A Comparative Analysis of Centralized and Decentralized Developer Autonomous Organizations Managing Conflicts in Discussing External Crises

Abstract

Understanding whether and how online developer communities resolve conflicts that occur in discussions is critical. Few studies focused on the conflicts caused by external crises, such as geopolitical events (e.g., the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian Crisis). We comparatively studied how a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), Aave project community, and a centralized autonomous organization (CAO), GitHub project community, managed external crises caused by conflicts. Our mixed-method analysis showed that a DAO could be better than a CAO for mitigating conflicts. And blockchain technologies (i.e., voting and cryptocurrency) played vital roles. To address the low voter turnout, we proposed adding a monetary incentive to engage more DAO members in forming common goals.