Decentralized Autonomous Organizations as a Threat to Centralized Platforms: Applying and Expanding Theories of Platform Competition and Disintermediation

Abstract

Multi-sided platform marketplaces like Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, and the Apple App Store (to name only those beginning with “A”) dominate many industries already, generating growth and profits that make them among the most valuable companies in the world. Yet a new suite of technologies collectively known as Web3, including blockchain and smart contracts, enable a new type of organization labeled a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that could perform many of the same functions as centralized platform companies, perhaps with an even stronger value proposition for the buyers and sellers in a DAO marketplace. This article uses and expands theories of substitutive competition and disintermediation to explain if and how DAOs might displace centralized platforms.