“I want to be the minority
I don't need your authority
Down with the moral majority
'Cause I want to be the minority
I pledge allegiance to the underworld
One nation under dog there of which I stand alone
A face in the crowd unsung, against the mold
Without a doubt singled out the only way I know”
These words from Green Day’s hit punk song Minority have always appealed to me. The stodgy law practice lifestyle, that once appealed to me as a young man, waved bye-bye a long time ago and I stopped pursuing my law license many years ago. Instead, I opted for a lifestyle in the legal technology field. It was some sort of minor rebellion that emanated “I don’t need your authority.”
Tech appeals to me for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the potential to significantly impact “the way we’ve always done it,” thinking and practices. This impact, or disruption for lack of a better word, is something the law desperately needs. Not only is it stodgy, expensive, and inefficient, but it fails to serve many consumers. Some commentators have described the American legal system as a total market failure. A failure I believe provides voids which can be filled with technological solutions.
Now, imagine going down this semi-rebellious self reflection and being totally closed-minded about the crypto space for more than a decade? I cannot explain it other than to say the ICO craze of 2017 left me thinking it was all a scam. Never did this self-proclaimed early adopter stop to investigate the underlying Blockchain technology and try to discern what was valuable and what was not. Nope, I did a wholesale dismissal of crypto even though I was aware interesting work was being done with smart contracts.
Sometime in late 2019 I awoke to my own “contempt prior to investigation,” and began investing in the crypto space. For me, it was necessary to put skin in the game to focus my attention. Then early in 2020, a friend from the legaltech community invited me to check out what was happening in the crypto and Web3 arena and specifically in legal engineering. I’d heard the phrase in the past, but was unsure how it applied. With a renewed interest and an open-mind, I decided to give it a go.
That’s how I was introduced to Lex DAO (the decentralized legal engineering guild). As I didn’t know a lot of lawyers or other legal professionals focused on this space, I thought it was worth becoming a Lex DAO member. Plus, there was a real feeling of rebellion in Web3, which I cannot lie, was quite appealing. It was another Minority moment. People were developing projects and products that were nearly universally laughed at and condemned by the legal community, who had long ago dismissed Blockchain technology (much as I once had).
If any of my experience resonates with you, you may also be interested in joining a cooperative at the intersection of law, cryptocurrency, and Blockchain technology. Maybe you too, would like to “pledge allegiance to the underworld.” Okay, maybe that’s not what I did. Instead, I joined a group of legal professionals working on Blockchain technology which impacts legal processes and services. Here’s how you can do the same:
How to join?
Step 1:
Join our discord server.
Step 2:
Visit our membership page here and pay our $300 fee. If the membership fee is a hardship for you for any reason, you can do a bit of work to earn your membership instead of paying. Just jump into the #find-a-lawyer channel in discord and ask about it.
That’s all!
Welcome!
Follow us on Twitter: @lex_DAO.
Discord invite is listed as invalid invite
I navigated to lexdao.chat but the invite still shows invalid, I'm wanting the https://canadao.org project to link up with you, how could we do that ?