By Alex, Peter

One of the best things about DAOs is how open they are.

‍While some DAOs require you to purchase tokens to join, many of them let you join for free to get a sense of how they operate. Let’s start by covering the different types of DAOs.

Types of DAOs

There are many types of DAOs, including:

1. Social DAOs are organized around shared interests. For example, Friends with Benefits is a private social club that builds products and offers IRL private events. You need to hold 75 $FWB tokens to join.
   
2. Investment DAOs raise funds to invest in and own assets (e.g., NFTs) as a community. For example, Flamingo bought an Alien Cryptopunk NFT for 605 eth (~$761K) in January 2021. Constitution DAO raised $47M in a failed attempt to bid for a copy of the Constitution in November.
   
3. Protocol DAOs help a DeFi protocol transition from being owned by a core team to being owned by a community. For example, Uniswap issued UNI tokens to let its community members vote on how the protocol should evolve.
   
4. Commerce DAOs allow a community to co-own a retail or e-commerce business through tokens. For example, E1337 is a luxury apparel brand owned by 1337 token holders.
   
5. Media DAOs empower a community to produce content collaboratively. For example, this content you’re reading was written by members of Odyssey. Another example is Stoner Cats, a community-funded adult animation series.
   

Web3 Learning DAOs

If you’re reading this guide, you probably want to learn more about web3. Here are a few learning DAOs that are worth exploring:

1. Crypto, Culture, and Society is a DAO focused on exploring the intersection of liberal arts and crypto.
   
2. Forefront focuses on education for social token communities.
   
3. Developer DAO helps developers onboard to web3. 
   

Joining a DAO can often be an overwhelming experience. Let’s talk about how you can contribute to DAOs next.

Up next: How to contribute to DAOs?

Learn more

DAO Landscape (Cooper Turley)