A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is an entity operated by rules encoded as a computer program, termed smart contract, that is transparent, controlled by shareholders and not influenced by a central government. All DAO’s financial transaction records and program rules are maintained on a blockchain.
The DAO Project is just such a Decentralized Autonomous Organization and was meant to operate like a venture capital fund for the crypto and decentralized space. The project was launched in May 2016 and its smart contract
Source: https://medium.com/@zhongqiangc/smart-contract-reentrancy-thedao-f2da1d25180c