Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has called for “different and better DAOs,” arguing that many current designs are inefficient and susceptible to capture. He warned that DAOs have drifted toward a treasury controlled by token-holder voting, which can undermine decentralized governance. Buterin proposed privacy-preserving approaches, notably zero-knowledge proofs, as a way to address these issues and reduce decision fatigue while enhancing governance resilience. He stressed the need for more DAOs that are not merely token-voting treasuries.
Zero-knowledge specialist Harry Halpin of Nym Technologies described ZKPs as a means to keep votes private while enabling on-chain governance, calling them “one way to achieve” more equitable systems. Halpin acknowledged that zero-knowledge DAOs are not yet technically mature but said Nym would be happy to adopt them once the software is ready, framing DAOs as an emerging form of democratic governance with privacy at the core of fair participation. Real-world experiments and case studies, such as AnonDAO linked to DarkFi and the AssangeDAO project, suggest private governance is feasible and can power fundraising as well. Rachel Rose O’Leary, a DarkFi founder, noted that transparency forced them to hand control of the funds to an off-chain nonprofit foundation, highlighting the tension between transparency and anonymity in token-governed systems.
Taken together, Buterin’s remarks contribute to an ongoing debate about balancing privacy, decentralization, and practicality in DAOs. They acknowledge the potential roles for zero-knowledge proofs and responsible AI support to reduce cognitive load while preserving user control.
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