Recently, looking at DAO proposals is a bit like looking at a company’s annual budget report: on the surface, it’s “good for the ecosystem,” but when you take a closer look, the incentives are spelled out very specifically—who receives subsidies, who has voting rights, and who can access multi-signature wallets. The power structure is actually hidden in these small clauses.

Social mining and the “attention is mining” approach behind fan tokens are similar too. I’m not going to argue whether attention can be considered “mining.” In the end, it often turns into this: whoever can keep attracting people gets more votes, and proposals are also more likely to pass.

Forget the fancy talk—plainly speaking, don’t just look at the slogans. First, go through where the money comes from, who it goes to, and how to exit (recovery/buyback/callback mechanism/terms). Once you’ve done that, you basically know who this proposal is helping rise to power.