DAO, a not so much of a bad word before the DAO hack, was a smart contract built on Ethereum. As much people like to think that it failed, it really didn't. Now, there might be issues with hard fork of the DAO to retrieve the DAO tokens, which conflicts with the ETH traders/miners etc and DAO token holders, but let's not go there. Let's talk about how DAO/Smart Contracts/Crypto
I'm here to talk about financial equality and what it means. I write a blog on Steemit from India or from anywhere from around the world, my only criteria here is that I'm able to capture your attention, even partially and get your upvotes for my Steempost. Now, what it does to me? I'm a 24 year old dropout and currently jobless trying my hands on entrepreneurship. I live with my parents, and I would soon want to move out.
My first post of introduction has got me equivalent Steem Dollars for the amount of upvotes I have received and I'm greatly indebted to this community of Steemit to support me through your upvotes, you have made it easy for me, I don't have to buy a website and set it up and start writing, I'm not way a great blogger. Blogging is an art which comes through thorough practice, failures, and rigorous hard work, and it's not something simple to do it from day one and start earning some money. Because in the end, if blogging is your job, you better be good at it.
Now coming to DAO and Crypto from a practical and philosophical perspective, you can practically tell that it would be the future of finance and funding a startup. I have been thinking about my own startup. I honestly want to do an ICO(Initial Coin Offering) instead of a traditional funding route, because I feel that if people with a $1,000 can find a piece of my startup, when it potentially grows out to several millions and even billions, they get their rewards through the windfall money and bonuses. This is the concept I envisioned for a very small time investor, let us call them micro investors.
So, these micro investors, take small risks(might be huge for them, depending on whom you are talking to) on a barely proven technology and market, and want to make gains on them. On one hand, this might sound silly to a normal everyday investor or a banker, because it really is a day dreaming thing. But taking huge risks collectively mitigates the risks taken by a huge fund or a huge bank. So, you can really see the future of crowdfunding launching to newer heights.
I believed in the DAO, I believed that I could be able to make money with my $200 investment, I believed that my small investment also gave me control on my own money, now that's something special. I'm not rich, I'm not poor either, but I have a dream that one day I can ride in an autonomous car, that one day I can take the hyperloop, that one day I could possibly take the Virgin Galactic with my small investment. Now, the Virgin Galactic is a too far fetched dream for me, but who knows! If some DAO is able to fund human space flight, it can all be possible and can be made on the cheap.
So, let's step back and look at this whole picture. In 2009, we had Bitcoin and it's clones Litecoin, and then the famous Dogecoin which crowdfunded the Jamaican Bobsleigh team, now you have Ethereum, the DAO making the news. Soon, you will have Steemit, Synereo and many more making news, probably beating facebook, twitter, reddit, youtube and content will truly be decentralized. More local than ever, more global than ever. Probably, this was what Satoshi Nakamoto dreamt of.