Meet our DAOstar Research Fellows
Upcoming research on DAOs as a social phenomenon, token unlocks, governance experiments, DAOs in Malaysia, and legal recognition in DAOs
Overview of the Fellowship Program
Earlier this year, we announced our open call for the DAOstar Research Fellowship, a program for curious and motivated individuals passionate about advancing research in the DAO ecosystem. We invited those with a fresh and unique perspective — both experienced researchers and community participants with lived DAO experience — to conduct in-depth explorations into DAO governance, labor practices, contributor retention, compensation structures, and other relevant topics.
As such, we’re pleased to announce the results of our call: five individuals/pairs of fellows will participate in the fellowship program from April to July, during which they will produce research that contributes to the future of DAOs and digital governance. Our fellows include Victoria Kozlova and Ben Biedermann, Jillian Grennan and Ryan Peters, Teije Hidde Donker (7Cedars), Marcus Khoo, and Sneha Vijayan.
Meet the Fellows
Victoria Kozlova and Ben Biedermann
Victoria stumbled into Web3 via crypto Twitter while researching misogynistic online communities for her academic work. She became fascinated by the tension between the promise of decentralization and the human dynamics that often run counter to it, especially within DAOs. She contributes to RaidGuild DAO and AsteriskDAO, a DeSci initiative focused on largely under-researched areas of non-reproductive female health.
“I’m motivated to research DAOs because I believe we’re at a critical moment where their structures are maturing, but often without addressing social stratification, insider cultures, or invisible hierarchies. I want to explore how mechanisms like onboarding, reputation, and cultural cues filter participation and how DAOs can move beyond rhetoric to become genuinely inclusive spaces”
Ben is reading for a PhD in DLT-based decentralized governance of small jurisdictions. He previously conducted comparative research on regulatory regimes for cryptocurrencies and Web3 in Malta and the European Union, where his findings revealed a heavy reliance on centralized organizational structures and licensing regimes. Also a RaidGuild member, he has taken over vision development for the SmartInvoice community, become part of the Metagov Grant Innovation Lab, and connected local crypto enthusiast communities in Malta with the larger DAO space.
Victoria and Ben’s research will explore how cultural homogeneity and informal power structures shape social stratification in DAOs, with a focus on onboarding processes and the dynamics between core contributors and newer members.
Jillian Grennan and Ryan Peters
Jillian is a Professor of Economics at Emory University. Her research examines the law and economics of emerging technology and corporate culture. She’s also a principal at the Diversity Pilots Initiative, partnering with high-tech firms to develop and implement inclusive innovation practices.
Ryan is a finance professor at Tulane University who's fascinated by how we value things we can't see or touch. After spending time in trading and at the Fed, he made his way to academia where he studies how markets put price tags on ideas, innovation, and organizational know-how.
“What gets me excited about DAOs is how they're rewriting organizational playbooks in the open and tackling questions that have challenged companies for decades: How do you reward contributors fairly? How do you balance short-term incentives with long-term sustainability? How do you measure someone's true impact on a project?”
Jillian and Ryan’s research explores how token unlocks in DAOs can influence ecosystem development, governance changes, and participant retention, drawing parallels to traditional corporate equity-based incentives while considering the potential for alternative unlock designs given DAO’s unique features.
Teije Hidde Donker (7Cedars)
Teije is currently developing a first of its kind, role restricted protocol that allows for a separation of powers between roles within a DAO. Previously, as a political sociologist, he researched Islamist governance initiatives during the Syrian civil war and Tunisian transition.
“I am interested in how people experiment with day-to-day governance. The practical solutions people come up with when faced with concrete problems around the distribution of resources reflects how they want to live together, but also the harsh realities in which they find themselves.”
As a DAOstar research fellow, Teije is going to be mapping out recent governance experiments among DAOs in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Marcus Khoo
Marcus is working on developing a fellowship program for DeSciWorld to explore new ways research communities may coalesce and operate under a Decentralized Science paradigm. Prior to getting involved in Web3, he worked in academia doing civic engagement programming.
“I am interested in further exploring DAOs as an organizational form. Specifically, I am curious about the different attachments people have to this nascent concept, and what type of boundary work and negotiation goes into co-configuring and co-imagining DAOs such that these types of organizations are both goal oriented and sites of community.”
As a fellow, Marcus is going to be researching and writing about the current state of DAOs in Malaysia.
Sneha Vijayan
Sneha is a lawyer with a background in international arbitration, driven by a mission to make justice accessible. She co-founded resolutio, a platform that builds legally compliant tools for creator protection, making such protections an integrated solution rather than an afterthought.
“I believe law and technology shouldn’t chase each other, but evolve together. That means building with legal foresight, while also pushing legal frameworks to grow alongside innovation.”
Sneha’s research explores how the Model Law on Automated Contracting can guide the design of DAO rules and transactions to achieve legal recognition. While DAOs innovate rapidly, legal recognition continues to lag behind. This research aims to bridge that gap, offering clarity for developers, participants, and regulators, as well as help her further explore how DAOs can be used to design more accessible and participatory models of justice delivery.
Looking Forward
We’re so grateful to have such a diverse, engaged group of research fellows! As we move forward, we’ll be having monthly research check-ins on the first Tuesday of each month where fellows get to discuss their research progress and exchange feedback (6 May, 3 June, 8 July). Join our Slack and reach out to Joseph Low (or message him on Telegram @jolow) if you’d like to sit into these discussions.
We look forward to keeping you updated on the research progress from all the fellows, and publishing the research outputs towards the end of July!