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Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offerings (DAICO)
A method for decentralized funding of projects that introduces a form of governance in the ICO process, allowing backers to vote for the return of their funds if certain conditions are met.
What Are Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offerings (DAICO)?
If the soft cap is reached, on the other hand, the developers gain full access to it, as well as to all the funds that were raised in excess of the target, as soon as the ICO period ends. This places all the power to decide over how the proceeds should be used in the hands of the centralized team behind the project, which can result in bad outcomes.
Buterin’s DAICO concept proposes to lock all the proceeds of an ICO into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) smart contract and put the governance over that DAO in the hands of the investors.
The funds would not be released all at once after the fundraising campaign is over, but rather be unlocked at a certain per-second rate called the tap variable, voted upon by the investors. Moreover, if the development team proves unable to finish the project, the contributors can vote to refund whatever resources remain to themselves.
DAICO is a relatively recent and yet unproven concept, but in theory, it is expected to make the governance of ICO funds more democratic and offer investors a degree of protection from fraud.