence to facilitate engagement, and platforms for discourse to foster communal accord.

Yet he conceded, with the reluctance of one forced to acknowledge an inconvenient truth, that AI ought not to govern DAOs autonomously. Rather, it should assist and refine human judgment, not supplant it. He concluded by exhorting builders to regard governance, privacy, and communication as foundational to their creations, rather than peripheral concerns.

In his own words, projects must consider DAO design and discourse mechanisms as “half their occupation, not a mere tenth.” Only thus, he argued with the fervor of a man who has glimpsed a better world, might Ethereum’s decentralization truly permeate the edifices erected upon it.

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2026-01-19 15:03