Crypto nerds try to buy the US Constitution

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The following sentence may sound like the connecting line of a still unfinished National Treasure 3, but it is very real: A large group of maximalist crypto are coming together in an effort to get the true US constitution.

Unlike antagonists from previous Nicolas Cage films, this crew might actually be successful. Or sort of, anyway.

On Thursday, November 18, Sotheby’s is auctioning an “exceptionally rare and extraordinarily historic” first edition of the American Constitution. Only thirteen copies remain, in addition to the one located at the National Archives Museum in Washington DC, of ​​the original print of 500 that the founders released for submission to the Continental Congress. This is the first time in 30 years that it has become available for purchase, following the death in 1997 of its last winner, New York real estate developer S. Howard Goldman. He’s expected to make between $ 15 million and $ 20 million in the auction, unless, of course, he gets the Ethereum equivalent back.

We are live ! ⚡️

Together, we will win the auction at @Sothebys and become co-owners of the US Constitution. ????

Put this important historical artifact in the hands of the people! ????

Contribute: https://t.co/06tMPvIGGa Follow: @ConstitutionDAO

wagbtc !! web3 is amazing. ???? https://t.co/6lwsMrvYvJ

– weisser.eth (????, ????) (@julianweisser) November 15, 2021

No sooner did Sotheby’s announce the impending auction that a decentralized autonomous organization called ConstitutionDAO emerged, with a plan to pool funds to win the crown jewel. (Maybe they were fed up with trying to decide which dog-related cryptocurrency would be the wrong tree to bark.) Soon, screeds filled with scrolling emojis started appearing on Fintech Twitter, causing it to take awareness of the insanity going on. (Either way, Elon Musk hasn’t tweeted about this as of this writing.)

While the people involved here are normally supposed to be using an Ethereum smart contract to buy, say, Martin Shkreli’s confiscated Wu-Tang album, they have this time aimed higher. “We intend to put the Constitution in the hands of the people,” the ConstitutionDAO website read, a rather noble way of describing a collection of crypto nerds who are trolling America. Since a decentralized autonomous organization is a loose group of countless contributors, a winning bid would technically put the US Constitution in the hands of the “people.” Or at least “some people” anyway. Considering the DAO’s grand plan for what to do with the document, however, is to “find a safe place for it, like the Smithsonian,” it seems the functional difference between the crypto team and any other person winning the auction is negligible. As the saying goes, the medium is the message, and a win here will simply mean tons of crypto advertising.

Yet the allure of crypto advertising, with a sort of nebulous victory for libertarians, has already proven to be an irresistible combination for many.

“There is a sense of non-partisan American patriotism that I haven’t felt in a long time, and a sense of pride that web3 makes this possible,” technical analyst Packy McCormack wrote in a newsletter titled “Buy the US Constitution “.

Whether it’s really the patriotism he takes over or the extremely online thrill of doing something epic for the lulz, the enthusiasm for the company is indeed evident. According to the ConstitutionDAO website, the group has already raised more than $ 3 million in Ethereum so far. Now, if they just manage to collect around seven times that amount over the next three days, they can actually live the dream of accomplishing the same thing Nicolas Cage did in National Treasure, only by legal means and infinitely. more boring.

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