A decentralized Autonomous Organization or DAO is an organizational model that does not use centralized leadership. A DAO does not have a leadership entity because it is managed by all of its members. The idea of DAO itself originated from the crypto industry, especially the creator of EOS Dan Larimer, and was refined by the creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin.
DAO is a series of algorithms consisting of programming codes to secure and run the network of the organization. In its creation, a DAO uses smart contracts, which contain fundamental rules of the organization, capabilities of the algorithm, and codes to execute decisions. Members of a DAO must make proposals and await voting from other members to execute changes or decisions for the organization.
Some of the most popular DAO protocols in the crypto world are MakerDAO (managing DAI stablecoin), Decentraland DAO (regulating metaverse game Decentraland), and BitDAO (DAO which raises investment funds for various crypto projects).