Alternatives how to get and maintain a DAO
Overview
SNSs are protocol-provided DAOs on the Internet Computer. There are of course also other alternatives to getting a DAO.
These possibilities allow communities to choose between using DAOs that are provided as a service by ICP, where maintenance is as automated as possible, and DAOs that have full flexibility of how they can evolve.
Self-deploy the SNS code
A developer or a community can choose to self-deploy a DAO by reusing the publicly available open source code. They can deploy this code on a normal application subnet and manually upgrade it. They can then choose to follow the same SNS versions than protocol-provided SNSs follow or they can choose to deviate from this path. In this option, the DAO community has to be more active in implementing, testing and approving code versions. In exchange, they have more flexibility. One advantage of the protocol-provided SNSs over this option is that the verification of the code is easier as all SNSs on the SNS subnet run the same canister versions that are verified by the NNS community.
Build your own DAO / use other DAO frameworks
While this is conceptually similar to the above option, it is important to emphasize that there are of course other designs than what the SNS code implements that also realize a DAO. For most of these, the implications for the communities will be similar: The DAO communities will have to maintain the DAO versions or trust a third party to do so.