LexDAO August Recap | GR15 Special Edition
Catch up on all things LexDAO and legal in web3.
Donate to LexDAO for Gitcoin Grants, starts today!
Grant Dates: September 7th - September 22nd
Pro tips:
Tell friends the grant is at “lexdaogrant.us” .
Donating just $1 makes a huge difference, especially compared to not donating at all.
Donate early; donate today!!
For last quarter’s Gitcoin grants, LexDAO made over $50,000 in grants!
We have the potential to receive as much or more in grants this quarter, so please seriously consider donating to our grant, and encourage your friends to donate too: http://lexdaogrant.us .
Gitcoin grants uses quadratic matching that rewards how many contributors far greater than the amount each contributor donates.
This means it’s much more important that you (and your friends) donate at all than if you donate a large sum.
For instance, at one point during the last grant round a $1 donation was being matched by $500.
Also, please try to donate sooner rather than later even though your matching estimate at the beginning won’t look all that impressive.
Because of the way Gitcoin’s algorithm works “exponentially,” the more early donations usually means the more donations overall.
Gitcoin grants 15 runs from September 7th to September 22nd.
Our grant’s longform URL is https://gitcoin.co/grants/4811/lexdao-providing-legal-aid-to-impactdaos-funded-by
For inspiration about other grants you can donate to, check out these collections:
What’s New in LexDAO
The Curia Litepaper has been released and spells out Curia’s roadmap for offering curated panels of arbitrators for its on-chain and off-chain arbitration protocol. Curia is a LexDAO sub-DAO that offers arbitration, mediation, and escrow by LexDAO Lawyers and Legal Engineers.
The RWA Consortium (a LexDAO sub-DAO was able to launch its new website and continue its mission to research and develop real-world asset standards for metadata and blockchain. The initial contributing memberships, include LexDAO, KaliDAO, BasinDAO, REIDAO, the Cotton Exchange, TaterDAO, Build_ Republic, CityDAO and others. Follow us on Twitter @realDAO1 or join with a membership to work, build and fund RWA infrastructure together.
Twitter Spaces: On Aug. 18, Luis Miranda hosted LexDAO’s second Spanish Twitter spaces where they discussed how lawyers are learning how to code and how engineering tools can be combined with the practice of law.
LexDAOism: We had 3 new articles published on our blog in August:
2spencer_ wrote about whether Coinbase can intervene and help the ex-Coinbase employee accused of insider trading and what impact would this have the SEC’s apparent plan to let 3 individuals face the burden of arguing that 9 tokens are not securities.
In Jurisdiction, ‘Code-is-Law’, and Contract-Aligned-Programs, Jacob Chase-Lubitz explores the relationship between code and law, digging into the “code-is-law” debate and discussing how different situations call for different legal & jurisdictional approaches.
As summer turns into fall, your friends (you wouldn’t keep money in Celsius) may be wondering how to treat Celsius losses on your tax returns. Read about your options for writing off your Celsius losses.
You get a multi-sig, you get a multi-sig: LexDAO is adding members of the operating committee to the multi-sig to require a 5/9 vote.
Grants Committee: Cimply adroitly explains why we formed the Grants Committee in the recently passed snapshot vote that officially formed the GC.
LexDAO Clinic: The Clinic now has “Supervisor Houses” that are already producing a wide array of visions about how the Clinic can add value to Web3, and, we’re planning for the anticipated new student influx this Fall. Our impressive active client list has grown quickly, and we’ll likely slow down taking on new clients until we catch up with our rapid growth. We have exciting partnerships in the works, and our collaboration with KaliDAO is evolving nicely. If you’d like to get involved with the Clinic as a Student, Supervisor, or Paralegal, please reach out to bestape#3069 on Discord.
W3M: A few weeks ago, we organized an important meeting between DDEX and key Web3 music projects on various levels of the vertical. In our meeting, we chatted about membership within the NFT working group DDEX recently formed with the majors. Since our meeting, a few Web3 music projects have already joined the DDEX working group. Going forward, W3M will remain a liaison between DDEX’s working group and the EIP community. DDEX voted on forming their NFT working group as they concluded Q&A at our presentation to them during their July plenary in Miami.
Website Overhaul: Our website is getting a makeover where you’ll be able to keep up with all things LexDAO.
What We’re Listening To
The Law of Code Podcast hosted by Jacob Robinson should be at the top of your Monday morning listening list. On August 8, Jacob sat down with Bill Richards & Gideon Esakoff who shared some valuable insight into the mysterious side of crypto litigation. Starting this month, we’re going to give you a little snippet from the podcast.
Have you thought about the idea of government or some sort of oversight body to smart contracts? Do you see some sort of middle ground somewhere?
Bill: Let me give you some examples of some middle grounds that I think currently exist in other areas that may provide some sort of an apt model. What we all do as apt lawyers, our system, at least here, is that we are a self-regulating industry. Yes, are we subject to government regulation? Absolutely. I have to get a bar license that comes through the state supreme court…However, we have also maintained ourselves as a self-regulating industry, and there’s probably all kinds of explanations for why we do that, but I think it’s in part, so we don’t have to have as much state regulation. We can provide anyone who’s concerned and the governments fear with ‘No, we’re taking care of this ourselves.’
If you were to teach a course on avoiding crypto litigation 101, what would be some things you'd include in the syllabus?
Bill: The most important issue up front would be for people to understand that we have existing systems right now in place that are designed to protect investors and particularly consumers. And you always run the risk that those are going to be used against you….The second level would be understanding how other facets of the law that currently exist could be applied against you even though they've never been applied to your industry or your space or your product before.
What You Missed
Jared Brito & Peter Van Valkenburg do a deep dive into the public policy around the Tornado Cash sanctions on Tangents from Coin Center.
If you missed ZCon, you can still catch Peter Van Valkenburgh’s talk discussing OFAC sanctions on Tornado cash and the first amendment implications of these actions.
Our favorite libertarian, J.W. Verrett, explains why the SEC’s stance on cryptocurrency doesn’t make sense and why registration for tokens is often impossible.
OFAC is scary, but The COD3X breaks it all down for you providing background, information on enforcement, and general guidance.
Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act was introduced by Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senator John Boozman that would give the CFTC the authority to regulate the trading of “digitial commodities”
Robinhood Crypto was fined $30 million by the New York Department of Financial Services after a finding that it had inadequate AML and cybersecurity processes in place.
Dragonchain charged by the SEC for its presale and ICO of $DRGN (Dragon Tokens) as unregistered securities.
Our Favorite Resources
DAO Collective Research offers a library with a wealth of DAO-relevant information and resources
Get Involved!
LexDAO is always looking for new members! If you are interested in the work we are doing:
Check out our Discord and ask some questions (feel free to DM our Assistant Operator @kate.g#5165 with any onboarding questions).
Join our bi-monthly governance calls on Wednesday at 12pm and 8:30pm EST (in Discord)!
When you are ready to join, fill out this form and check out this post for all the information you need to apply.
As always, reach out to @2spencer on Twitter with any newsworthy content!