DAO mechanisms

Content

Token

Disclaimer

DAO tokens do not represent or constitute an equity ownership stake, share, or equivalent in ANY public or private company, corporation, or other entity in any jurisdiction; DAO tokens are only for use in connection with The DAO under the terms of The DAO’s smart contract code and do not entitle any holder of DAO tokens to any additional rights with respect to any other corporation, company, or entity in any jurisdiction.

During the initial creation phase where 'The DAO' is funded via ETH, new DAO tokens have been created. Each DAO token holder (a.k.a. DAOTH) is granted voting rights and complete control over The DAO's digital assets proportional to the amount of DAO tokens they hold. The simplest way to buy tokens during the sale period will be to send ETH directly to The DAO's contract. In return, the contract will automatically send you your tokens. This must be done from a wallet in which you own the private keys, and ideally should be done using a wallet like Mist where you can watch and interact with contracts and track the corresponding tokens.
There is no cap to the number of tokens which may be sold nor the total value which could be raised during the creation period.

DAO tokens:

Allow the holder to vote on any expenditure the DAO could make
Are fully transferable. They can be traded peer-to-peer or on an exchange
Represent a relative portion of The DAO's crypto assets at any given time

You will find a lot of information about the DAO token on Etherscan: number of transaction, proposal list, ongoing votes, smart contract source, token holders...

Token price

During its 28 day creation period, DAO token prices have been fixed this way:

A price of 1ETH / 100DAO for the first 14 days,
an increase of 0.05ETH each day for the next 10 days
finally a 4 day period of 1.5ETH / 100DAO.

Once the creation period is over, the DAO token will be traded on some exchanges like any other market.

Contractors

A DAO is purely software: in itself it does not have the capabilities to manufacture a product, write code, develop hardware or sweep the streets. It requires actors in the physical world for this purpose, called Contractors. Contractors submit Proposals for the development of products or services—these Proposals are written in plain English and backed by a software code in the form of a smart contract that defines the relationship between The DAO and the Contractor: deliverables, responsibilities, and operating parameters.

The DAO Token Holders may debate the viability and profitability of Proposals off-chain through the discussion forums DAOHub.org, daohub slack team, on-chain threaded discussions, etc).

The DAO may also select a replacement Contractor for any given Proposal, meaning projects can continue where they left off rather than being abandoned outright.

Smart contracts

Smart contracts are short computer programs which encode business logic and are automatically enforced by the network’s consensus algorithm.

Please visit the Smart contract section of the wiki for a complete revue.

Curators

A Curator is an entity employed by The DAO to act as its real world intermediary, as The DAO itself it does not have the capabilities to build a product, write code, or develop hardware; The DAO purely manages funds.
The curator is the only entity that is allowed to add contractors to the DAOs whitelist, authorizing them to receive ether from the DAO.

Proposal

https://blog.slock.it/how-to-create-gorgeous-proposals-81eb3f606226#.c82vurucs

Framework

List of proposals

The DAO consider it website is a place dedicated to proposals. Once a new proposal and its description is added, members have the capability to express opinion using the consider it technology.

This website is a very good place to test and expose proposals to critique, and a chance to gain traction. This is not officially affiliated with the DAO and is a tool to use as is. You need to register before you post a proposal or express your opinion.

Whitelist

Voting mechanism

13 days for a proposal to be fully vetted. If enough quorum (20%)

Split

DAO 2.0

Improvements in the performance of DAO governance are currently in development, and these are what generally fall under the title “DAO 2.0”.