What is DAO Summoning?

DAO summoning refers to the act of forming a new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). While the term can apply to the creation of any new DAO, it is most often used when talking about Moloch DAO.

Moloch DAO was the first decentralized autonomous organization to be summoned. The summoning was initiated by Ameen Soleimany on February 14th, 2019, at the ETHDenver event.

The process of DAO summoning is fast, as the infrastructure can be deployed in a few seconds using tools that have been developed to optimize the process.

Summoning refers to the urgency of creating a new DAO by bringing the community together to work on a collective purpose, nurture the same values, and share the ownership of the fundamental idea of the DAO.

The choice of vocabulary is a deliberate contract to the terminology used to describe new formations of traditional companies which are not community-driven and instead are corporate-owned. In this case, more utilitarian vocabulary such as “fund” or “start” is used.

DAO summoning can also be used to describe the process of assembling the new members of a newly established DAO. The entity in the role of the DAO summoner calls on the community members to join the organization. This leads to the first cohort of DAO members.

The early versions of the Moloch DAO framework established that the DAO summoner was the only initial member of the organization in its infancy. This led to the requirement to bring new members into the organization.

Starting with version 2.1 of the Moloch DAO framework, multiple initial members have been granted permission to summon a new DAO. This process is referred to as “multi-summoning”.