The ConstitutionDAO team have revealed plans to shut down the group after failing to win the auction for a rare copy of the US Constitution at the auction house Sotheby’s.
The group considered several options for the best path forward while spreading confusion and anger among supporters. After much consideration, the group has concluded that it is best to stick to the original plan in case they lost the bid, which was to refund contributors. According to a statement made on their website, “we believe this project has run its course.”
The website went on to explain, “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.”
Formed to own the US constitution
ConstitutionDAO was organized as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The group was formed to gather funds in an effort to bid on a first-edition print of the US Constitution.
The group raised over USD 47m worth of ethereum (ETH) in less than a week but was outbid by hedge fund manager and Citadel LLC CEO Ken Griffin. However, after losing in the auction, things started to go south for the ConstitutionDAO.
At first, contributors were given access to a “governance token” dubbed PEOPLE at a rate of 1m tokens per ETH 1 donated. If the group had won, the tokens would have dictated governance among those who contributed to the fund, enabling them to vote on decisions concerning the upkeep of the document.
However, when the DAO lost the bid, group admins announced that they were planning to move away from the PEOPLE token and start a new token called “We the People” (WTP). “We did not acquire the constitution and PEOPLE’s explicit reason for existing has now run its course,” explained a core DAO contributor.
After the announcement, there was a huge sell-off which resulted in the PEOPLE token falling to near zero. This anger and confusion spread among the community, who argued that the team was not fully explaining the actions that they were taking.
As a result, the DAO decided to “return to the original plan” and proceed with refunding.
