The decentralized autonomous organization ConstitutionDAO is planning to refund the money it raised and shut down after losing to billionaire Ken Griffin in an auction for a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
The group had been considering its options, but continuing on without the “unifying mission” of trying to buy the copy of the Constitution -- which would involve setting up more official governance, and trying to go in a new direction -- isn’t feasible, according to a statement posted on Twitter.
“We have determined that building and maintaining an ongoing project is not something that we as a core team are able to support, given the technical and administrative requirements of doing it properly,” a notice on the website said. “Given this, we believe this project has run its course.”
The effort had brought new attention to the phenomenon of DAOs, and raised about $50 million from thousands of investors.
ConstitutionDAO had promised a governance token with which they could have voted on where the Constitution would be displayed.
Now the DAO will need to return the funds to users, minus fees for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, which could see many smaller investors lose more than half their money.
There’s no time limit on claiming the refunds, according to the website. The ConstitutionDAO team declined to comment further when reached by email.
| Read more: |
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| Crypto Crowdfunding Goes Mainstream With ConstitutionDAO Bid |
| Beaten by Ken Griffin, ConstitutionDAO Is Sitting on $50 Million |
| Ken Griffin Outbid Crypto Group for Copy of U.S. Constitution |
— With assistance by Olga Kharif
