A DAO or decentralized autonomous organization is a member-owned community without central leadership that has decision-making power in a protocol's government.

A cult is a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.

So, is a DAO equal to a cult? Or better? Or worst?

What is a cult?

According to Cult Education Institute, there are 10 warning signs of a potentially cult:

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.
8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
9. The group/leader is always right.
10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

It all starts with a charismatic leader, a central authority to recruit members who are:

1. dependency
2. unassertiveness
3. gullibility
4. low tolerance for uncertainty
5. feeling of marginalization
6. naive idealism
7. the desire for spiritual meaning

Structure of the Cult

freedomofmind.com/the-cult-of-trump/cot-dig..

You have top leaders > sub leaders > core devotees > rank and file members > fringe members

Members surround leaders.

What is a DAO?

According to the internet, there are 10 warning signs of a potentially DAO:

1. Absolute no authoritarianism with meaningful accountability.
2. Absolute tolerance for questions or critical inquiry
3. Meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
4. Reasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
5. There is a legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always right in leaving, positive or even angel.
6. Former members often relate the same stories of enjoy and reflect a similar pattern of awesomeness.
7. There are records, books, news articles, or Youtube programs that document the pass history of the organization.
8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
9. The group is sometimes right or wrong.
10. The node is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

Plus, it runs on open source code, blockchain, with smart contracts.

Structure of the DAO

alchemy.com/blog/how-to-start-a-dao

You have members surrounding a DAO protocol.

You wonder, OMG! It is a SCAM!

Of course, there are so many scams in DAOs too.

Here are 10 signs summarized by many experts in the field:

1. Hurry
2. Social media self-promotion
3. Exclusive information before joining
4. Exclusive information after joining
5. Low data verification requirements
6. Too good to be true
7. Day trades
8. Fake applications
9. Fake or anonymously identities
10. Fake wallet address with fake website page

Of course, there are more...

A cult culture within a DAO

Here are signs to DAO is with a cult culture:

1. To isolate members to propagate paranoid thinking through an "us vs. them" mentality.
2. Working too much to receive too few rewards.
3. Leaders in DAO are being praised too much to become an icon.
4. Creating urgency for no reason.
5. Thinking their products will become the next xxx (i.e. Apple).
6. Thinking no following them will be doom.
7. Spending too much time in Discord.
8. Everything needs to follow "the blockchain".
9. Rewards only through recruiting more members.
10. Virtual meet-up daily, including weekends.

Now, it is time to decide which one you want to join.

References:

culteducation.com/warningsigns.html

people.howstuffworks.com/cult3.htm

cointelegraph.com/decentralized-automated-o..

consensys.net/blog/blockchain-explained/wha..

cambridge.org/core/journals/new-testament-s..

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Photo by Luan Cabral

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