Kriptoks

Constitution DAO (PEOPLE) was an ambitious project that aimed to purchase a copy of the U.S. Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction using a decentralized autonomous organization. In November 2021, a group of web3-enthusiasts came together to form Constitution DAO with the shared objective of buying one of the 13 original physical copies of the U.S. Constitution. The auction sparked a competitive bidding battle, with the group raising well over $40 million in ETH. However, they were ultimately outbid by billionaire hedge fund manager and CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin.

Following their unsuccessful attempt, Constitution DAO announced that it would dissolve, and all donations were refunded. The DAO did not have a single source of origin, but it can be seen as an evolution of grassroots fundraising movements that have led to the rise of meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. The DAO raised over $47 million from more than 17,000 donors in just a few days, with a median donation size of $206. Key contributors to the DAO were Brian Wagner and Liminal Warmth.

Constitution DAO was unique in its attempt to challenge establishment symbols with the help of cryptocurrencies, relying on a mix of Nicolas Cage memes and the crypto-specific (x,x) meme first popularized by Olympus (OHM). The attempt quickly went viral on Crypto Twitter, and the DAO's Discord server grew several thousand people strong within hours, reaching 20,000 members in just over a week. The DAO used Juicebox to receive donations in Ether and collected a sum north of $47 million, which would have easily been enough to win the auction had it not been for the auction house fees and storage costs for the document that were not accounted for by the DAO.

Constitution DAO demonstrated the power of internet-based grassroots movements to take on establishment symbols, similar to what happened with GameStop. Despite ultimately falling short, Constitution DAO proved to be a significant experiment in the DeFi space, and it will undoubtedly inspire future decentralized autonomous organizations to pursue similarly ambitious goals.