Governance Lessons Learned

DAO governance taught hard lessons. Some experiments succeeded, many failed. Patterns are emerging about what actually works for decentralized decision making.

Delegation became essential at scale. Token holders don't have time to evaluate every proposal. Professional delegates who specialize in governance add real value. The pure direct democracy model doesn't scale.

Timelock delays and veto periods proved their worth. Rushed governance attacks failed because communities had time to respond. The friction is a feature not a bug.

Voter apathy remains the existential threat. Most token holders never vote. Concentration in a few active participants undermines decentralization claims. No good solution found yet.

Proposal quality improved with structured processes. Templates, discussion periods, soft consensus checks before formal votes. The overhead reduces bad proposals reaching votes.

Multi-sig councils for execution work better than pure on-chain governance for many decisions. Acknowledge the reality that some decisions need speed and expertise. Hybrid models are pragmatic.

Full decentralization is still the goal but the path there is longer and windier than early idealists imagined.