DeFi DAO 的权力集中度可与世界上最不平等的国家相媲美

剑桥另类金融中心的一份新报告发现，DeFi 协议背后的去中心化自治组织的权力集中程度与世界上最不平等的国家相当，治理往往由少数大型参与者主导。

A new report from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has found that the decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) behind DeFi protocols exhibit levels of power concentration comparable to the world’s most unequal countries, with governance often dominated by a few large players.

剑桥另类金融中心的一份新报告发现，DeFi 协议背后的去中心化自治组织 (DAO) 的权力集中程度与世界上最不平等的国家相当，治理往往由少数大型参与者主导。

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, a research institute based at the University of Cambridge, examined the level of centralisation among DAOs as part of the launch of its new DeFi analytics tool, the Cambridge DeFi Navigator.

剑桥大学研究机构剑桥中心替代金融在推出新的 DeFi 分析工具 Cambridge DeFi Navigator 时检查了 DAO 的中心化程度。

Among the DAOs analysed, the consolidation of power was “shocking,” Christopher Jack, the Cambridge DeFi Navigator programme lead, told DL News.

剑桥 DeFi Navigator 项目负责人 Christopher Jack 告诉 DL News，在分析的 DAO 中，权力的整合“令人震惊”。

Jack’s team applied the Gini coefficient — a widely used metric for assessing income or wealth inequality within a population — to evaluate the concentration of power within DAOs. In this scale, a score of zero indicates perfect equality, while a score of one signifies complete inequality.

Jack 的团队应用基尼系数（一种广泛用于评估人口内部收入或财富不平等的指标）来评估 DAO 内的权力集中度。在此量表中，零分表示完全平等，而一分则表示完全不平等。

The analysis found that the 10 biggest DAOs all have Gini coefficients ranging from 0.97 to 0.99. For comparison, South Africa — the most income-unequal country globally — has a Gini coefficient of 0.63.

分析发现，最大的 10 个 DAO 的基尼系数均在 0.97 至 0.99 之间。相比之下，全球收入最不平等的国家南非的基尼系数为 0.63。

“When I speak to industry participants, they’ve all said to me governance is quite concentrated in the hands of a few large players,” Jack said. “That’s really what you see here as well.”

“当我与行业参与者交谈时，他们都对我说治理相当集中在少数大型参与者手中，”杰克说。 “这确实也是你在这里看到的。”

DAOs were heralded as a progressive way to govern new technologies like blockchain apps in a fairer and more decentralised way. But in practice, many have become dominated by small groups of large token holders who wield disproportionate influence and often make key decisions in private.

DAO 被认为是一种以更公平、更去中心化的方式管理区块链应用程序等新技术的进步方式。但在实践中，许多已成为由大型代币持有者组成的小团体所主导，他们拥有不成比例的影响力，并且经常私下做出关键决策。

The analysis forms part of a larger investigation into DeFi using data spanning from the sector’s inception in 2018 to the present day. It looks at DeFi adoption, ecosystem trends, and protocol distribution, as well as DAO governance and custody.

该分析是对 DeFi 进行更大规模调查的一部分，该调查使用了从 2018 年该行业成立至今的数据。它着眼于 DeFi 采用、生态系统趋势、协议分发以及 DAO 治理和托管。

The results were compiled into a publicly available dashboard on the Centre for Alternative Finance’s website.

结果被汇编成另类金融中心网站上公开的仪表板。

Measuring DAO power

测量 DAO 功率

DAOs operate by issuing so-called governance tokens, which give holders the right to propose and vote on changes to the DeFi protocols they manage.

DAO 通过发行所谓的治理代币来运作，该代币赋予持有者对其管理的 DeFi 协议的变更提出建议和投票的权利。

While some remain highly restricted, governance tokens from DAOs are also typically tradable in crypto markets.

虽然有些仍然受到严格限制，但 DAO 的治理代币通常也可以在加密市场上进行交易。

The idea is that anyone can buy a DAO’s tokens and participate in governance. Many DeFi protocols attempt to distribute their tokens among as many users as possible through airdrops.

