The Scale of the Problem
If you’re part of a DAO, you already know the numbers are big. Treasuries collectively hold billions of dollars, and every year hundreds of millions flow out on audits, grants, marketing, and tooling.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: a lot of that money gets wasted. We’ve all seen it happen. A proposal looks solid, the community approves it, and later everyone realizes the cost was inflated or the delivery didn’t match the pitch.
Why does this keep happening?
In many cases, it starts with how DAOs handle request for proposals (RFPs) - or don’t. Too often, vendors are picked based on familiarity or persuasion instead of a structured process. And when DAOs do run RFPs, they’re usually held out in open on the forum, letting every vendor see the others’ bids. That kills real competition!
- Vendors see a high bid and push their prices up instead of competing down
- Vendors copy one another rather than bringing fresh ideas
- Insiders give quiet tips to their preferred vendors after seeing others’ proposals
- Some vendors skip submitting altogether because they feel the competition is stacked against them
The result? DAOs overspend. Quality suffers. Communities start questioning whether treasury decisions are really fair.
The Fix: Sealed-Bid RFPs
There’s a simple solution: remove visibility until it matters.
With sealed-bid RFPs, proposals stay private until the deadline closes. Only then are they revealed - side by side - for the community to judge. That single change restores fair competition.
The concept is pretty simple and it's used widely in corporations and government organizations globally. Why can't DAOs do the same?
And this is where Shutter comes in. Shutter’s Sealed-bid RFP platform is a proof of concept that makes this process possible on-chain.
See it in action:
✨ Fun fact: Shutter uses commit–reveal threshold encryption to keep proposals fully hidden during the bidding phase. Nobody can see them early - not vendors, not DAO admin, not DAO members. At the deadline, everything is revealed at once.
🤖 Future AI Support: In the future, you'll be able to tell your AI to set up a sealed-bid RFP for your DAO. See the testnet alpha demo of Shutter MCP.
Run Your DAO's First Sealed-Bid RFP
DAO governance is maturing. Procurement and vendor selection needs to catch up. Sealed-bid RFPs are the next step, making it simple to:
- Push vendors to put their best offer on the table from the start
- Reduce copycats and encourage higher-quality proposals
- Attract more bidders with a fair process
- Rebuild community trust in how money is spent
Bottom line: sealed-bid RFPs should be the new default for DAOs that want to spend smarter.
👉 Shutter Sealed-bid RFP is still in development - but you don’t have to wait. Book a meeting with us and we'll set up your DAO's first sealed-bid RFP.
