DAO/dApps Developer Salary in 2024

DAO/dApps

Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

Broadly understood as defi, this new financial system which has gained extensive favor among enthusiasts, in result, has elicited a discussion on DAOs in the crypto and blockchain world. Propagators of DAO advocate that the DAO is a totally novel phenomenon which will conduct us to a decentralized world, but the questions like ‘What exactly is DAO?’ and ‘How does it function?’ should be answered.

What Is DAO?

DAO, which is a favorable name, stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. There are many people who gather together according to certain rules to complete what they have agreed to. On the other hand, whereas DAOs are the same other systems of the rules but exception that the rules are embedded into codes of the organization. DAOs take advantage of smart contracts, which are algorithms that are based on the attainment of specific set of parameters or criteria. The subsequent segments explain the functioning mechanism of the DAO, the setting up process of the DAO, commonly asked questions regarding DAO answered.

What is DAO and How it Works.

The DAOs function on the basis of smart contracts which, in turn, provide the underpinning basis to ensure how the DAO would function. The execution of the DAO depends on the presence of a set of smart contracts that function autonomously without necessitating any human contact. The group of community main members pools their effort to construct the smart contract. The smart contracts stand out for their transparency as well as verifiability, and they can, therefore, be audited by any interested person, giving all of those in the protocol a complete understanding of how it functions and is operated.

DAO cannot function without capital; therefore, money should bolster it. The funds are usually raised by the project or the protocol through selling tokens in exchange for money or such assets. Token holder – will cast their vote based on a set percentage of their holdings. The rules of the DAO are determined by the stakeholders while the code and transaction records of the DAO are permanent on a blockchain with complete transparency enforced.

The DAO code can now be deployed once the funding is in place. Perhaps the most eye-catching trait of DAOs is that when the codes are written and implemented, they cannot be altered and there is nobody who can change that. First, the involved changes must pass a member vote, and, in the case of reaching an agreement, these specific changes will be implemented. If there comes a need for a change, suggestions are made through proposals. It happens when the proposal gets a majority of votes by stakeholders and if the proposal is in line with some of the network consensus rules it is acted upon.

One characteristic of DAO that distinguishes them from traditional organizations is that DAOs are run on a decentralized structure. Besides, DAOs unlike conventional institutions do not have any hierarchy and they are moved more by economic mechanisms than anything else.

Unlike traditional organizations which have official contracts that bind their members to the organization, DAOs have no formal contract that binds the members to the DAO. Rather than that, the contract elements are similar and keep the members to the rules of consensus. Since the rules are formulated by the open-source software that supports the organization, they are open and public.

Key Benefits of DAO

DAO is expanding its presence in sectors like sports, arts, and finance. Interest in this technology is also evident in crowdfunding. It has various advantages that will probably induce many groups, entities, and individuals to embrace its structure that is DAO. With that information, the major benefits of DAO are as follows:

• Decentralization
• Participation
• Publicity
• Community

Pros and Cons of DAO

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations have both pros and cons, some of which have been highlighted-

Pros

• A variety of individuals can collectively come together from around the work to act as a single entity.
• More individuals have a voice in the planning, strategy, and operations of the entity.
• As votes on the blockchain are publicly-viewable, tokenholders are naturally incentivized to act more responsibly.
• Members of a DAO may feel empowered to collaborate with like-minded individuals with similar goals within a single community.

Cons

• It often takes longer for decisions to be made as there are more voting participants.
• There is often more burden to educate users as the collective voting population are diverse with varying ranges of education and knowledge.
• More time is needed to cast votes or gather users due to the decentralized nature of the entity.
• Severe exploits such as theft of treasury reserves are possible if the DAO’s security is not properly established and maintained.

What does it mean to Launch a DAO?

When launching a DAO, there are the following factors that should be taken into account. Let’s break down the steps to create a DAO in this case where the Ethereum network is used.

1. Deciding the Structure of the DAO.
2. Figuring Out the Type of DAO to be Built.
3. DAO Token Allocation
4. The role of DAO Token supply, distribution, and incentives in the Ethereum ecosystem.
5. Building the DAO
6. Treasury of the DAO being set up.
7. Building a Community

Is DAO Effective in Real World?

In theory, DAO that meets several criteria of an ideal decentralization solution the concept also does. It has indeed changed the dynamics of how cryptocurrency landscapes operate, yet it has remained well below the level of proving its real corporate applications. After all, in a real-life corporation structure we can barely even think of completely replacing a human manager with an AI system. Although valid as a complementary support, artificial intelligence cannot substantially grasp and imply the customary activities required to address many problems.

An example of this would be that should a manufacturing site be stopped at its line of business, the smart contract would not necessarily be in a condition to decide when to resume order placements. Nevertheless, the human manager could possibly deal with small and huge issues more sharply than the machine and solve them efficiently and effectively. In addition to this AI can efficiently be embedded in systems for trust issues with transaction but would require a human being to create and maintain trust in organizations and communities.

