They’re Actually Going to Buy the Constitution

It was Tuesday night in the ConstitutionDAO discord. Users posted the same questions that the mods had answered hundreds of times already.

“Wen constitution fren?” wrote apelord37.

Another begged the number to hit $6 million already just so they could go to sleep. It was a weak milestone. The earlier thresholds had been more exciting.

“A million, no two million, no THREE MILLION!” the crowd cheered on social media.

But the deadline to reach $20 million, the figure that the auction house had estimated on the high end of what a rare copy of the Constitution of the United States could sell for, was rapidly approaching.

$20 million would be a respectable bid, but it wouldn’t even guarantee a win, and besides that wouldn’t even account for the separate $5 million needed just for auction fees and sales tax. What the DAO really needed was $25 million just to be in the game.

Ouch.

With less than 48 hours to go, hope began to dissipate. A betting site pegged the odds of the DAO actually succeeding at 19%, a discouraging sign.

Just as the people began to pray that Elon Musk might ride in like a white knight, contributors to the DAO awoke Wednesday morning to find that someone had anonymously contributed 1,000 eth to the cause, the equivalent of more than $4 million.

“Holy sh**, this could actually happen,” $people said.

With renewed energy, the DAO reached $20 million by noon and was at $35 million at the time this story is being posted. All of the data is public. A review of it shows that there are more than 11,700 contributors. The top 20 contributors, however, account for more than half of all the funds raised.

On the ConstitutionDAO discord, confidence has surged.

“WAGMI,” one user wrote.

The questions have shifted to what happens if too much is raised and who is going to be hosting parties irl to watch the auction live.

Still others have begun to make other suggestions, like using excess funds for starving children. The crowd isn’t pleased by this, however.

“people, people, focus here, we have only set out to do one thing and that is We’re All Gonna Buy the Constitution,” a user writes.

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.