EAGER: Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

Award ID: 2335995

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization Collaboration Hub (DACH) is a groundbreaking national collaboration initiative to foster continuous innovation in the digital asset ecosystem. In an era where digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, have attained over a trillion dollars in market value, the need for public and private collaboration is not just important, but essential. Recognizing the dynamic nature of the digital asset market, the DACH project aims to create a robust framework that can adapt to market fluctuations and maintain relevance. The DACH project's impact extends beyond the financial and cryptocurrency sectors, reaching into vital areas like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, supply chain management, energy, transportation, dynamic contracting/autonomy and Web3.0 related products and services. Additionally, DACH presents an opportunity for public and private sector innovators to work together to mitigate and deal with a range of risks, frauds, and scams in this space. By fostering a public/private partnership with extensive participation, the DACH project aims to create an inclusive environment that caters to the diverse needs and interests of society, thereby democratizing financial systems and reducing inequalities. Technical challenges DACH will tackle include decentralized notification attacks, multi-call transaction audits, malevolent submission of multiple invalid proposals, and the risk associated with on-chain transaction verifications using multi-sig wallets. The operational value of addressing these technical risks through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) includes elimination of information silos through a decentralized communications model, improved access, availability of ethical hacker cybersecurity experts during the four stages of innovation, frictionless access to prospective customer comments as an iterative use case feedback mechanism, and reduced participant apathy through game theory. Managed by US subject matter experts, this innovation sandbox will offer a controlled environment where innovators can collaborate, build value, and mitigate risk by normalizing broadly diverse inputs. For example, a Dust Network DAO could encourage adopting sustainable and responsible space exploration (i.e., creating a standardized debris removal process). The DAO might include a Space Treaty expert, thereby avoiding unanticipated adverse effects of governmental actions. A start-up is establishing a DAO to bring transparency to class action lawsuits. The first use case is related to Camp Lejeune military veterans suffering from the health effects of contaminated water. Camp Lejeune victims have fallen prey to predatory lawyers seeking access to over $6B in funds set aside by Congress. The DAO will enable collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders including doctors, pathologist, lawyers, and military services to ensure transparency and accountability of funds intended for veterans. Another use case is the Battery DAO which links the sale of sustainable energy generation (i.e., rooftop solar panels) from local neighborhoods and fairly shares financial gains using DAO-based governance. The above are just early examples, as the DAO will enable support for a wide range of innovations and collaborations. Like cloud computing, which now represents the epitome of IT infrastructure provisioning for any industry, the DACH will establish a model for innovation within the digital asset ecosystem. Though considered a high-risk high-reward project, the benefits far outweigh the short-term risks. As a result, this project has garnered widespread interest from diverse potential stakeholders, including five (5) federal agencies (two cabinet level), healthcare providers, Web 3.0 companies, public transportation operators, investors, and a disparate group of entrepreneurial startups. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Parvathi Chundi