And hence, we could use the idea that these are very complex and effective systems, yet they are not ready for practical use at all. DAOs will then go through structural modifications and the whole field should be much more advanced before they can be able to be adopted widely.

Decentralized Applications (DApps)

Decentralized Applications, or DApps, are basically smart contract apps based on the Ethereum platform, with a blockchain in the background. As any type of traditional app, users do not notice the difference, just the openness of features.

DApps are designed to provide an alternative approach when it comes to personal finance. For example, when people imagine traditional finance we mainly evoke, the process of lending, borrowing, storing, and similar players. Yet, all of these are, consciously or unconsciously, fueled by a central system of authorities, which could be banks or any other financial establishments.

However, when it comes to the development of finance as an entity, many of them rather identify cryptocurrencies and blockchain as our future. Does it mean that even simple financial operations, like credits, in the state of economic decentralization become impossible?

History of DApps

Though Bitcoin BTC is the first blockchain network, the technology has moved far beyond an acute money transfer. When Vitalik Buterin and other colleagues presented Ethereum ETH in 2013, their ambitions were not for just a transaction protocol but for a whole new decentralized order.

Buterin designed a blockchain-based internet, where users are the controllers rather than corporations. To realize that, Ethereum would have smart contracts which are more like if-then statements. Such contracts use pre-programmed rules and limitations established in their code. The implication here bypasses the intermediaries for both parties, and hence no centralized platforms are required.

This was, in fact, in 2014 the year that a report defining a DApp was released with a title “The General Theory of Decentralized Applications, Dapps,” which was authored by several individuals with vast experience of the space like David Johnston and Shawn Wilkinson.

The paper defined DApps as entities with the following characteristics:

• It is imperative that the DApp must be based on an open source programs and that it should work without anyone from the third party interfering. It has to be controlled by the users. They should be authorising a change that is automatically realised.
• All blocks in the network must contain a permanent storage archive. Decentralization is a very important concept in crypto, because a system without a centre cannot be affected by an attack.
• The access to DApps should be done using any cryptocurrency as it is used in the mining. In addition, DApps cannot pay supporters without some initial token.
• A digital “protocol must entail a consensus algorithm that creates tokens, namely, proof-of-work or proof-of-stake.

Subsequent to this, the paper groups up the Bitcoin into three categories or layers that are based on the users how they interact with the apps.

Layer1 DApps

Layer-one DApps are placed alone and have no single blockchain. It is particularly worth mentioning that the most popular dApps are of this type, such as Bitcoin, for example. They are required by a consensus algorithm and the security rules itself.

DApps on layer2

DApps on layer2 are usually built on layer one by taking these capabilities into account. Normally we treat them as guidelines that employ tokens for transactions. Ethereum based DApp deployed as a scaling solution well illustrates how layer 2 works. Transactions can be processed on this secondary layer before committing to the primary one which would some part of the burden off from its mother chain.

Layer3 DApps

Lastly, the most complex layer-three DApps is launched on top of the previous ones. Such DApps hold the information necessary for the interaction between lower layers. One possibility might be saving APIs and scripts required for the level-one and level-two layers to run. For instance, a layer-3 protocol may include various layer-2 Apps (DApps) which will offer a good user experience through all the apps at a go.

Briefly, a DApp is a range of programs that run on a core blockchain underlying framework. Others might further contribute to this basic DApp layer, but they’re all still DApps according to the criteria that have been referred to.

Why use a DApp?

Decentralization is the opposite of running an app on a centralized network and entails many advantages. First and foremost is the very absence of a third party, a key novelty of the self-regulation smart contract. Whereas an invention like Venmo enables you to forward money to anyone, moving such funds into a bank account imposes a fee. Furthermore, cross border transactions in fiat currency may require waiting for many days.

Giving money over a decentralized app is pocket – friendly because the intermediary costs are not there or they are minimal. This minimizes users with fee costs and, most importantly, it saves the time of users since the speed of such transactions is close to an instant.

For sure, decentralized apps don’t work on a centralized server, too. The strongest asset of decentralized platforms is that they can’t be taken down by means of hacking, as there’s no physical part like a server or a hardware wallet to target. It is not only that this makes the network the safest but also it means that there is no time for small breaks. Such apps can be used instantly in our daily life.

However, DApps applies to practically all industry, for instance, entertainment, medicine, government, even data storage. Therefore this makes the utilization of DApp same as the typical apps. Whilst the customers experience all the changes that go on in the back end, the experience at the front end should be unchanged. This manner of communication with multiple applications is known as Web3.0, also the meaning of the distribution of information.

At the beginning, the web was a place for everyone to get information. Little by little, this was used, or centralized, by big companies. The free access which we get from these organizations comes at the price of sharing our data which they sell to earn profits.

