Uniswap is a decentralized finance protocol that is used to exchange cryptocurrencies. Uniswap is also the name of the company that initially built the Uniswap protocol. The protocol facilitates automated transactions between cryptocurrency tokens on the Ethereum blockchain through the use of smart contracts.

It was developed by Hayden Adams, a former mechanical engineer at Siemens on November 2, 2018. The company was kick-started through investments from venture capital firms including Union Square Ventures LLC, ParaFi, Andreessen Horowitz, and Paradigm Venture Capital. Uniswap gained popularity among traders and investors because of its usage in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Uniswap is currently the largest decentralized exchange platform with a market capitalization of $9.82B. It generates fees of approximately $2–3 million daily for the liquidity providers who facilitate liquid markets for the cryptocurrencies being exchanged.

Maker is a protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain. It was created in 2014. Its creators describe it as "a utility token, governance token, and recapitalization resource of the Maker system." The purpose of the Maker system is to generate another Ethereum token, called DAI, that seeks to trade on exchanges at a value of exactly $1.00.

MakerDAO works through a process called "over-collateralization", where assets supplied by users are locked up in smart contracts as collateral in exchange for newly created DAI tokens. DAI is an ERC-20 token, which means it runs on the Ethereum blockchain. It is designed to maintain a stable value of one US dollar.

The MakerDAO DeFi lending platform works via a collection of smart contracts that allow users to supply and borrow cryptocurrencies without a centralized loan provider.

MakerDAO is the largest decentralized lending platform with a market capitalization of $2.39B.

Aave is a decentralized non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can participate as depositors or borrowers. Depositors provide liquidity to the market to earn a passive income, while borrowers are able to borrow in an overcollateralized (perpetually) or undercollateralized (one-block liquidity) fashion.

Aave was founded in 2017. Initially known as ETHLend, it raised $16.2 million in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to create a decentralized lending platform. They would later announce a parent company, Aave, which would house multiple different products including EthLend, Aave Lending, Aave Pocket, Aave Custody, Aave Clearing, and Aave gaming.

Aave currently has a market capitalization of $2.33B.

Friends with Benefits (FWB) is an ecosystem that serves as a meeting point for cultural creators and maintainers who use the tools of Web3 to build community and promote creative agency. With the $FWB token, members can collectively own and govern activities of the community, while sharing the value they create together.

FWB DAO is a community of artists, thinkers, creators, and all those championing the web3 era. The ecosystem serves as a bridge between artists and creators, as well as the technology that drives tractions and promotes collective mission. This is a community where crypto intersects with culture.

Curve (CRV) is a decentralized exchange and automated market maker protocol. It is an Ethereum token that powers Curve.fi.

Curve DAO uses Automated Market Maker (AMM) for managing liquidity. It is designed to make it easy to swap between ERC-20 tokens, such as stablecoins and Ethereum-based Bitcoin tokens. In order to minimize impermanent loss, most of the protocol's liquidity pools are made up of similar assets, in order to minimize permanent loss.

The Curve token can be locked for various periods of time (up to 4 years) in order to vote on governance and claim protocol fees as a reward.

The Curve has a market cap of $1.60B.

The Compound is an Ethereum token that enables community governance of the Compound protocol. It gives room for users to deposit cryptocurrency into lending pools that are then made available to borrowers. Lenders then earn interest on the assets they deposit.

When the lender deposits his digital asset, a new cryptocurrency called the cToken is awarded to the lender. The interest is generated automatically depending on the lending period.

The Compound has a market capitalization of $1.21B

BitDAO is one of the largest DAOs in the world today. Their vision is to provide members with open finance and a decentralized tokenized economy.

The protocol is governed by $BIT token holders. BitDAO currently has a treasury balance of over $2 billion, with $BIT tokens leading the chart with over $1 billion, followed by Ethereum at slightly over $628 million.

The project is supported by Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Pantera, Bybit, and Dragonfly. Bybit, a leading crypto exchange pledged to contribute 2.5 bps (0.025%) of futures trading volume to the BitDAO treasury. This is more than $1 billion per year.

PleasrDAO also deserves its mention on this list. It is a blockchain-aligned group of crypto investors coming together to buy high-priced non-fungible tokens (NFTs). PleasrDAO is dubbed the art collecting empire. The community members collectively buy and fund culturally important art pieces, then make great fundamental addition to the piece before sharing back with the community.

The project started when a tweet asked if anyone is interested in creating a DAO to bid on a genesis piece, Uniswap V3 NFT. Since then, PleasrDAO has evolved in its mission and now collects digital arts that represent important and great ideas

BioDAO is a web3 solution for biotech funding. It is committed to building a biotech economy united by cryptoeconomics. The ecosystem is created for the community to support and fund early-stage biotech startups, researches, and innovations.

BioDAO will support real-world biotech assets built by DAO-funded projects. Members of the BioDAO community will make all the important strategic and operational decisions.

The Decentraland DAO owns most of the top smart contracts and assets that comprise Decentraland (the Land, Estates Contract, Wearables, Content Servers, and the Marketplace).

Decentraland DAO also owns a huge purse of MANA, and this enables the community to be completely autonomous and subsidize different operations and activities within Decentrland.

The Decentraland DAO community will decide on which LAND auctions, whitelisting of NFT contracts, and policy updates are to be allowed inside the World.

With the Decentraland's MANA coin having a market capitalization of over $5 billion, the Decentraland DAO deserves its place on this list.

The rising number of DAO projects in the last few years is an indication that the world is gradually moving to an era where everyone is the CEO. Businesses will have no hierarchy, and community members will have an equal stake in projects unlike what we are seeing today. It is still quite a long way to go, but the future is currently in sight.

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P.S. Check out my previous articles at HackerNoon:

• Understanding DAO: A Basic Explanation
• Understanding Metaverse: A Basic Explanation
• Play2Earn for Beginners: Where to Start
• What is an IGO (Initial Game Offering)?
• Play 2 Earn: A New Trend on the Crypto Market
• The Ultimate Guide to NFT Marketing and Promotion
• The Ultimate Checklist For Marketing DeFi Projects