Can you imagine that a new project fundraised more than 40 million USD from retail investors in a short span of only 3 days?
Well, ConstitutionDAO did it. Their fundraising is now considered an amazing experiment highlighting the power of DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) - a form of organization without physical demarcations and authority but with purpose and value.
Some Background
ConstitutionDAO has no company behind it and was initiated by crypto lovers. They sought to bid for the last printed version of the U.S. Constitution (First Edition) in a recently-held Sotheby’s auction. The print was previously privately-owned and a successful bid from ConstitutionDAO would share its ownership among the entire community.
This idea sounded (truthfully) crazy but was supported by many crypto enthusiasts. Successful donors contributed ETH and received PEOPLE, the governance token, in return (1 ETH = 1 million PEOPLE).
So… Do The People Own The Constitution Now?
Unfortunately, ConstitutionDAO was outbid at the auction by a hedge fund billionaire. With this, ConstitutionDao has started to refund donors (no stated deadline). There are two options for refund:
- Claim: Claiming will deposit unclaimed $PEOPLE token into donors’ wallets.
- Redeem: Redeeming will burn their claimed/unclaimed $PEOPLE tokens in exchange for ETH at a 1 ETH:1,000,000 $PEOPLE ratio. In their own words, redeeming would "exchange $PEOPLE for its original value (minus gas fees) at contribution".
When participants decide to redeem, their equivalent PEOPLE will be burnt. As there is no additional supply, burning will cause deflation which has a positive effect on token price.
The team behind ConstitutionDAO has also since decided to dissolve. This means that PEOPLE is no longer a governance token. That said, PEOPLE still exists and is wholly owned by the community. The price of PEOPLE is currently around 10 times higher than its price back then. You can trade PEOPLE on major exchanges like Binance, Gate.io and UniSwap.
Did They Seriously Raise $40 Million?
The original fundraising goal was set at around 20 million USD but ConstitutionDAO raised 40 million USD, a 2x increase. There were several factors driving its popularity:
- Through DAO, if ConstitutionDAO managed to bid for the printed version successfully, the first edition of the U.S. constitution can be owned by the collective - people who want to protect and respect it and not just one individual.
- This was a chance to show others the power of crypto. Raising a significant amount above the original goal in three days brought crypto into the public's attention again. Not only financial practitioners were interested, but players from other industries were too (museum curators, art directors etc).
- As mentioned, this was a community experiment to prove the power of Web 3.0 in achieving a seemingly insurmountable goal. Participating in a premier auction that commands exorbitant bid prices would have been out of reach if crypto and its community hadn’t been involved.
The Meaning Behind $PEOPLE
Many users have been redeeming PEOPLE but choosing not to trade it on the market despite the token price rising at least 5 times higher once the refund was announced. This may be because some holders are not crypto traders and were simply attracted to ConstitutionDAO’s purpose. Thus, PEOPLE was their first foray into crypto and DAO.
At this point, while PEOPLE can only be claimed, redeemed or traded, on-chain data may help reap potential benefits. Who’s to say that another team wouldn’t create a forked DAO in the future and reward all PEOPLE holders? In crypto, anything is possible.
$PEOPLE is no longer just a cryptocurrency but also a positive representation of DAO. ConstitutionDAO’s experiment showed that ordinary people with the same ideas can gather together and jointly create a decentralized community working towards common interests. There will no doubt be more DAOs in the future, but $PEOPLE is the first to truly bring this concept into reality.
This article was written by request of the ApolloX community. Thank you for voting in the poll!
The views expressed in this article are the author's alone and do not necessarily represent the views of ApolloX.
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