###### tags: `lexClinic` `active product`

# Help clients pick a DAO platform between KaliDAO, Aragon and DAOhaus summon

The following comparison matrix is continously updated to help educate LexDAO clients on the high level differentiation between the DAO formation and governance frameworks. However it is not an exhausitve resource. It should not be considered as legal or financial advise.

| | Kali DAO | Aragon | DAOhaus |
| -------- | -------- | -------- | -------- |
| __Benefits__ | | | |
| Legal Entity | Yes* | No^ | No^^^^ |
| Legal Consulting | Yes** | No^^ | No |
| Cost Optimized | Yes | | |
| L2 EVM Support | Yes | Yes^^^ | Yes |
| On-chain Governance | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Modular Architecture | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IP Ownership | Yes*** | | |
| __Risks__ | | | |
| Personal Liability**** | | Yes | Yes |
| Personal Income Tax***** | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unregistred Securities****** | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| __Features__ | | | |
| Moloch Governance | Yes | Plugins^^^^^ | Yes |
| Treasury | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social Clubs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Investment Funds | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| For-profit Companies | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Non-profit Orgs | Yes | Yes | Yes |

>[name=cimply: there are considerations related to legal wrappers and pierced veils that would be important to caveat somewhere in this document; in some ways the "instant legal entity" seems a bit misleading from a protections and compliance perspective especially as it relates to in-state vs. national jurisdictional protections. Also related to conduct. (Just a thought worth considering)]
\* - Instant legal entity available as an option at DAO formation for less than $5 on L2 EVMs (Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon). Default legal entity is minted as a Delaware subseries LLC under [Kali Co Series Master LLC](https://mirror.xyz/kalico.eth/PjwUyaJsHZIvJ3RfSMghcw_FS1ohrrQuXmD9XI5GJtk). Menu of other options in various jurisdictions available. Custom legal entity formation available via Lex DAO Clinic.

\** - Legal, tax and securities consulting services are available via partnership with Lex DAO Clinic.
\** - Having a legal wrapper allows DAO to own licensing, trademark and intellectual property rights.
\**** - DAO structures that operate on chain with economic assets but without a legal wrapper have non-zero direct liability exposure for all and any participating members.
\***** - DAO structures without a legal wrapper or a disregardet entity wrapper such as LLC that receive payments in their treasury have pass through personal income tax to each member with claim on the DAO treasury capital.
\****** - Transferable DAO governance tokens with claim on DAO owned capital have a high risk of triggering SEC securities regulations.
\^ - working with Otoco is recommended for attaching a legal entity
\^^ - we have a channel in discord for LexDAO ;)
\^^^ - Polygon, Harmony and Metis have been tested
\^^^^ - Smart contracts can be called into the DAO setup OS. Not by default.
\^^^^^ - There are several governance models available, weighted, delegated, and conviction voting products among others have been released

General guidance on the initial risk assessment of DAO in terms of ML/TF prevention - https://hackmd.io/@lex-dao/SJUUtBJWs

**Key AML Risk Factors and how to mitigate them**

**Geographical Risk** - avoid business relations if the person or transaction has a known connection with the following countries or territories:
• countries identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) or the European Union that do not have adequate measures in place to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing;
• countries with reliable data on terrorist support or high levels of corruption;
An up-to-date list of countries is available at http://www.fatf-gafi.org/countries/#high-risk

**Customer Risk** - avoid business relations if the person:
• is included in the OFAC SDN list, or UN/EU list of persons subject to international financial sanctions
• is previously suspected of being involved in money laundering or terrorist financing.

**Transaction risk** - avoid transactions if the person:
• requests a transaction that does not have a reasonable business, economic, tax or legal purpose;
• the establishment of a business relationship takes place in unusual circumstances, including in the case of complex and unusually large transactions that do not have a reasonable and clear economic purpose;
• the person's appearance and behaviour are not in accordance with the nature of the transaction performed by the person, including the person's inability to describe his or her potential cooperation partners and goals;

**Risk related to the communication or intermediation channels or the transmission channels of products, services or transactions** - avoid business relations if a person utilizes wallets, tokens and/or protocols for which there are public information available or reasonable grounds to suspect their direct or indirect involvement with online fraud, money laundering or terrorist financing.

## Other resources

- [DAO Legal Entity Matrix | Paradigm VC, 2022](https://daos.paradigm.xyz/)
- [Legal Wrappers and DAOs | Rodrigo Seira,
Paradigm, 2022 ](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4123737)
- [How to choose a legal wrapper for your DAO | Aragon](https://aragon.org/how-to/choose-a-legal-wrapper-for-your-dao)
- [How to pick a DAO legal entity | Miles Jennings and David Kerr, a16z Crypto, 2022](https://a16zcrypto.com/dao-legal-entity-how-to-pick/)
- [DAO Entity Features & Entity Selection | Miles Jennings and David Kerr, a16z Crypto, 2022](https://a16z.com/2022/05/23/dao-legal-frameworks-entity-features-selection/)
- [List of DAO Creation Tools, github repo](https://github.com/boilerrat/awesome-decentralized-autonomous-organizations#dao-creation)
- [Research Summary: A Comparative Analysis of the Platforms for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations in the Ethereum Blockchain | Smart Contract Research Forum, Nov 2021](https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/t/research-summary-a-comparative-analysis-of-the-platforms-for-decentralized-autonomous-organizations-in-the-ethereum-blockchain/955)
- [Moloch Governance v3, 2022](https://decrypt.co/93196/dao-framework-builder-moloch-launches-v3-at-ethdenver)