ConstitutionDAO Did Not Win the Auction. But It Demonstrated the Power of DAOs

Will Papper, SyndicateDAO co-founder and ConstitutionDAO contributor, tells the story of how a group of internet friends came together as a DAO to crowdfund a $41 million bid at a Sotheby’s auction for a physical copy of the US Constitution. Show highlights:

• how Will and other ConstitutionDAO members feel after losing the auction
• the significance of ConstitutionDAO despite its loss
• whether Will knows who the other bidder was
• why museums began reaching out to ConstitutionDAO and seem to be excited about DAOs moving forward
• why there was so much confusion over who was the bidder for the DAO and whether it had won
• why ConstitutionDAO did not bid more than $41 million — even though the crowdfund was at nearly $50 million
• why ConstitutionDAO did not have a crypto-whale help keep the bidding war going
• how ConstitutionDAO plans to refund participants
• what Will thinks about using a layer 2 solution to refund ETH for ConstitutionDAO donations
• how the idea for ConstitutionDAO came about
• what role Will had in the formation of ConstitutionDAO
• what lessons can be learned from ConstitutionDAO
• what’s next for DAOs in general

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Episode Links

Will Papper

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WillPapper
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wpapper 

ConstitutionDAO

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConstitutionDAO 
• Website: https://www.constitutiondao.com/ 
• Contribution page: https://juicebox.money/#/p/constitutiondao 

Sotheby’s Auction

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TBa-9Lx3vc 

ConstitutionDAO’s Statement After Losing Auction

• ​​https://twitter.com/ConstitutionDAO/status/1461527516670316544 
• https://twitter.com/ConstitutionDAO/status/1461498841820192771 

Press

• Not Boring: https://www.notboring.co/p/lets-buy-the-us-constitution 
• Stratechery: https://stratechery.com/2021/constitutiondao-the-need-for-trust-memes-and-reality/ 
• New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/business/crypto-constitution-sothebys.html?smid=tw-share
• Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-investors-want-to-buy-rare-copy-of-u-s-constitution-at-sothebys-auction-11637071590 
• The Defiant: https://thedefiant.io/dao-constitution-4m/
• CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2021/11/15/i-think-were-doing-this-inside-one-daos-20m-plot-to-purchase-the-us-constitution/ 
• William Lobkowicz tweet thread: https://twitter.com/WRLobkowicz/status/1461401142953402371