In the early days of blockchain technology, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) seemed like a far-out, unattainable idea. How could an organization, a company or a collective, ever manage itself without anyone in charge?

This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.

Then came the launch of The DAO, an Ethereum-based investment vehicle that subsequently collapsed due to a devastating hack, which in appropriating the acronym gave it a dirty name. It seemed real, functioning DAOs would forever be a pipe dream.

Yet, thanks largely to the success of decentralized finance (DeFi), DAOs are now here. They’re real.

In this week’s episode, we explore how developers and investors are working through the complex process of bridging the human and legal needs of the outside world with these complex, decentralized systems run by blockchains, automated smart contracts, “multisig” tokenized collateral agreements.

We were joined by two great guests, who helped us turn what might be otherwise seen as a nerdy topic into one of huge significance for the future of investing, innovation and economic development:

Rune Christensen, chief executive officer of the Maker Foundation, which founded MakerDAO, the first truly successful DeFi DAO on the Ethereum blockchain, which generates the algorithmic stablecoin, dai.

Ian Lee, managing director of IDEO Co-Lab Ventures and a co-founder of Syndicate, which enables groups of investors to fund DeFi projects and other ventures using DAOs and DAO-like structures.

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