5 ms·

‘Buy the Constitution’ Aftermath

36 points by jmsflknr 5y ago

remram 5y ago
Why does it matter whether they acquired the piece of paper or not, with regard to the "PEOPLE" token? It's not like it's tied to the physical thing either way. Can't they hold to their token and trade them like any collectible anyhow?
- willcipriano 5y ago
  So they can vote on what happens to a copy of the constitution they don't own?
  - V__ 5y ago
    I mean.. it works for NFTs
  - remram 5y ago
    Yeah isn't that how NFTs work? There are NFTs for tweets you don't own, paintings you don't physically own, JPEGs you couldn't possibly physically own. What's stopping them here? They could sell tokens for the actual conceptual constitution if they wanted, rather than a physical copy of it.
- detaro 5y ago
  It's not quite the same if the token doesn't actually do what it was supposed to do, isn't it?
derekjdanserl 5y ago
Interesting that the constitution will now be displayed at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Walmart.
quickthrowman 5y ago
Hindsight Analysis: publicizing your maximum bid is a bad auction strategy.
NelsonMinar 5y ago
So is this incompetence or outright fraud? The "we paid $75 fees to donate $75" is hilarious in itself, but that part is just the inherent stupidity of Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. But the whole thing about them wanting to swap from $PEOPLE to some new token $WTP they just made up on the fly.. that part sure smells like an attempted scam.
- iudqnolq 5y ago
  It gets stupider > Here's someone transferring .011 ETH ($46) out and paying .015 ETH ($63) in fees, meaning they ended up paying $18 for their $0 refund.
BoiledCabbage 5y ago
> The community of crypto investors who tried and failed to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution last week has descended into chaos as people are realizing today that roughly half of the donors will have the majority of their investment wiped out by cryptocurrency fees. Meanwhile, disagreements have broken out over the future of ConstitutionDAO, the original purpose of the more than $40 million crowdfunding campaign, and what will happen to the $PEOPLE token that donors were given in exchange for their contributions. There are so many absurd things in that paragraph, I don't even know where to begin. Web 3.0 in a nutshell. If anyone would like a glimpse into the near to mid future, one is available today. A problem that could have easily been solved without any blockchain, instead got a bunch of people hyped group-thinking "it'll be better with blockchain". And in the end found out that a "distributed ledger" isn't actually magic pixie dust that makes problems disappear. And frequently (like here) makes problems worse. Anyway if you have a coin to hawk, feel free to do so in the replies to this comment and explain why your tech is different. No need to disclose that you financially benefit from convincing people to join your bandwagon. Just state how this today was just a one off issue, and if instead they used your thing all problems would be solved.
- iamthemonster 5y ago
  I have created a new coin which actually operates without a blockchain, which as far as I know is completely novel. Once a coin has been brought into existence it no longer consumes energy, no matter how many transactions you make. The coin can function without any internet connectivity, and governments can not track your transaction activity. Your wallet is also offline, and has advanced antivirus software (in fact it cannot get a virus) and is immune to computer hackers (although literal hackers can still access your wallet if they are determined enough).
  - mxmilkiib 5y ago
    Something something inflation?
V__ 5y ago
Original discussion on HN when it started: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29258195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29258195 A lot of people noted the absurdity of the project. Some comments were supportive of the idea, with these following themes mentioned multiple times: # It's faster to do it with crypto # Setting up a LLC/corporation/non-profit is bureaucratic/boring # It's more fun this way # The community is self-governing/active on discord Now that the money is gone or could be "misused" I'm interested if the "move fast and break things"-approach still resonates with the people who backed the project.
xt00 5y ago
Reading that article just feels like if this is the endgame for crypto then we are in some crazy territory that makes close to zero sense.. totally unclear how anybody could justify putting money toward buying a secondary token with the goal of buying the constitution—so essentially pooling money, but sounds like the process of pooling money was handing it off to somebody else who gave the people like a worthless IOU. So the big draw here is that instead of a bank being the middle man, random people get to be a bank and basically make up random rules about if you get your money back after depositing currency in the bank? I mean how does this not end as a ponzi or massively regulated? (Not crypto in general but these types of operations of trading currencies for other random currencies and pooling it then not giving refunds..)

