Crypto Investors Buy 40 Acres of Land in Wyoming to Build Blockchain City DAO)

Vice.com ^ | November 3, 2021, | Edward Ongweso Jr

[aMorePerfectUnion]

The group is using a new Wyoming law that legally recognizes them as a corporate entity to help speed along the process.

Back in July, Wyoming passed a law legally recognizing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)—blockchain-based entities in which members vote on the group’s direction with tokens—so long as they are registered as companies in the state.

Now, one DAO that has aspirations of founding a blockchain-based city says it has actually purchased land in the state.

“Today, CityDAO is officially the first DAO to own land, using the new Wyoming DAO LLC law. This is just the beginning,” CityDAO tweeted, along with a video of a CityDAO flag being raised on a barren hill. “This parcel is a proof of concept parcel - it’s not in the most convenient location nor does it have an abundance of natural resources. It does have a well for water, a flat area for building, and is 45 minutes from an airport.”

According to a blog post, the land is in northwestern Wyoming, just south of the Montana border and just east of Yellowstone National Park.

CityDAO is an experiment that pitches itself as "building a city on the Ethereum blockchain." CityDAO is offering a basic form of citizenship through the purchase of one of 10,000 NFTs for .25 ETH (~$1000) that also confers access to a Discord, voting rights, and the ability to settle land after the "First & Founding Citizens."

First Citizen refers to the purchaser of a single NFT that sold for 6.52 ETH that gave the right to name the first parcel of land and gives first access to "land drops." Founding Citizens are those who buy one of 50 NFTs with a price floor of 10 ETH that give them access to land drops after the First Citizen, but still provide access to the Discord and voting rights.

At first glance, an actual land purchase puts CityDAO well ahead of many other attempts by libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and crypto enthusiasts to create autonomous zones and cities. Many, like Liberland—nestled on a contested patch of land between Serbia and Croatia—have no residents and seem to have been designed as tax havens. On a closer look, however, it becomes clear there are some problems here.

In September, for example, DAO members were selecting a parcel of land to buy in Wyoming that was under $150,000, between 5 and 100 acres, and "minimal regulations to maximize freedom." They settled on two parcels that had easy road access, were relatively large at 35 acres, and would allow for a variety of "use cases" such as "mobile homes, RV parking, camping, hunting." They did not, however, have any water on site nor did either parcel allow for more than three permanent housing properties.

Typically, DAOs are recognized as general partnerships. In effect, every member of a DAO would be potentially liable for any debts or in any legal actions incurred by the DAO. One benefit Wyoming DAOs will enjoy is what amounts to a liability shield that protects members from lawsuits and recognizing the community itself as a corporate person.

The law also distinguishes between two types of DAOs: those run by members and those "managed" by algorithms. The former is simply an LLC where the DAO articulates who is responsible for various roles in the organization. An algorithmic DAO is less clearly defined in the bill, but basically any DAO already governed by a smart contract is eligible to register regardless of what the contract actually entails.

[Wildbill22]

Sounds like somebody is building Galt’s Gulch.

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“Who is Sotashi Nakamoto?”

[cookcounty]

Legal Problem is, The fundamental governmental authority under the US Constitution here is the State of Wyoming. Not the county, not a town, not the Federal government. The state has authority over cities and towns (to which which they may delegate authority, or retake delegated authority, at their option).