ConstitutionDAO, a ‘red crypto alert’ and other cases of crypto-fueled social action in 2021

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Since the very beginning of the cryptocurrency movement, the societal potential of Bitcoin (BTC) has been one of the fundamental selling points. The decentralized design of crypto-based systems introduces the possibility of bringing individuals together to work towards common goals, as well as allowing them to pool resources while remaining isolated from outside control. 2021 has seen many cases that could serve as proof of this emancipating power of digital assets.

ConstitutionDAO: $ 49 million raised in a few days

Arguably the most high-profile case of a massive fundraising effort enabled by a decentralized autonomous organization in 2021 was ConstitutionDAO. The group was formed in November for the sole purpose of purchasing an original copy of the United States Constitution, which was on auction at Sotheby’s.

The DAO came very close to its objective. The artifact was sold for an offer of $ 43.2 million, and although the DAO managed to raise around $ 47 million in Ether (ETH), its offer was ultimately limited by Sotheby’s to $ 43 million. to account for the taxes and costs necessary to protect, secure and move the Constitution. After the auction, the DAO offered a full refund to everyone who donated. Those who did not receive a refund kept the PEOPLE governance tokens they received in exchange for their contribution.

As a statement from ConstitutionDAO said, “While not the outcome we hoped for, we still made history tonight. It’s hard to argue with that, as it only took a week to pool money from 17,437 backers.

BlockbusterDAO: strengthening decentralized streaming

In December 2021, the founders of BlockbusterDAO announced that they had formed a new, decentralized, autonomous organization with the goal of purchasing Blockbuster – an American brand that originally operated as a video rental company. At its peak, Blockbuster had 6,000 stores worldwide and was valued at over $ 8 billion. It closed almost all of its operations in 2014 and currently operates only one store in Oregon. Strictly speaking, this initiative is not expected to fully materialize before 2022.

The DAO explained in a tweet that it plans to mobilize a local effort to buy Blockbuster by raising at least $ 5 million through a non-fungible token strike (NFT) event, with each NFT valued at 0.13 ETH. BlockbusterDAO plans to turn Blockbuster into a decentralized movie streaming studio. There are currently more than 20,000 internet users engaged in the project on Twitter and Discord.

Fortune Journalism PleasrFund: Supporting Journalistic Integrity

In September 2021, US business magazine Fortune, alongside artist NFT Pplpleasr, launched a decentralized giving fund, the proceeds of which go to independent journalists and programs that promote journalistic integrity.

The Fortune Journalism PleasrFund was launched on the Ethereum blockchain through Endaoment, a charitable DAO. It has allocated 214.55 ETH, worth approximately $ 680,000 at the time of writing, which is half of the proceeds from the sale of a limited edition Pplpleasr NFT that had been ordered by Fortune.

The first four beneficiaries of the fund are Report for America / The GroundTruth Project, the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. Each organization received an initial distribution of approximately $ 165,000 from Fortune and Pplpleasr.

The battle for the infrastructure bill

Sometimes the lost battle makes history of the won war. Hopefully, this is how we will remember the fierce resistance the crypto community has mounted against last-minute crypto-related additions to the $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Interestingly enough, the new tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrency brokers were an integral part of the bipartisan deal that made the ambitious federal spending plan possible – with some estimates suggesting this new tax base would help the Internal. Revenue Service to increase federal revenues by approximately $ 28 billion. more than 10 years.

In response, Fight for the Future, a tech advocacy group, launched a counter-initiative urging U.S. voters to call on their representatives to oppose the bill’s crypto provisions, which it called ” red crypto alert “. Senate offices were inundated with phone calls, and the list of influential people who vocally opposed the proposed measures included Jack Dorsey, who runs Twitter and Block (formerly Square), and Brian Brooks, the former Acting Comptroller. of the change that is now in Bitfury.

The decline led to a standoff of several days in the legislature. And despite the fact that the infrastructure bill was eventually passed and signed without any change in its cryptocurrency-related language, the uproar the crypto community has been able to spark demonstrates its growing lobbying power.

As Mick Mulvaney, who served as former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, put it:

What I think you are seeing is the maturation of the industry – you see the crypto folks now understanding how Washington can influence their world and Washington learning a bit more about the technology. What is the next step ?

Of course, the aforementioned examples barely exhaust all of the crypto-based social and political initiatives we’ve seen in 2021. On the one hand, there were plenty of examples of philanthropy, such as the NFT Trippy Bunny project donating all proceeds from its mint sales to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the American Cancer Society’s Crypto Cancer Fund, launched in January 2021. These examples represent one more area where crypto can make a difference.

In 2021, it became clear that the potential for decentralized autonomous organizations and crypto-based political action is truly enormous. But we’re just getting started, and there’s plenty of reason to believe this trend will only get stronger in 2022.

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