Crypto

Where ConstitutionDAO Failed, Another Hopeful Wins at Sotheby’s

It seemed like the intersection of cryptocurrency and collectibles couldn’t get any more confusing until it did, with an aspiring developer of a decentralized autonomous organization saying the group won the bidding for a historical document just days after another came up short at an auction of a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Ameer Suhayb Carter said on Twitter on Wednesday that a “research” DAO fund he heads called Abolition in Progress won the bidding for the Declaration of the Anti-Slavery Convention, a founding document of the American abolitionist movement that was issued in 1833 at the first meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. The lot, which had an initial estimate of $3,000 to $5,000, according to Sotheby’s, sold for $21,420. The auction house declined to comment on the winning bid.

The problem is that Abolition in Progress is not yet a DAO, which is basically a crowdfunding entity that exists on a blockchain, the computer ledger-like networks that underpin cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Carter won at auction as an individual and he says, as a representative, using funds informally pooled together through friends and like-minded crypto enthusiasts. The Philadelphia resident told Bloomberg that he got the idea after hearing about the ConstitutionDAO’s failed attempt to buy the copy of the framework of the U.S. government.

In a DAO, every holder of a DAO token theoretically has an equal say, unlike say a board of directors. Still, the emerging entities raise just as many questions as they do options. The ConstitutionDAO is in the process of being dissolved after issues with refunds to contributors, including high fees for blockchain transactions and questions around what the DAO would do next in the wake of the loss.