Constitution DAO bids for the people
A new DAO has sprung up to purchase a private first-print copy of the US Constitution.
In a seminal moment in crypto, a DAO is bidding to buy the Constitution of America. ConstitutionDAO's mission to win the auction and keep a copy in the public sphere is actually achieving "for the people '' with decentralized technology.
A quick rundown.
A symbolic gesture towards decentralization
Web 3 has created structures that allow people to self-govern with autonomy & freedom. The same tool is now being used to make a phenomenal piece of history part of the public domain. ConstitutionDAO began less than a week ago but has quickly raised over $45 million till now.
Group bids for pricey collectibles aren’t new. Many DAOs have coincided with the rise of digital art & metaverse. Recently, @PleasrDAO bought a WuTang album at a government auction & a $5 million charity NFT from noted CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
PleasrDAO distributes the ownership of the DAO in the form of tokens. That gives every member a fraction of its assets, in the above-mentioned scenario, the two NFTs & any funds in the treasury. Each member participates in the DAO’s governance through a group chat.
Collective Ownership
Constitution DAO is a fresh arrival. It is remarkable how this experiment by thousands of crypto fans who've pooled their money has gained so quickly. It is currently well over the price at which the document is valued. Sotheby’s is set to auction the copy on Nov 18, 6:30 pm EST.
https://www.constitutiondao.com/
This hastily organized crypto-collective is gaining a massive following too. It has already attracted over 16,000 contributors with more people who are not crypto-native joining it. The idea that something so invaluable is coming to the public domain is feeding into their popularity.
How to get in?
You can join the pool & pay from many wallet options like metamask, coinbase etc. Paying ConstitutionDAO will not be considered an investment, it's just a way to support the project. Any value or utility of the tokens received is determined by the DAO.
https://juicebox.money/#/p/constitutiondao
Power to the $PEOPLE
Their current plan is to issue a governance token called $PEOPLE that enables holders to vote on decisions concerning the preservation & display of the document. $PEOPLE is currently being distributed at a rate of 1M $PEOPLE for each $ETH contributed, but as of yet is not being traded.
The project has repeatedly mentioned that this isn’t an investment. It should be clear to people participating that they are not owning a fraction of the Constitution, rather a token that gives a say in governance.
The contributions to the DAO started from whales for the most part but as the participation from people has increased it seems pretty widely & diversely distributed. The top contribution is 1000 ETH which is valued at more than $4M.
A lot of people who've joined it are new to DAOs or the entire crypto space. This is very significant in terms of crypto adoption & ConstitutionDAO’s efforts are succeeding in educating the broader public on web3 values.
Conclusion
Internet collectives focused on making shared purchases & distributing the value from them are becoming a bigger part of our landscape going forward. It is astounding how it is now being used to make a collective purchase that would otherwise be impossible save for only the wealthiest individuals.
Endnote
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