Don’t act surprised! We all know that DAOs are the new haven for governance fraud, corruption, treasury drainers, and everything in between. Sadly, while everyone appears to be caught up in the hype around decentralized governance, very little is being said or done about the shady shenanigans plaguing decentralized groups.
For all their high-minded token talk about transparency and democracy, many DAOs have turned out to be Petri dishes of deceit. But can you really blame them? Idealism typically gets corrupted once a lot of money enters the picture.
Grab some popcorn as we delve into the shady world of DAO scams and governance fraud.
The Promise and Peril of DAOs
First, let’s recap what DAOs even are for the blockchain newbies…
DAOs are decentralized autonomous organizations – basically internet communities with shared assets that they govern collectively. Through votes and incentives on the blockchain, power gets distributed from top-dog leaders to regular folks.
This Lego-like model promises to upgrade old boys’ club corporations and governments into a more open, democratic ideal. But yeah, utopias breed dystopias, right?
Sybil Attacks Undermining Democracy
Exhibit A – the dreaded Sybil attack. This is when one sneaky actor makes multiple fake identities and sock puppet wallets to sway votes their way.
Say a proposal gets put forward to cut DAO exec pay and increase community funds. The executives don’t love that. So, they deploy 100 zombie wallets to vote it down in their own corrupt interests rather than what may benefit the DAO. This is prevalent in DAO models where one person/wallet equals one vote.
In April, for example, BanklessDAO suffered a governance Sybil attack when one of its well-known contributors and Grants Committee members created multiple accounts to vote on proposals. In her defense, the member claimed she did it to “showcase a flaw, and not break governance because she voted on things that wouldn’t count towards quorum.”
Unless DAOs implement solid protections, these faux vote tactics run rampant allowing tyranny by the minority. But truly secure one member, one vote remains elusive in a decentralized and anonymous setting.
Plutocrats Buying Votes
Even within the rules, the wealthy can dominate. Whales holding big token stashes gain outsized voting sway using their fat wallets packed with influence.
Unlike Sybil’s subterfuge, vote buying happens right out in the open through allowed channels. But it similarly corrupts intentions by handing control to the rich rather than engaged. Cold hard coin subverts warm community spirit.
Some DAOs curb this plutocracy effect by capping voting power or incorporating non-financial reputation scores. But money still talks loud in many DAOs, drowning out more equitable voices.
Leaders Becoming Dictators and Dictators Becoming Tyrants
Ah leadership, a necessary evil! The most successful DAOs have strong founders guiding the ship. But watch out when their direction becomes dictatorship through personality cults!
Members fall prey to authority bias and fail to hold top dogs accountable. Or charismatic leaders deliberately exploit fuzzy decentralization to amass power through force of persona.
Before you know it, the DAO transforms into a springboard for founders to get rich and famous rather than benefiting the community. Lofty ideals become casualties when DAO celebrities rise to fake gods.
Technical Trickery Only Techies Understand
For all their transparent techno-meritocracy pretenses, DAOs can hide deceit in complex code that only insider devs truly understand.
Engineers implant subtle bugs that let them later exploit a mint-and-run or drain-and-dash. Or they monopolize administrator keys granting od mode powers.
Joe blow members without coding chops stand no chance of unraveling the ruses until their funds get pilfered. Then it’s too late and the sly bandits skip town laughing.
Taking the Tornado Cash DAO incident in May 2023 as an example, the assailant, who allegedly knew about the DAO’s inner workings strategically accumulated a significant number of votes in their favor. The attacker effectively seized control of the DAO, leading to a 40% decline in the token value of Tornado Cash.
Colluding For Shared Spoils
United against the people, bands of baddies scheme in smoke-filled backrooms to undermine the DAO for personal gain.
Small inner circles formally align through shadowy pacts to pass proposals paying each other, ignore conflicts of interests, manipulate votes in cahoots, or mutually shield bad behavior from scrutiny.
Mafias arise within the model subverting decentralization into re-centralized corruption. And bewildered bystanders get robbed blind none the wiser.
Exit Frauds Galore
An underhanded tactic gaining popularity is the good old exit fraud. Bad actors gain trust only to cash it in later.
A shining star contributor beloved by the community gets vested tokens or granted privileges. Everything seems hunky dory until suddenly they sell out their stake, pillage assets in their access, and skip town for good!
The DAO takes hits from both the stolen loot and now missing valuable members. All that’s left is crying community members learning harsh lessons about trusting too much.
Outlook on Mitigating Corruption
There are surely more egregious scams coming. But solutions exist to deter the deceit:
- Carefully curve incentives to reward good behavior and punish bad acting.
- Build identity mechanisms linking online participants to real humans to stop invisible exploits by masked cowards.
- Institute educational programs to spread financial and technical literacy preventing trivial foolery.
- Codify processes accommodating nuance rather than Code is law absolutism blind to crime.
Utopia-chasing idealism invariably runs into the corruptible reality of humankind. But proactively addressing flaws while retaining optimism earns more progress than abandoning hope.
The road to community enlightenment contains many bumps and wrong turns. But faith in education and moral conscience can light the way forward against deceit. Onward DAO soldiers!
