Do you know the upcoming Sotheby's Constitution?
Suppose you want to buy an early printed American Constitution, but you only have a few dollars. Normally, you will be unlucky, but maybe not today: in the past week, a collective has been formed to raise enough funds to buy rare early printed constitutions at auctions, from anyone who wants to raise money online People raise money there. There will be a Sotheby’s Constitution auction.
According to Sotheby’s Auction House, the document being purchased is one of the only 13 remaining copies of the official version of the Constitution and is the final draft for the Continental Congress. The group that raises funds for the purchase of this copy is called the "Constitution DAO".
DAO, Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is a blockchain-based, member-owned group. DAO can quickly and easily raise funds, manage projects, or make investments. This type of group is becoming more and more popular in the cryptocurrency circle because it promises to share the management of organizational assets and a democratic voting structure that determines how it will operate.
This U.S. Constitution was originally purchased by a late real estate agent in 1988 for $165,000. His wife sold it at Sotheby's auction house, and the proceeds will be used for a charitable foundation. As one of only 13 copies, Sotheby’s Constitution estimates it will be sold for between 15 million and 20 million US dollars. For a crowdfunding campaign, this seems to be an insurmountable price.
ConstitutionDAO has been accelerating development in recent days, but after being reported by the New York Times yesterday afternoon, it really exploded. Today alone it raised more than 10 million U.S. dollars.
As long as there is an Ethereum Wallet, you can participate in ConstitutionDAO anywhere. Up to now, in just a few days, ConstitutionDAO has raised nearly 3,200 Ether, which is equivalent to approximately USD 13.6 million in donations. In addition to ordinary individual users, there are also institutions like Gemini Exchange.
Donors will receive the governance token $PEOPLE, which is an encrypted token linked to the project, not part of the ownership of the constitutional document. According to ConstitutionDAO's website, governance includes the ability to make recommendations on where the Constitution is displayed, how it is displayed, and ConstitutionDAO's mission.
If ConstitutionDAO wins the Sotheby’s Constitution auction, they intend to find a partner organization to display it publicly, preferably for free to visitors. If they lose, the money will be sent back to the donor and the fee will be deducted. The auction will be held at 6:30 pm Eastern Time on Thursday. Good luck to those who bid with the collective will of the Internet.