The convexity dilemma of DAOs: Vitalik discusses the next-generation governance framework

Vitalik Buterin recently revealed in an interview with ChainCatcher that the current state of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) in the crypto industry has seriously deviated from their original intention. The co-founder of Ethereum pointed out that many so-called DAO projects are actually just “token-controlled treasuries,” which appear to operate normally on the surface but suffer from numerous structural flaws. He proposed that the industry urgently needs to re-examine the design philosophy of DAOs and create a new generation of governance models that are more vibrant and practically applicable.

From Ideals to Reality: The Divergence in Contemporary DAO Design

In Ethereum’s early conceptualization, DAOs were envisioned as a vital component of core infrastructure. However, over time, this vision has become unrecognizable. Vitalik candidly stated that most existing DAOs have transformed into “token-controlled treasuries”—a superficial veneer of decentralization that actually suffers from poor governance efficiency, susceptibility to manipulation, and difficulty in handling complex interpersonal political games. The root causes of these issues are not due to a lack of participant incentives but stem from inherent flaws in the management framework design and systemic vulnerabilities in oracle mechanisms.

The Concavity-Convexity Framework: A New Perspective on Differentiated Governance

To break through the current impasse, Vitalik introduced a novel analytical dimension—the “Concavity-Convexity” theoretical framework. This innovative concept maps different DAO governance scenarios onto the geometric properties of concavity and convexity: issues related to consensus and resilience should emphasize broad participation and defenses against manipulation, while situations requiring rapid decision-making should allow for concentrated power, complemented by decentralized checks and balances. This binary division of “concavity” and “convexity” provides DAO designers with a scientific, scenario-adaptive governance approach, breaking away from one-size-fits-all decision-making models.

Privacy and Decision-Making: The Necessity of Technological Innovation

Vitalik emphasized that for DAOs to operate efficiently, two technological dimensions must be addressed. First, solving privacy protection issues for governance participants; second, alleviating decision fatigue among participants. These challenges can be addressed through cutting-edge privacy technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) and secure multi-party computation. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence and consensus-based communication tools should also be integrated into the DAO toolkit to reduce cognitive burdens on management. Vitalik underscored a key principle: AI should serve as an assistant to enhance human judgment, not replace it.

Building the Next-Generation DAO Infrastructure

Looking ahead, Vitalik calls on developers and communities to treat governance mechanisms, privacy technologies, and communication layers as core pillars of DAOs, rather than optional add-ons. Only through this approach can the underlying infrastructure of decentralization and resilience be truly protected and strengthened within Ethereum’s ecosystem. This requires breakthroughs in several areas: improving oracle design, reinforcing on-chain dispute resolution mechanisms, maintaining critical on-chain whitelists, supporting rapid deployment of short-term collaborative projects, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of project teams after initial launch.

Through an integrated approach that includes the concavity-convexity governance framework, privacy encryption technologies, and collaborative communication mechanisms, the next generation of DAOs is expected to achieve a genuine balance between decentralization and effectiveness, becoming an indispensable part of Ethereum’s infrastructure.