这个想法是任何人都可以购买 DAO 的代币并参与治理。许多 DeFi 协议试图通过空投将其代币分发给尽可能多的用户。

The Cambridge DeFi Navigator analysis shows that while these distribution methods initially succeed in spreading tokens widely, within weeks, the majority of tokens consolidate into a few large wallets.

Cambridge DeFi Navigator 的分析显示，虽然这些分配方法最初成功地广泛传播了代币，但在几周内，大多数代币都整合到了几个大钱包中。

DeFi protocol Gini coefficient: The top 10 DAO governance tokens all have Gini coefficients of 0.97 to 0.99. (Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance)

DeFi协议基尼系数：前10名DAO治理代币的基尼系数均在0.97至0.99之间。 （剑桥另类金融中心）

The analysis measured how distributed a DAO’s token was among all wallets holding it. For example, at Aave, the biggest DeFi lending protocol with $34 billion of deposits, the top 121 wallets hold over 10,000 AAVE tokens each, collectively accounting for almost 73% of AAVE token supply.

该分析测量了 DAO 代币在所有持有该代币的钱包中的分布情况。例如，在拥有 340 亿美元存款的最大 DeFi 借贷协议 Aave，前 121 个钱包各自持有超过 10,000 个 AAVE 代币，总共占 AAVE 代币供应量的近 73%。

Jack said his team plans to break down the data further in a future update by looking at the percentage of wallets that hold a certain percentage of token supply, which should make it easier to understand.

杰克表示，他的团队计划在未来的更新中通过查看持有一定比例代币供应的钱包的百分比来进一步细分数据，这应该会让数据更容易理解。

The issue of centralisation extends beyond token distribution. Critics have also pointed out other ways DAOs fail to achieve true decentralisation.

中心化问题超出了代币分配的范畴。批评者还指出了 DAO 未能实现真正去中心化的其他方式。

In October, Billy Gao, Head of Governance at Stanford University’s blockchain club, said key decisions for the Uniswap protocol were made by its creator, Uniswap Labs, behind closed doors without consulting its DAO.

10 月，斯坦福大学区块链俱乐部治理负责人 Billy Gau 表示，Uniswap 协议的关键决策是由其创建者 Uniswap Labs 秘密做出的，没有咨询其 DAO。

DeFi’s rise

DeFi 的崛起

Another surprising insight from the Centre for Alternative Finance’s analysis came from looking at historical data.

另类金融中心的分析中另一个令人惊讶的见解来自于历史数据。

The analysis found that in 2018, when DeFi on Ethereum started to take off, 90% of the value was concentrated in just one or two protocols. Fast forward to 2024, and now over 140 protocols make up 90% of the sector.

分析发现，2018 年，当以太坊上的 DeFi 开始起飞时，90% 的价值集中在一两个协议中。快进到 2024 年，现在超过 140 个协议占该行业的 90%。

Protocol dominance snapshot: In 2024, 90% of DeFi deposits are held across 146 different protocols, compared to just two in 2018. (Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance)

协议主导地位快照：到 2024 年，90% 的 DeFi 存款由 146 种不同协议持有，而 2018 年只有两种协议。（剑桥另类金融中心）

“The interesting point there has just been to see how complex the ecosystem has become in such a short time frame,” Jack said. “To us, this signals that there’s a lot of user interest, but that there’s also a lot of developer interest.”

“有趣的是，生态系统在如此短的时间内变得多么复杂，”杰克说。 “对我们来说，这表明用户有很多兴趣，但开发人员也有很多兴趣。”

Jack attributed DeFi’s comparatively fast growth to developers being more motivated to build something that they have control over. In the private sector, anything an employee builds belongs to the company that employs them.

Jack 将 DeFi 相对较快的增长归因于开发人员更有动力去构建他们可以控制的东西。在私营部门，员工建造的任何东西都属于雇用他们的公司。

“There’s quite a few developers that have been fed up with creating stuff on corporate software, because they can just shut it off,” Jack said.

“有相当多的开发人员已经厌倦了在企业软件上创建东西，因为他们可以将其关闭，”杰克说。