While previously a nascent theoretical construct, decentralized autonomous organizations have grown rapidly in recent years. DAOs typically emerge around the management of decentralized financial applications and thus benefit from the rapid growth of innovation in this sector. In response, global regulators increasingly voice the intent to regulate these activities. This may impose an excessive compliance burden on DAOs, unless they are deemed sufficiently decentralized to be regulated. Yet, decentralization is an abstract concept with scarce legal precedence. We investigate dimensions of decentralization through thematic analysis, combining extant literature with a series of expert interviews. We propose a definition of 'sufficient decentralization' and present a general framework for the assessment of decentralization. We derive five dimensions for the assessment of decentralization in DAOs: Token-weighted voting, Infrastructure, Governance, Escalation and Reputation. We present a discretionary sample application of the framework and five propositions on the future regulation and supervision of DAOs. We contribute new practical insights on the topic of compliance and decentralized organizations to the growing discourse on the application of blockchain technology in information systems and management disciplines

翻译：尽管去中心化自治组织（DAO）此前仅为一种初创的理论构想，但近年来已迅速发展壮大。DAO通常围绕去中心化金融应用的管理而兴起，并因此受益于该领域快速创新的增长。作为回应，全球监管机构日益频繁地表达了对这些活动进行监管的意图。除非DAO被认为足够去中心化而免于监管，否则这可能对其施加过重的合规负担。然而，去中心化是一个抽象概念，且缺乏成熟的法律判例支持。我们通过主题分析法，结合现有文献与一系列专家访谈，探究去中心化的维度。我们提出了“充分去中心化”的定义，并构建了一个评估去中心化的通用框架。我们归纳出评估DAO去中心化的五个维度：代币加权投票、基础设施、治理、升级机制与声誉。我们演示了该框架的裁量性样本应用，并提出了关于DAO未来监管与监督的五个命题。我们为合规性与去中心化组织这一主题提供了新的实践见解，助力区块链技术在信息系统与管理学科应用领域的日益增长的学术讨论。