Public and Private DAOs

A DAO is Private unless it chooses to be Public. The choice decides who can read it through SyncVotes. Either way, only members act.

Who Can Do What

	Private DAO	Public DAO
Listed on Public DAOs	No	Yes
Read its proposals, outcomes, members and comments	Members	Anyone signed in
See the ballots	Members	Members
Propose, vote and comment	Members	Members
See the balance and how to top it up	Members	Anyone signed in

Public DAOs

Public DAOs in the header lists every public DAO on this network, Biggest or Newest first. Search by name, description or DAO ID.

Opening a public DAO you are not in shows it with a Reader tag and the line You're viewing a public DAO. See its description for how to join. Its proposal pages show the totals and Only members see ballots.

Opening a private DAO you are not in shows Members only and your party ID, to send to a member.

Joining a DAO

There is no join button: members decide who joins, by vote. To join a DAO, public or private:

1. Create your party on the same network as the DAO.
2. Copy your party ID from the Wallet page and send it to a member.
3. A member proposes a Members (or Shares) change that adds you. On the DAO's members page, Propose a change opens that form. It has to pass under the DAO's voting rules.

Once it is executed, the DAO appears in your My DAOs.

Leaving a DAO

There is no leave button either. A member leaves when a Members or Shares proposal that removes them passes. You can propose your own removal like any other change.

Changing Visibility

A DAO is made public or private when it is created, and later by a Visibility proposal under its voting rules. Once executed, the DAO appears on or leaves Public DAOs.

How to Tell the Real DAO

Anyone can create a DAO under any name and picture, as the Public DAOs page reminds you. A name proves nothing about who runs a DAO. To check you have an organization's real DAO:

1. Find its DAO ID on the organization's own site or channel.
2. Compare it with the DAO ID at the bottom of a public DAO's page, or with the end of the page's address, /app/daos/<DAO ID>. Pasting the ID into the Public DAOs search finds the DAO too.

An organization that runs a public DAO should publish its DAO ID where its members already trust it.

What the Rest of Canton Sees

"Public" is about SyncVotes, not the Canton Network. A public DAO is readable because the app shows it to anyone signed in. On the ledger nothing changes:

• every DAO's contracts, public or private, are stored by the app's validator, which hosts every party involved;
• other validators never receive them, and the synchronizer that orders the transactions sees only encrypted data.

For Organizations

• Choose By shares when votes should follow ownership, and set the units to match your records. Units change only by vote.
• Choose The DAO pays to keep costs in one balance that anyone, a treasury wallet included, can top up.
• Publish the DAO ID where your members can check it.
• Read the Trust Model first: it lists what the app's operator can do, and which voting rules limit it.