They are simply stepping up to buy the American constitution – and thereby revolutionize the world. That fits so well with what the pioneers of the Internet once imagined: a democratic network, supported and shaped by the number of users.
And so, metaphorically, it couldn’t have been made more enchanting: A group of crypto investors come together to found “ConstitutionDAO” and acquire an original copy of the American constitution. Back to the democratic origins that should belong to the crowd, but not to the elites.
A DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, is all the rage in the talk about the future of the internet. In such an organization, any number of people can join forces to pursue a goal or to start an enterprise. Otherwise you do not have to be connected, everyone works decentrally on a part of the project, which is registered in detail on the blockchain. If that is successful, the payment or reward for the use goes to those involved in accordance with the rules set at the beginning via smart contracts.
The old term of the cooperative resonates a little
Simply put, a DAO is a company that is managed in a decentralized manner by its members without the need for a CEO. The old term of the cooperative resonates a little here, but DAOs are much more radical and based on technology. They not only change corporate structures, they break the rules of hierarchy and control as we have known them in the corporate world since industrialization. And: DAOs should also revolutionize the entire Internet.
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In the meantime, it works in a similar way to the world of global companies. A small number of huge tech companies determine where the journey is headed. Nothing is decentralized, free of hierarchies and grassroots democracy. “We have shown that the web has failed to serve humanity,” said Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web in 2018, “and it has failed in many places.”
Rescue is now to come into the world through Web 3.0, and it comes from the depths of the blockchain. In today’s Internet, most inquiries go through the centralized server farms of major technology companies, which then also store our personal information. In Web 3.0, these servers will be replaced by the blockchain. All data is stored in decentralized peer-to-peer databases or on a public blockchain that does not belong to anyone.
Another dream returns that the current Internet has long dreamed of: saying goodbye to the mediator who siphons off most of the profit. Many intermediaries from earlier times are actually history, but the big companies like Amazon, Facebook or Google have taken their positions. In many places, Big Tech’s platform economy looks pretty much like the merchant economy of the past, just a bit bigger and more centralized.
The blockchain is an expensive pleasure
In Web 3.0 it should be different. Big companies don’t offer what people want, they organize themselves via DAOs, everything on the blockchain. Sounds great, and maybe there really is a realistic perspective for reorganizing at least parts of the internet. Until the widespread effect is sparked, however, many data streams will flow undisturbed via the servers of the large technology companies. Because the blockchain, on which everything should be based, is an expensive pleasure.
First, Web 3.0 requires exactly the kind of investments that the big tech companies will probably be able to make first. Second, for every transaction on the blockchain, so-called “gas fees” are due for the energy that is required to validate and save the transactions on the blockchain. And third, somehow there is always someone who has more money, more traditional power, or both, in order to consolidate their own position in new structures and to put an end to the enthusiasm for the decentralized crypto world.
Incidentally, the copy of the American constitution did not go to the “ConstitutionDAO”. Even though it had raised $ 47 million, the constitution bought a man named Ken Griffin for even more money. He is the CEO of the Citadel hedge fund.
In this column Miriam Meckel writes fortnightly about ideas, innovations and interpretations that make progress and a better life possible. Because what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the rest of the world calls a butterfly. ada-magazin.com
More: DAO – How decentralized companies without managers are now conquering the crypto world.