Companies, after that, have that information, know what their users buy, how much money they have, and whom they know. The control likewise means they have the power to take it away. Enter a Web 3.0 world where utility of DApps does not come at the expense of privacy.

On the contrary, users have a chance to share only the information relevant for such purposes as medical check-up or a credit and decide who can see it and for what period of time. In this case, companies might pay for these accesses as well, and moreover, the users will benefit from them together. Another issue is that of trust. It is hard anymore to trust people in the world where big companies with so-called high security are leaking usernames, emails, and passwords.

Cons of DApps

While decentralized applications might present a future free of corporations, there are currently some major issues that the industry is working to resolve.

• For one, the lack of a central authority might mean slower updates and platform changes. After all, one party can simply update their app as they please. A DApp, however, requires majority consensus from the acting governance — even for a minor bug fix. This could take weeks or even months as users debate the pros and cons of any improvement.
• Also, DApps require a reasonably-sized user base to operate properly. They need nodes, governance and users just to interact with it. However, accessing DApps can be quite difficult in this early stage, and many aren’t seeing the support they need.
• In the future, accessing a DApp might be a download away. But for now, users must download a DApp-supported browser, send the required crypto to that wallet and interact from there. While tech-savvy users should have no problem with this, the vast majority of people will have no idea where to start.

DApps around the world

DApps in the financial world seem like a no-brainer, but they can really be innovating in all industries. Let’s take a high-level look at some of these benefits in industries such as finance, social media, gaming and more.

Finance

Moneylenders and borrowers can make use of DApps to do their business. With banks, lenders earn certain interest rates based on their money saved. The more a person saves, the more the bank can lend, and the more both parties earn in terms of interest. However, the bank, which acts as a centralized entity, takes a bigger cut than lenders might like, simply for providing a space to store funds.

On a DApp, lenders earn 100% of their interest as there’s no intermediary to pay. That, and they have more control over loans, all while earning tokens from the platform they choose to lend on.

As for borrowers, they have more say in terms of interest paid as well as their time to pay it. Indeed, some platforms allow borrowers to take months or even years to pay off interest, assuming they meet a minimum payment threshold. The borrower can also discuss rates with the lender, ensuring a fair decision for both parties involved.

When all is said and done, the proceeds can occur immediately thanks to smart contract technology. There’s no need to involve lawyers and other third parties which makes the confirmation process take longer and at a greater cost to both parties.

Social media

Users stand to benefit greatly from social media DApps. First off, there’s no one to censor posts, meaning free speech all around. If some posts become a problem, however, the community can vote to have them taken down.

Influencers can earn more as well. On traditional platforms like Twitter, the company profits most from popular tweets. It gains advertisement revenue from all the site visits, and the author gets, well, nothing monetarily speaking, that is.

Social media DApps might have a built-in tipping system using its token, and users can run ads and earn their full payments, rather than a company taking a cut.

Gaming

Gaming has always been an interesting DApp use case. Currently, games require dozens of hours invested in a character to grow — one they’ve likely invested real money in — only for it to sit there and rot when the player moves on.

DApps present a more interesting solution in terms of value. Take a game like CryptoKitties, for example. Players acquire a tokenized asset, in this case, a cat. That cat then grows over time, rising in value if properly raised. A user can then sell that cat for whatever they’d like, assuming there’s a buyer who will pay for it.

Plus, some cats can potentially breed with other cats, creating an even rarer, potentially more valuable cat. Players can trade or collect cats, doing anything they want with these tokenized pets. Their time investment becomes genuinely valuable. There aren’t many now, but imagine that concept in a more fleshed-out title with hours of gameplay. Full-time gaming might be in our future.

Voting and governance

In most cases, voting is a painful process. It often involves various steps of validation — some inaccessible to citizens without proper housing or those who are suffering from other issues. That’s not to mention tampering and similar illicit activity.

A voting DApp can open up the procedure to all thanks to smart contracts. Basically, the community can vote on a list of proposals. Then, they can set up a time frame, say, 24 hours, for users to “stake” their vote with tokens. This opens up participation to all, allowing anyone to vote anonymously at that.

Votes are stored in a decentralized network, making them immutable and untamperable. Plus, smart contracts can reward voters with a relevant token for their efforts, incentivizing more people to vote than ever before.

Fundraising and advertising

Many users take advantage of an ad blocker while browsing online. This is obviously a pain for websites trying to generate revenue, but understandable in some ways as ads have become quite obnoxious in many ways. A browser DApp can fix this.

As users browse the web, they do so with a browser-integrated ad and tracker blocker, earning crypto along the way. Now, as users find creators and websites they’d like to support, they can opt into allowing contributions. This means that the longer a user browses, the more they’re paying to that site over time. Users can even enable ads for those specific sites, helping them more in the long run.

Privacy is the name of the game here. Users choose who can track them, protecting their information and still contributing to platforms that need the money. It’s a win-win situation.