The Future of DAOs: Why AI Is Making Software Cheaper Than Your Morning Coffee

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Once upon a time in the land of tech, constructing a software product was akin to buying a small house-approximately $215,000 worth of financial commitment. But lo and behold! With the advent of AI tools, that number has plummeted faster than a lead balloon, now sitting pretty at under $450. Yes, you read that right; it’s cheaper than your fancy brunch with avocado toast!

Enter Kydo, our intrepid researcher from Eigen Labs, who shared his revelations on X (not the Twitter we once knew) regarding the imminent rise of DAOs. His argument is as clear as a sunny day: AI has made building software so affordable that the cost of starting a company is now a bigger deal than the costs of actually making the product. Who would have thought economics could be this thrilling?

The Numbers Behind the Shift

In the good old days, hiring a software engineer for a year would set you back about $200,000. Toss in an additional $15,000 for legalities and setting up your LLC, and there you are-$215,000 just to get your MVP off the ground. You might as well consider a yacht at that price!

But with AI marvels like Claude Code and Opus, one solo builder can now whip up a functioning product for a mere $200. And setting up a DAO? Just $50 to $250. In total? A grand total of under $450! It’s practically a steal.

“That’s not a marginal improvement. That’s a structural inversion,” Kydo penned, likely while sipping his coffee and pondering how to spend his newfound wealth.

When building software was as pricey as a luxury car, no one batted an eye at the $15,000 for an LLC-it was just part of the cost of doing business. Now that AI has creatively driven production costs to near zero, that $15,000 stands out like a sore thumb. Enter DAOs, which come with a bargain price tag-suddenly they’re looking like the best deal in town.

The Old Pitch vs the New Pitch

DAOs used to be sold on lofty ideals: decentralization, community ownership, and the mystical concept of censorship resistance. But let’s face it, those ideas were about as appealing as a soggy sandwich when it came to practical implementation. Kydo points out that those concepts simply didn’t justify the friction of operating outside the traditional corporate framework.

The new pitch for DAOs? Cold, hard economics. And let’s be honest, economic arguments have a way of getting people excited-much like the promise of a free buffet.

He supported this notion with real-world examples, like Nouns DAO, which managed to amass a treasury of over $50 million without any corporate backing. And then there’s Botto, an AI-generated art collective that employs a DAO to let community members direct an autonomous artist (because why not let robots do the heavy lifting?).

What This Means for Solo Crypto Builders

Now, Kydo highlighted a rather familiar dilemma for many builders: while creating something is now as cheap as chips, distribution and funding are still stuck in the slow lane. An app built for $200 without a community behind it is just that-a lonely side project. But toss in a DAO with a token and enthusiastic contributors, and voila! It transforms into what Kydo whimsically calls “an economic organism.” Sounds almost alive, doesn’t it?

He also assured us that Eigen Labs is on a quest to create tokens that “actually own and mean something, not this speculative fluffy thing that we have currently.” Because who needs fluff when you can have substance?

Not Everyone Agrees

Crypto lawyer Gabriel Shapiro chimed in, suggesting that regulation, not costs, is the true barrier preventing DAOs from soaring as fundraising vehicles. How very sensible of him!

But Kydo wasn’t having any of it: “crypto never had much reg clarity but it didn’t stop tokens and companies making 100s of billions here.” Touché, Kydo!

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2026-02-07 15:38