The average person can’t afford to buy a yacht. But if thousands of people pool their resources? Suddenly the barrier to entry is lowered. And then they can start calling the shots: Who captains the crew, how much the team should get paid, which sponsors to use, which nation’s flag (if any) should unfurl from the boat and how to upgrade and tweak the yacht. The DAO could pick the sponsorships. “Do you want, for example, Philip Morris on the boat? You might not, and you can have a say in that,” said Chris Ghent, global head of brand strategy and partnerships at the Near Foundation.
