Odaily Planet Daily News: Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov stated that decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are not coming to an end, but must undergo structural evolution to improve decision-making efficiency and support the long-term development of protocols.
Kulechov published a lengthy post on X on Tuesday, summarizing his views on DAO governance in light of recent Aave governance controversies. Previously, internal governance conflicts within the Aave DAO led to the core contribution team BGD Labs and ACI temporarily stepping away from protocol-related work, sparking widespread community discussion.
Kulechov noted that current DAO governance models are often too slow, requiring weeks of forum discussions, temperature checks, and multiple rounds of formal voting, making it difficult for protocols to keep pace with market dynamics in decision-making and product iteration. At the same time, DAO governance is prone to gradual politicization, with participants forming alliances and relying on louder voices to push proposals.
He said: "Many crypto project founders think this way but rarely say it out loud—running a DAO the way we currently do is extremely difficult, and this difficulty isn't a technical challenge; it's a daily struggle against the organizational structure itself."
Nevertheless, Kulechov emphasized that DAOs still hold significant value but require optimization in their governance structures and execution mechanisms to maintain decentralization principles while achieving more efficient execution, enabling Aave to continue expanding in the global multi-trillion-dollar lending market.