BREAKDOWN: Did ConstitutionDAO Shift the Overton Window on What DAOs Can Accomplish?
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2021
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
More than 17,000 people raised over $40 million, but it wasn’t enough.
This episode is sponsored by NYDIG.
Last night the crypto community waited with bated breath to see who had won the first printing of the U.S. Constitution. Despite raising over $40 million from 17,000 people, the ConstitutionDAO was ultimately outbid. In this episode, NLW discusses how the DAO came together, how the bidding went down and how the community should feel about its near miss.
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Michele Musso & Adrian Blust, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Dark Crazed Cap” by Isaac Joel. Image credit: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. |
| 0:09.1 | It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big-picture power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:16.2 | The breakdown is sponsored by Nidig and produced and distributed by CoinDesk. |
| 0:22.8 | What's going on, guys? It is Friday, November 19th, and what a wild ride. |
| 0:29.6 | I'm actually recording this late on Thursday night, and I've just watched Constitution Dow |
| 0:36.2 | fall just short in their quest to buy the Constitution. Or at least |
| 0:43.4 | one of the first printed editions of the Constitution, a primary source document that was used |
| 0:50.2 | to help the Continental Congress and States ratify the longest running governing document in the world. |
| 0:57.6 | It is a gutshot, of course, for everyone who has become emotionally invested in this strange and crazy and wild attempt over the last week. |
| 1:08.1 | And, of course, those involved are trying to rationalize, to regroup, |
| 1:12.5 | to reimagine, to reclaim a win for the way that they've shifted, they believe, the Overton |
| 1:18.1 | window on Dow's. But let's try to be dispassionate and break down how we should actually look at |
| 1:24.6 | this. First, the background of the piece. |
| 1:34.4 | Sotheby's was auctioning off one of an original edition of about 500 printed copies of the Constitution. |
| 1:38.3 | They were printed in mid-September 1787. |
| 1:43.0 | The Constitutional Convention had been ongoing for about four months at that point, |
| 1:45.2 | trying to strengthen the original Articles of Confederation that had come after the Declaration of Independence. |
| 1:50.0 | This printed copy was meant to be sent to states to help decide whether they were going |
| 1:54.8 | to ratify this constitution, as well as members of the Congress. |
| 1:58.8 | The reason to point that out is this was not just a random copy |
| 2:02.2 | distributed for newspapers. It had a practical purpose. It was meant to go help convince the rest |
| 2:08.7 | of the nascent country to get behind this long, long effort. The document includes not only |
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