What is a DAO?

In its most basic form, a DAO is a magic internet community that allows members to coordinate funds and resources. DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Without getting into the semantics of the term DAO, it is a community of people making decisions together in a decentralized manner, made autonomous through their software underpinnings. A DAO can be thought of as a tool that can be leveraged by communities and organizations of different types.