The Rise of DAOs

Along with platforms like Nifty Gateway, prior to the major NFT-led digital art mania of 2021, early DAOs such as Flamingo (October 2020) began emerging with the goal of securing on-chain digital culture through a decentralized ownership structure. Fingerprints DAO and Pleasr DAO sprung up in March 2021, while GrailersDAO began in October 2021. These DAOs not only built some of the most significant blockchain art collections, they also pioneered a novel form of decentralized communal art collecting and, ultimately, curating. Much of this story over ten chapters has been about access to art (and technology) with examples extending at least to GRAV’s efforts to bring art to the public. Revolutions in access for artists and audiences occurred decades prior but DAOs democratize and globalize access to world-class art, finally revolutionizing collector access. This decentralized asset ownership structure has also served to foster a new generation of art collector demanding the conveniences afforded of the Internet—instant transactions and instant transfer.