Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (“DAOs”) have transformed how people coordinate, govern, and build on the internet. Yet as the space has grown, the legal foundations and structures available to these communities have lagged behind, leaving governance organizations operating in a gray area that materially limits their ability to scale and make a real-world impact. This lack of clarity has left DAO participants vulnerable to regulatory overreach and potential lawsuits from private actors, with few of the protections available to more conventional legal structures.

Over the last year, the Uniswap Foundation has invested significant time and resources into exploring pathways to formal legal recognition for Uniswap Governance. We’ve explored jurisdictions, met with delegates and stakeholders, hosted policy roundtables with legal experts, and helped fund early-stage research on DAO entity formation. Our goal throughout has remained constant: to identify a model that gives Uniswap Governance real-world legitimacy, legal capacity, and protection to participants and stakeholders, without compromising the protocol’s core ethos of decentralization, permissionlessness, and credible neutrality.

We believe that Wyoming’s Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association (“DUNA”) achieves these goals. The DUNA was purpose-built to comply with current federal market structure legislation, including the CLARITY Act; giving DAOs the ability to operate with formality and clarity, while preserving their decentralized character. Today, the Uniswap Foundation has published a proposal advocating that Uniswap Governance adopt a DUNA, called “DUNI”. If the proposal is successful, Uniswap Governance will become the largest DAO to do so. It will be a landmark development for decentralized governance and a signal to others navigating similar questions.

DUNI would unlock real operational capacity, allowing Uniswap Governance to enter into contracts with development teams, service providers, and other protocols. It would pave the way for the DAO to turn on protocol fees. Importantly, it would also reduce the potential specter of unlimited liability for participants engaging in the above, providing them with greater certainty and confidence when engaging in the governance process.

More broadly, the DUNA offers a path for DAOs to gain legal formality without compromising their values. It demonstrates that decentralization and legal legitimacy can coexist and provides a model for others looking to do the same. As momentum ramps up in the U.S. crypto sector, the DUNA offers a way to support digital public goods within an existing framework, helping to bring innovation back onshore.

This is just the beginning. Over the coming years, the introduction of autonomous mechanisms for treasury and protocol management will advance DAO growth. As governance evolves, so too must the legal and regulatory frameworks that support it. With DUNI, we hope to set a precedent now and into the future: not just for Uniswap Governance, but for every DAO navigating the path to sustainability, sovereignty, and real-world impact.