A DAO is raising funds in cryptocurrencies to buy a copy of the US Constitution that will be auctioned at Sotheby’s.
Summary
ConstitutionDAO: the fundraiser
The association goes by the name ConstitutionDAO and has started a fundraiser in Ethereum to raise the necessary funds to be able to participate in the auction. At the time of writing this article, around $3 million has been raised, over 620,000 ETH. The auction will take place on November 18.
The copy of the US Constitution
The DAO intends to grab one of the last copies of the original prints of the US Constitution. There are only 500 copies worldwide. The last time one was put up for auction was over 30 years ago.
The last purchaser of the copy that will be auctioned at Sotheby’s is Howard Goldman, who bought it from the auction house in 1988 and made it the highlight of his collection of historical books and American manuscripts.
The man died in 1997 and the valuable text has been in the care of his wife ever since.
It is now to be auctioned with an estimated value of $18-20 million.
Why the DAO wants a copy of the US Constitution
ConstitutionDAO wants to grab a copy of the Constitution so that it can be preserved and in a way put in the hands of the people, i.e. those who contributed to the fundraising.
The primary purpose will be to preserve and protect the copy. Then, as with all self-respecting DAOs, the community will decide the future of the copy and its governance. Of course, one element is missing for now: the governance token. Even though the DAO explained that whoever makes a bid acquires a piece of the constitution:
“You will own a piece of the Constitution based on how much you contribute, as well as the ability to vote for what direction future efforts take”.
The fundraiser was supposed to close on November 13, but the total amount raised is unlikely to be enough to win the auction. That is why the fundraiser will continue. For those who cannot contribute, spreading the word is just as important, the organizers wrote on Twitter.
What is a DAO
DAO is an acronym that stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. They have been created to organize the governance of a decentralized protocol. Operation is determined by smart contracts, which eliminates human intervention.
Decisions are made through proposals and those who are part of the DAO can vote, usually because they have a specific token.
In practice, it is an organization governed by the same community that is part of it. In the case of ConstitutionDAO, the people who participated in the fundraising are the ones who have to decide how to keep the precious copy of the US Constitution. Assuming they win the auction.
