Pathways to performance: a configurational analysis of consensus in DAOs
File(s)
Author(s)
Alexy, Oliver
Baumann, Oliver
Hsieh, Ying-Ying
Sampó, Giorgia
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) represent a radical form of socio-technical systems, where rules are enforced by code and governance is conducted by a distributed network of stakeholders. A critical challenge in designing these systems is achieving consensus without centralized authority, yet how consensus ensures effective governance remains underexplored. This study investigates the design of DAO governance systems, utilizing data from 70 DAOs and applying Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to explore which consensus configurations lead to positive organizational outcomes. Our analysis challenges the notion of a single consensus model. Instead, we uncover 13 distinct configurations that characterize successful DAOs. Our key finding reveals a fundamental “ideation-legitimation trade-off”: successful DAOs optimize for broad participation in either the proposal (ideation) stage or the voting (legitimation) stage, but rarely both. These insights provide a nuanced framework for understanding and designing effective governance systems for DAOs.
Date Issued
2026-01-01
Date Acceptance
2025-08-17
Citation
Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2026, pp.5580-5589
ISSN
2572-6862
Publisher
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Start Page
5580
End Page
5589
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Source
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Start Date
2026-01-06
Finish Date
2026-01-09
Coverage Spatial
Maui, Hawaii
Date Publish Online
2026