No CEOs, no managers, no workers; how one startup is looking to the future of business
Investors plough $130 million into DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation)
- The software could eliminate some of the most problematic aspects of mass collaboration
- Questions over the legality and viability of the project remain
An exciting new startup has received $130 million in investment funds with a daring new concept.
The DAO, according to Quartz, is "designed to serve as a kind of venture capital fund for the cryptocurrency community, the first of a new breed in business".
It is a computer program constructed by Simon and Christoph Jentzsch that allows users to invest their money into an investment vehicle, which in turn chooses which companies to buy into based on a secure transaction platform.
But this is all achieved with no CEO or staff, indeed no human management structure at all. Regardless of the success of the project, the fact that this company actually esxists could spell sweeping changes in the future to how we do business. And not only how we do business, but how we simply behave in our lives, from governing our countries to teaching our children.
this is all achieved with no CEO or staff, indeed no human management structure at all
Like any startup, the possibility of failure is always foremost in the mind. Particularly with one as brash as this, many questions surround the legality and viability of what the DAO is doing. Investors may not be serious players, in it to make a quick profit, or even worse, criminals posing as entrepreneurs.
Many questions surround the legality and viability of what the DAO is doing
It spells danger for traditional investment routes, as intermediaries which were once considered as indispensable now run the risk of becoming obsolete.
In one sense it could lead to the biggest democratisation of business practice ever experienced. Quartz memtion that "there would be no way for the heads of an electronics conglomerate to overstate their earnings by $2 billion over 7 years, like Toshiba did".
Nor would officials be able to "take bribes in exchange for hosting or broadcasting rights to big sporting events, as Fifa's did".
Of course this type of arrangement would not simply lead to the lack of necessity for human work, as maintenance tasks would remain critical in order for it to flourish.
Perhaps a little contradictorily to the core idea itself, founders and early investors called this week for a moratorium to come to a decision about how to deal with unsavoury elements within the DAO.
In this respect code is unlikely to ever represent the true value of human sentiment, but the DAO is going to give it a serious attempt.
