Balancing Openness and Control: The Impact of Entry Barriers on User-Generated Content in DAO

The evolution of blockchain technology prompts significant transformations in community organizations, particularly through the emergence of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Despite the growing prominence of DAOs, empirical studies on their governance remain scant. This study empirically investigates DAO governance in a Web 3.0 publishing platform, Mirror.xyz. Initially, the platform limited publishing rights to select individuals, subject to initial screening, while keeping all content available for reading. It later opened up publishing to everyone. Our analysis of user-generated content (UGC) on this platform reveals that lifting access control leads to increased content diversity and toxic topics publication, potentially hindering community development. Additionally, we observe that the DAO voting and NFT collection mechanisms effectively align member objectives with community interests. This research contributes to the literature by empirically assessing the impact of platform pre-screening policies on UGC within Web 3.0, offering insights for platform designers and online community teams.