Welcome to this special ETHDenver 2023 edition of the LexDAO newsletter. Read on for the latest news in LexDAO and LexClinic, what’s happening at ETHDenver, what we are currently reading, and more!

What’s New in LexDAO

Prospera Economic Jurisdiction has a few highly interesting upcoming legal and regulatory debate opportunities available. Please reach out to new LexDAO member Niklas with questions!

Supercharging Health 2023 - A Próspera Builders’ Summit, April 21-23 in Roatan, Honduras

Decentralizing Finance 2023 - A Próspera Builders’ Summit, May 5-7 in Roatan, Honduras

Prospera is also looking into organizing a legal hackathon with LexDAO in the near future. If you’re interested, please fill out this form to indicate your interest and preferences.

New membership type proposal for “Internet-native organizations” is in the works after a few DAOs reached out to us about the possibility. Please visit here if you would like to comment on this new type of membership.

Membership. LexDAO members have voted to grant Work for Membership status to two highly-valued contributors within our community. You can read the proposal here.

The first is Anson Parker, who has been contributing to technology and partnership solutions since the middle of last year. He has continued to be an engaged member in the community and we thank him for his work.

The second is Kyler56. Kyler has been instrumental in working with the Clinic on setting up and building out our Around The Blockchain Newsroom inside the Clinic. He is working on Around the Blockchain (ATBC) where ATBC will be sending emails to law school and undergrad crypto clubs about our newsletter. They also plan on establishing a connection with club leaders and creating an ambassador program. They have been discussing podcast production along with a number of communications initiatives that are valuable to the DAO and we thank him for his work.

Congratulations to both Anson Parker and Kyler56! We look forward to their continued contributions and encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about their work or how to get involved to join us on Discord.

What’s New in LexClinic

LexClinic is continuing to expand. We’re still backlogged with applications, so please be patient as we catch up. You can onboard at any time here.

House DClark is finalizing an application to register LexDAO’s trademark. House DClark has also received a grant from Algovera to create an interactive chat AI for the Clinic. You can read about the Algovera grant here.

ATBC House received Lobby3’s donation to do research for the first four DAO Research Monthly episodes by co-hosts Jacob & Kyle (bestape) at Law of Code. The first episode will be released soon, so be on the lookout!

Library House has almost finished codeslaw c-corp templates for anon client LC5578. The house is now in the process of securing a grant from LexDAO—similar to House JayFrank’s grant mentioned below—in order to develop many more public good templates for use in wrapper and elsewhere. We look forward to sharing these templates soon!

House JayFrank has received its $3,000 pilot donation from DAO Coalition and is beginning the process of engaging students. Please reach out to JayFrank if you are a student interested in working on explaining DAO-friendly policy in simple terms to US Senators and staff.

KALI Stupa continues to direct potential patrons to offer support to LexClinic. For the most part, this work is ‘last mile’ basic incorporation support such as EIN registration. Sometimes it progresses into more involved engagements with the Clinic or finding a law firm that offers a good fit. And Kali has procured a few deals that indicate the Clinic will get busier in this area. We still need help properly building out these services, especially before demand starts to increase, so please contact bestape if you’re interested!

House bestape has been working on securing and liaising various deals, some mentioned above and some soon-to-be announced. The House has also been finalizing its legal entity and initial documentation and has prepared workshops for ETHDenver.

LexDAO at ETHDenver

If you are attending ETHDenver and are a member, please join the conversation here. Let us know if you’re hosting an event or have other ETHDenver news you’d like to share!

Happy DAOr with Endaoment and GoodDollar

Join us at Impact Happy DAOr and delight in some of the best wine, cocktails, and snacks in town during #ethdenver. The event will take place on Thursday, March 2, from 4-6 p.m. at BRUTØ, Denver. Please message Kyle at bestape#3069 in Discord for an invite.

campBUIDL Legalities in Web3 workshop

Bestape is offering a “Legalities in Web 3” PLE workshop to help newcomers to Ethereum bootstrap their first project, from Solidity to Community Management! In the workshop, we’ll discuss three classes of legal entities and thee classes of tokens. Join the workshop by onboarding to the ETHDenver Community Track here. Attendees will even get a chance to win a free codeslaw hat!

A special thank you to WGMI and ConsenSys for organizing these workshops.

ETHDenver presentations

Various LexDAO members will be giving talks at ETHDenver. On March 3rd and 4th, bestape will co-host a workshop with the Q blockchain on DAO Constitutions. Click here for more information about the event on the third and here for more information about the event on the fourth.

DAODenver presentations

Various LexDAO members will be giving talks at DAODenver. On the 28th, bestape will join a panel discussing Legal Wrappers and Jurisdictional Differences of DAOs. Click here for more information about the event.

Schelling Point “Beyond Code is Law: DAO Constitutions” workshop [sold out]

In this workshop, bestape and Jordan will co-host a workshop with the Q blockchain discussing various questions and aspects related to DAO constitutions, including:

Why does a DAO need or want a DAO constitution?
What are typical elements of DAO constitutions?
What are DAO constitutions from a legal point of view (including differences between manifesto, whitepaper, etc.)?
Can you ensure a DAO constitution works across different jurisdictions?
How can DAO constitutions affect DAO members’ rights, obligations, and liabilities?
How can DAO constitutions be enforced?
What are common pitfalls of DAO constitutions?
Is there a conflict between “code-is-law” and the concept of DAO constitutions (including code deference governance)?

Learn more about Schelling Point here.

Codeslaw hats by MetaFactory

Don’t forget to find the MetaFactory booth and buy a codeslaw hat! Some LexDAO members will be walking around with discount codes, so be sure to ask for the code if you run into them.

If you miss out, don’t worry. You can always get a codeslaw hat here.

What We’re Reading

Vasu Nigam, Kyler Wandler, and Frederico Minicucci have added an extensive overview of multiple aspects of DAO governance to the DAO Research Collective. The authors address the role of decentralization in governance, the effect of governance systems on a DAO, various voting mechanisms that have been implemented across DAOs, and emerging trends in the DAO ecosystem. Each section is complete with a wealth of resources sure to quench the thirst of any legal engineer. Click here to dive in.

In a 2009 Nobel Prize Lecture, "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems," Elinor Ostrom discusses the evolution of research into institutional arrangements for governing common-pool resources and public goods. This lecture begins with an overview of Ostrom's involvement with the subject matter and the dominant world views of the mid-twentieth century on organizational forms, which serve as a backdrop against which modern frameworks for analyzing human situations and common-pool resource problems are examined. The ideas discussed remain relevant to modern DAOs providing goods and services through the collaborative efforts of independent contributors. Read the full lecture here.

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 Wednesdays at 12pm and 8:30 p.m. 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.

⚔️ LexDAOism ⚖️

LexDAO ETHDenver ‘23 Newsletter