Arweave launches a community-run DAO to help fund ecosystem development

Earlier today, data storage and application development protocol Arweave launched the ARCA DAO, a community-governed, Ethereum-based organization created to help grow and develop the Arweave network. Like most non-profit DAOs, ARCA members can vote on where to allocate a pool of assets, in this case, 25,000 DAI provided by the Arweave core team, to help fund open-source developer teams. At the moment, the new DAO consists of 17 members, but any community contributors are free to apply for future membership. Arweave said the ARCA DAO is “just the beginning” of promoting community-ownership of the Arweave projects, and if successful, could supply a “significant amount of the assets and work” towards similar efforts.

Why it matters:

• The ARCA DAO is one of the direct results from Arweave's recent $5 million raise. When announcing its latest funding round, Arweave said it intended to use the new capital to help incentivize developer participation and increase adoption in preparation for Arweave 2.0. The project is using small chunks of the raise to not only boost open-source development efforts, but also to learn from its users what areas of the platform are the most intriguing or need the most attention.
• Several not-for-profit DAOs have launched over the last year with varying degrees of success, the most notable of which are MolochDAO and MetaCartel DAO. But it might be difficult for not-for-profit DAOs to remain relevant as for-profit variations begin to receive attention. While providing funds to help manage public goods is a noble cause, it is a less sustainable model than a for-profit one. Therefore, the ARCA DAO will lean heavily on Arweave donations to keep it up and running.