---
title: DAO Basics
description: Your map to navigating the world of DAOs on NEAR
slug: /governance
sidebar_position: 0
---

# Your Guide to DAOs on NEAR

## What’s a DAO?

In short, a DAO is a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation. It’s like a company, coop, club, or task force. The secret that sets DAOs apart from these examples is all in the name.

Decentralization is a core concept of blockchains. SputnikDAOs operate on NEAR blockchain, enabling peer to peer transactions without borders or gate keepers. You can collaborate with whoever you want from around the world!

Autonomous Organization is a tricker concept tied up in a new work revolution. Companies and platforms typically have someone in the middle to handle logistics (and taking a cut for their effort). SputnikDAOs replace those positions with apps running on the NEAR blockchain to automate things like distributing funds, recording consensus, and managing membership. All of that saved effort and cost is then passed onto the members of the DAOs, paying them more for the value they contribute!

To make things tangible let’s look at an example like AirBNB. If people with open space for short term rental coordinate directly with each other through a DAO then they don’t have to give a cut of their profits to AirBNB for providing that organizational service. Record labels, foundations, setting up group buys, crowdfunding, and more are all more efficient as DAOs!

In short, DAOs are digital companies living on a blockchain with participants united by a common purpose. SputnikDAO enables individuals to come together to form cooperative, open, accessible, and transparent organisations.

## Why a DAO?

DAOs empower communities to govern on-chain activity, make united decisions, and interact with other DAOs.Ultimately, DAOs unlock an unprecedented level of transparent and collaborative coordination with built-in tools to allow for:

* Transparency and legitimacy via built-in reporting
* Community ownership through stakeholder participation
* Responsible fund distribution through openness and transparency which results in meaningful accountability

## DAOs on NEAR

In line with the goal of being the most accessible, user-friendly blockchain, DAOs on NEAR are created in a matter of clicks through the [Astro](https://astrodao.com/) dApp. 

AstroDAO is a hub of DAOs empowering communities in the NEAR ecosystem. [This playbook](how-to-launch-a-dao.md) will guide you through the process of creating and interacting with DAOs in the NEARverse Astro.


## Your Guide to DAOs

The following playbook will serve as documentation and a guide to creating DAOs in Astro, the leading DAO Tooling service on NEAR, as well as a key for unlocking the full potential of DAOs within the NEAR Ecosystem.
