| The PeopleDAO is not a DAO, even though they claim themselves to be a DAO, because a DAO can't own title to property, and therefore can't own Ethereum that can be robbed. The PeopleDAO is a well-meaning club, not a DAO, that has a confusing and misleading name that owns title to property that is centralized, and therefore that property can be seized, and that property was seized. An example of an actual DAO was last year's Genesis fractal experimental apparatus (links below). The PeopleDAO used an old-school spreadsheet accounting system (i.e. a Google spreadsheet), and there is nothing wrong with that. The Genesis fractal also used an old-school spreadsheet accounting system. The same type of "theft" could have also happened to the Genesis fractal, i.e. stealing a password and editing an accounting spreadsheet. However, there was no Genesis property to steal. The Genesis fractal only had pure information stored in their spreadsheets and not title to property. The "theft error" would have been discovered eventually, just like the PeopleDAO discovered their "theft", but the Genesis fractal would simply need to re-edit their spreadsheet and not pursue the thief for the return of any property. This is a fundamental principle and feature of a DAO. The PeopleDAO's fatal flaw was not understanding the principles of a DAO, meaning they did not understand the concept of decentralization and title to property. The "PeopleDAO theft" is a wonderful case study for the benefits of a DAO and for the need for educational fractals like Genesis. Dan Larimer invented the concept of Decentralized Autonomous Organization and the word DAO, but it is poorly understood which is why we see heartbreaking theft stories like "the PeopleDAO theft" and the catastrophe surrounding Ethereum's "The DAO" (which was also not a DAO and suffered a similar fate as PeopleDAO). Ethereum's "The DAO" was a smart contract deployed to a "real" blockchain (i.e. it did not use a Google spreadsheet for accounting) but it still fell victim to an entirely predictable fate just like PeopleDAO - it held title to property. The acid test of whether something is a DAO is determining whether the organization holds title to property. If the organization holds title to property, then it is not a DAO. There are many ways for an organization to use real property involving title (e.g. domain names, physical equipment like servers, land and equipment and anything other tangible, etc.) If you know someone in the PeopleDAO, it would be well worth their while to read the following blog posts from Team fractally and to reach out to anyone on the Genesis fractal's leader board: "What is a DAO?", February 20, 2022
https://fractally.com/blog/what-is-a-dao "What is the Legal Standing of a DAO?", June 28, 2022
https://fractally.com/blog/what-is-the-legal-standing-of-a-d... "Genesis Fractal Dashboard"
https://share.streamlit.io/matt-langston/fractal_governance/... |