Vitalik Buterin’s AI Stewards: Revolutionizing DAO Governance for the Future

In the fast-paced world of blockchain and crypto, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) promised a new way to make decisions without bosses or central control. But today, many DAOs face big problems like low voter turnout and power in the hands of a few big token holders. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has a fresh idea to fix this: . These are personal AI agents that vote for you in a private and smart way.

The Growing Pains of DAOs

DAOs let token holders vote on everything from funding projects to changing rules. Sounds great, right? But in practice, most people skip voting. Why? There are too many decisions to make, and they cover complex topics like tech upgrades or legal issues. People don’t have time or expertise for it all.

Instead, many delegate their votes to big players, called ‘whales.’ This leads to centralization, which goes against the whole point of DAOs. Vitalik Buterin pointed this out recently, saying DAOs are drifting into low participation and power grabs.

His solution? Use AI to handle the heavy lifting. Published on X (formerly Twitter), the plan shifts power back to individuals through their own .

“There are many thousands of decisions to make, involving many domains of expertise, and most people don’t have the time or skill to be experts in even one, let alone all of them. So what can we do? We use personal LLMs to solve the attention problem.”

LLMs are large language models, like advanced AI chatbots trained on your past messages and values.

What Are AI Stewards and How Do They Work?

Imagine deploying your own AI agent tuned to your beliefs. It reads DAO proposals, analyzes them, and votes on your behalf. Routine stuff gets automated, while big issues get flagged for your review.

This solves the ‘attention problem’ – too much info, too little time. Your acts like a smart assistant, scaling participation without losing your voice.

• Personal Training: The AI learns from your tweets, blog posts, or past votes.
• Domain Expertise: It handles tech, finance, or legal proposals you might not understand.
• Automation: Votes on small matters, alerts you for key ones.

But privacy is key in blockchain, where everything is public by default. Buterin has smart fixes for that.

Privacy and Anonymity: Keeping Your Votes Safe

First, content privacy. Sensitive data like job apps or disputes can’t leak to the blockchain. Solution? Run AI in secure spots:

• Multi-Party Computation (MPC): Splits data across parties so no one sees the full picture.
• Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs): Hardware that processes data privately, like a sealed black box.

Second, voter anonymity. No one should know who voted what to avoid bribes or pressure. Enter zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs):

ZKPs let you prove you’re eligible to vote without showing your wallet or choice. This stops:

• Coercion: Bad actors forcing votes.
• Bribery: Paying for specific votes.
• Whale Watching: Small holders copying big ones out of fear.

With these tools, becomes fairer and more private.

Fighting Spam with Prediction Markets

Generative AI is flooding forums with junk proposals. How to filter? Buterin suggests prediction markets.

Agents bet tokens on if a proposal will pass. Right bets pay out; wrong ones lose. This rewards good ideas and punishes spam.

• AI stewards predict outcomes based on data.
• Markets create skin-in-the-game for proposers.
• Reduces noise, focuses on real value.

Prediction markets already work in crypto, like on Polymarket. Integrating them into DAOs could clean up governance fast.

Why This Matters for Ethereum and Beyond

Ethereum leads in DAOs, with billions locked in governance tokens. But low turnout (often under 10%) weakens them. could boost participation to near 100%.

Benefits:

1. Scalability: Handles thousands of votes daily.
2. Decentralization: No more whale dominance.
3. Inclusivity: Everyone participates, even busy folks.
4. Expertise: AI bridges knowledge gaps.

Real-world examples? Think hiring in DAOs – AI reviews resumes privately. Or funding grants – AI scores based on your values.

Challenges and Risks to Watch

No idea is perfect. AI can hallucinate or bias votes if training data is off. ZKPs and MPC add complexity and gas fees on Ethereum.

Plus, who controls the AI model? Open-source ones help, but trust is key.

Hardware limits exist too. Debates rage on decentralized compute, like Cardano vs. cloud partners. Buterin’s plan leans on secure enclaves, which could bridge web2 and web3 AI.

Early tests in small DAOs could prove it works before scaling.

The Road Ahead for DAO Governance

blend AI and crypto in exciting ways. It fixes core DAO flaws while keeping decentralization alive.

As Ethereum upgrades like Dencun cut costs, tools like ZKPs get cheaper. Prediction markets mature, and personal AI improves.

This could spark a . More secure, efficient governance means stronger projects and real-world impact – from funding open-source to global coordination.

What do you think? Will AI stewards save DAOs? Share in the comments.

Stay tuned for more on blockchain innovation.