A Decentralized Governance Framework for Open Source Software Organizations

Abstract

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) are a nascent phenomenon. The execution and immutable registration of smart contracts on blockchains have presented the opportunity for smart contracts to be used in the governance of decentralized organizations in an autonomous manner. They enable new forms of decentralized decision making processes, incentive designs and more.

As DAOs can be traced back to Open Source Software(OSS) and are similarly founded on decentralization and transparency, this study approaches DAO governance from an OSS perspective. The study contributes an understanding of DAO governance from the perspective of OSS project governance for OSS organizations. This research proposes the \textit{DAO for OSS governance framework}, that presents the governance dimensions and the respective governance concepts for a DAO for OSS.

Four case studies were conducted with DAOs, ranging from starting DAOs to mature DAOs. The mature DAOs have a complete governance model and utilize complex governance mechanisms. The case studies show that the framework is (I) useful for starting DAOs to understand the governance structures and governance considerations, (II) it serves as an intermediate check for DAOs to measure the maturity of their governance, (III) it serves as a research framework to analyze DAOs and (IV) it can be used as a checklist to track governance growth as a DAO develops.

The presented DAO for OSS governance framework provides a solid foundation for further research of DAO governance and contributes to the understanding of DAO for OSS governance.