36 points by jmsflknr 5y ago

Why does it matter whether they acquired the piece of paper or not, with regard to the "PEOPLE" token? It's not like it's tied to the physical thing either way. Can't they hold to their token and trade them like any collectible anyhow?

willcipriano 5y ago
So they can vote on what happens to a copy of the constitution they don't own?
- V__ 5y ago
  I mean.. it works for NFTs
- remram 5y ago
  Yeah isn't that how NFTs work? There are NFTs for tweets you don't own, paintings you don't physically own, JPEGs you couldn't possibly physically own. What's stopping them here? They could sell tokens for the actual conceptual constitution if they wanted, rather than a physical copy of it.
detaro 5y ago
It's not quite the same if the token doesn't actually do what it was supposed to do, isn't it?

derekjdanserl 5y ago

Interesting that the constitution will now be displayed at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Walmart.

quickthrowman 5y ago

Hindsight Analysis: publicizing your maximum bid is a bad auction strategy.

NelsonMinar 5y ago

So is this incompetence or outright fraud? The "we paid $75 fees to donate $75" is hilarious in itself, but that part is just the inherent stupidity of Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. But the whole thing about them wanting to swap from $PEOPLE to some new token $WTP they just made up on the fly.. that part sure smells like an attempted scam.

iudqnolq 5y ago
It gets stupider > Here's someone transferring .011 ETH ($46) out and paying .015 ETH ($63) in fees, meaning they ended up paying $18 for their $0 refund.

BoiledCabbage 5y ago

> The community of crypto investors who tried and failed to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution last week has descended into chaos as people are realizing today that roughly half of the donors will have the majority of their investment wiped out by cryptocurrency fees. Meanwhile, disagreements have broken out over the future of ConstitutionDAO, the original purpose of the more than $40 million crowdfunding campaign, and what will happen to the $PEOPLE token that donors were given in exchange for their contributions. There are so many absurd things in that paragraph, I don't even know where to begin. Web 3.0 in a nutshell. If anyone would like a glimpse into the near to mid future, one is available today. A problem that could have easily been solved without any blockchain, instead got a bunch of people hyped group-thinking "it'll be better with blockchain". And in the end found out that a "distributed ledger" isn't actually magic pixie dust that makes problems disappear. And frequently (like here) makes problems worse. Anyway if you have a coin to hawk, feel free to do so in the replies to this comment and explain why your tech is different. No need to disclose that you financially benefit from convincing people to join your bandwagon. Just state how this today was just a one off issue, and if instead they used your thing all problems would be solved.

iamthemonster 5y ago
I have created a new coin which actually operates without a blockchain, which as far as I know is completely novel. Once a coin has been brought into existence it no longer consumes energy, no matter how many transactions you make. The coin can function without any internet connectivity, and governments can not track your transaction activity. Your wallet is also offline, and has advanced antivirus software (in fact it cannot get a virus) and is immune to computer hackers (although literal hackers can still access your wallet if they are determined enough).
- mxmilkiib 5y ago
  Something something inflation?

V__ 5y ago

Original discussion on HN when it started: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29258195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29258195 A lot of people noted the absurdity of the project. Some comments were supportive of the idea, with these following themes mentioned multiple times: # It's faster to do it with crypto # Setting up a LLC/corporation/non-profit is bureaucratic/boring # It's more fun this way # The community is self-governing/active on discord Now that the money is gone or could be "misused" I'm interested if the "move fast and break things"-approach still resonates with the people who backed the project.

xt00 5y ago

Reading that article just feels like if this is the endgame for crypto then we are in some crazy territory that makes close to zero sense.. totally unclear how anybody could justify putting money toward buying a secondary token with the goal of buying the constitution—so essentially pooling money, but sounds like the process of pooling money was handing it off to somebody else who gave the people like a worthless IOU. So the big draw here is that instead of a bank being the middle man, random people get to be a bank and basically make up random rules about if you get your money back after depositing currency in the bank? I mean how does this not end as a ponzi or massively regulated? (Not crypto in general but these types of operations of trading currencies for other random currencies and pooling it then not giving refunds..)