Decentralised autonomous organisations or DAOs are one of the fastest-growing segments of the blockchain space. In this episode we are revisiting an oldie but goodie: our 2022 conversation with Donald O’Brian Porter, the Founder of CaribDAO, who explains, among other things, how DAOs work; the parallels between DAOs and the informal cooperative savings system that has been prevalent in Caribbean countries for decades; how an individual can verify the authenticity of the DAO; and three (3) questions someone should ask before joining a DAO.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music!!

In the ever-evolving global governance and digital innovation landscape, two seemingly unrelated phenomena are reshaping how individuals and nations interact: Decentralised Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and regional and international collaboration efforts among countries. At first glance, these entities exist in vastly different realms—one born out of blockchain technology, the other rooted in geopolitics and diplomacy.

We are revisiting a podcast episode released in 2022 as part of our Fintech in the Caribbean region series on DAOs. Generally, a DAO is a member-owned community with no centralised leadership, and so it is owned and managed by its members. As a decentralised construct, it uses distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), such as blockchain technology, to provide a transparent, secure and efficient platform.

DAOs are one of the fastest-growing segments of the blockchain space. In 2025, the estimated market capitalisation of that segment was USD 50 billion (Source:  CoinMarketCap). However, although DAOs might seem to be a 21st-century creation, it is not a novel idea. It is just a way of fostering collaboration and consensus among a group to achieve mutually desired goals.

 

Introducing our guest

Donald Porter

Donald O’Brian Porter is an award-winning Software Developer and Entrepreneur, who is passionate about monetising online ventures through creative thinking, search engine optimization, social media integration and due diligence.  He first came to prominence in the Caribbean region as the Founder of ClajaCOM, more commonly known as Claja, which was founded in 2010 and was one of Jamaica’s first social marketplace and featured free online classifieds, shops, event listings, and a feature-rich user dashboard.

Donald is well known in the blockchain space and is the Founder of CaribDAO, a Caribbean-based DAO with a focus on Web3 education, project incubation, and crowdfunding. More recently, he has been the Host of Caribbean Crypto Chat, a weekly live podcast on Binance Live.

 

Insights into our conversation

Although this interview was recorded in 2022, when blockchain technology, non-fungible tokens and decentralised finance (DeFi) were still all the rage, and Donald’s focus was on the Caribbean region truly capitalising on these technologies, the conversation seems even more relevant today when considered through the lens of Caribbean regionalism.

Across the Caribbean region, we have several multi-country and regional organisations. However, many of them are challenged with realising meaningful and timely progress on their agenda, due to among other things, distrust and the lack of consensus among their member countries.  Donald is passionate about DAOs, as the construct builds on the informal community and trust-based systems that have existed across the region for generations. By giving these informal systems more structure, purpose and scale for greater impact, they have the potential to help the region solve some of its problems. Through CaribDAO, we have an example of how DAOs work and how their principles can be more widely applied for the greater good of the region.

Below are key questions posed to Donald during our conversation:

  1. So, to start us off, tell us a bit about your entrepreneurial journey, and how you got into blockchain
  2. What is a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, and how does it work?
  3. There seem to be growing concerns that some DAOs might be fronts for fraud. How might someone be able to verify the authenticity of the DAO?
  4. Let’s pivot a bit. Talk to us about CaribDAO. When was it established, and what is the problem it is trying to solve?
  5. What products or services will CaribDAO be bringing to market?
  6. What are some of the drawbacks of using a DAO?
  7. What are three (3) questions someone should ask before joining a DAO?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

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Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit: D Porter; rawpixel.com (Freepik);  Gerd Altmann (Pixabay);  jcomp (Freepik);  Gerd Altmann (Pixabay)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez