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ConstitutionDAO: A meme history

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ConstitutionDAO: A meme history

The funniest memes and tweets from ConstitutionDAO's effort to buy the US Constitution.

Trung Phan
Nov 20, 2021
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ConstitutionDAO: A meme history

trungphan.substack.com

Yo, Trung here. Thanks for subscribing to SatPost, a Saturday round-up of funny memes and tweets from the internet.

Today, we’re talking about the wild ConstitutionDAO story.

What is ConstitutionDAO?

The year is 2021.

So, it was inevitable that I would write this sentence: “A DAO raised $47m+ and tried to buy a copy of the US Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction”.

DAO stands for “decentralized autonomous organization”. Kevin Roose from NYT offers a few definitions:

  • Formal: “a kind of internet-native co-op that is governed with cryptocurrency tokens and blockchain-based ‘smart contracts’ instead of traditional corporate boards and bylaws.”

  • Informal: “financial flash mob”

  • Very informal (and my favorite): “chat rooms with bank accounts”

Less than 2 weeks ago, a “financial flash mob” of ~30 internet folk put together the ConstitutionDAO. Here is the first tweet:

Twitter avatar for @ConstitutionDAO
ConstitutionDAO (📜, 📜) @ConstitutionDAO
👀 yahoo.com/entertainment/…
yahoo.comSotheby’s puts rare U.S. Constitution copy for auctionA very special document will be auctioned off later this year — a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution. Sotheby’s announced Friday — appropriately on...
2:49 AM ∙ Nov 12, 2021
48Likes8Retweets

The mission: buy one of the 13 remaining copies of the US Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday, November 18th. To do so, ConstitutionDAO needed to raise at least $20m.

Ultimately, it raised $47m+ from 17k+ donors with a median donation size of $206 (contributions made in ETH). While ConstitutionDAO did not win the bid, the effort captivated the internet.

It showed the promise of DAOs and Web3 but — most importantly for SatPost — it birthed some truly glorious memes.

How is Nicholas Cage involved?

Alright, now for some laughs.

To mobilize thousands of people to do stuff on the internet, viral memes are a must.

ConstitutionDAO hit the perfect storm of meme-potential:

  • The US Constitution is probably the best-known political document in the world (and if you buy into Yuval Hariri’s “humans share myths” thesis, the idea of America is one of the greatest memes ever)

  • Nicholas Cage, certified meme legend, starred in National Treasure and the film’s plot revolves around his character trying to steal the other super well-known US political document: The Declaration of Independence.

Let’s marinate on Cage a bit.

A lot of people forget that he was an absolute juggernaut in the 1990s. During one 4-film stretch, Cage won Best Actor (Leaving Las Vegas) then starred in 3 legendary action movies (The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off) that grossed a combined $800m+.

This is one of the greatest actor runs ever (don’t @ me).

From 1996 to 2011, Cage made $150m from acting including other notable flicks like Adaptation, Gone in 60 Seconds, Lord of War and 2 National Treasure films.

WTF happened to him? Cage blew all the money on lux homes, cars and yachts (4x)…as well as the most comically absurd shit (like $300k for dinosaur bones). Forced to pay off his debts, Cage started making D-grade flicks at a startling pace (Ghost Rider, anyone?)

Cage’s story is perfect for meme immortality:

  • A super high-profile actor creates dozens of culturally-relevant film moments during a critically and commercially successful career

  • The incineration of vast riches, turbo-charged by outrageous spending habits

  • Incredible acting range, including the iconic “Nic Cage freakout” face

Truly iconic:

After ConstitutionDAO spun up a Discord, the National Treasure connection bubbled to the top and Cage memes were born:

Twitter avatar for @ryanjlieu
ryan 👺 @ryanjlieu
we're going to s̵t̵e̵a̵l̵ buy the declaration of independence @ConstitutionDAO
Image
1:14 PM ∙ Nov 12, 2021
50Likes7Retweets
Twitter avatar for @endingwithali
ali in barcelonA 🍄 (📜,📜) @endingwithali
Let’s go @ConstitutionDAO
Image
3:41 PM ∙ Nov 12, 2021
107Likes13Retweets
Twitter avatar for @packyM
Packy McCormick (📜,📜) @packyM
me getting ready to go buy the US Constitution with some frens @ConstitutionDAO (📜,📜)
Nicolascage Niccage GIF
3:59 PM ∙ Nov 13, 2021
310Likes17Retweets

How else did ConstitutionDAO spread?

If you’ve been on Twitter in the past week, you def seen this symbol: (📜 , 📜) .

Here’s an explainer from Packy McCormick’s must-read essay on ConstitutionDAO’s origin story:

  • The (📜 , 📜) symbol is a remix of (3,3). The (3,3) symbol previously “started popping up across Twitter and Discord” in support of “the Olympus DAO, which is trying to build a crypto-backed reserve currency.” 

(📜 , 📜) is the go-to sign of support for the ConstitutionDAO project, with users appending the symbol to the end of their handles. And it popped up everywhere.

Twitter avatar for @julianweisser
weisser.eth (📜, 📜) @julianweisser
Anyone with (📜, 📜 ) in their name on Twitter is an instant folllow. I don’t make the rules. @ConstitutionDAO 🇺🇸
Image
Image
6:14 AM ∙ Nov 12, 2021
117Likes8Retweets

As the internet sniffed out the hilarious potential of ConstitutionDAO, there was a buzz on Twitter. A buzz similar to the whole GameStop / Wall Street Bets affair from earlier this year (keep this in mind):

  • Step 1: “There’s something happening on the internet”

  • Step 2: “This is hilarious”

  • Step 3: “Oh, it’s an internet-native group of folk taking on establishment symbols”

  • Step 4: “Wow, there’s a lot of money involved”

  • Step 5: “Holy crap, they might pull it off”

This lead to some quality content:

Twitter avatar for @AdamSinger
Adam Singer @AdamSinger
Image
5:05 PM ∙ Nov 15, 2021
7,035Likes459Retweets
Twitter avatar for @divyacohen
Divya Dhar Cohen, MD @divyacohen
(📜, 📜) @ConstitutionDAO
Image
1:23 AM ∙ Nov 18, 2021
300Likes14Retweets
Twitter avatar for @andrew__reed
Andrew Reed @andrew__reed
The plan? Purchase the US Constitution.
Image
1:17 AM ∙ Nov 16, 2021
884Likes43Retweets
Twitter avatar for @TrungTPhan
Trung Phan 🇨🇦 @TrungTPhan
Image
8:26 PM ∙ Nov 15, 2021
1,640Likes120Retweets
Twitter avatar for @anothercohen
Alex Cohen @anothercohen
In case you're just tuning in
Image
12:31 AM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
76Likes1Retweet

NOTE: Contributors to ConstitutionDAO wouldn’t have actually received fractional ownership of the US Constitution. Per the project’s FAQ, Sotheby’s doesn’t allow DAOs to bid for auction items. Instead, contributors receive governance tokens in the DAO — called $PEOPLE — that give voting rights like where the document will be placed (e.g. Smithsonian). The actual bidder was a non-profit connected to the DAO’s LLC, which is legally owned by 2 of the ConstitutionDAO members.

How did the auction go?

Here are some fundraising milestones based on the @ConstitutionDAO Twitter handle: 

  • Monday (2:27pm PT): $4m

  • Tuesday (5:43am PT): $5m

  • Wednesday (5:34am PT): $11.6m

  • Wednesday (11:10am PT): $14.4m

  • Wednesday (12:10pm PT): $20.1m

  • Wednesday (1:08pm PT): $25.1m

  • Wednesday (3:46pm PT): $31.2m

  • Wednesday (9:31pm PT): $40.3m

Throughout Wednesday, ConstitutionDAO moved its donation target to increasingly higher stretch goals: it went from $20m to $25m to $30m to $35m to $40m.

So as to not fully tip its hand against competing auction bidders, ConstitutionDAO shut the counter off at $40m. In the end, ConstitutionDAO raised an insane $47m+ in less than a week ($30m+ on Wednesday alone).

The Sotheby’s auction was live-streamed Thursday evening.

And even though the actual US Constitution auction was short (<10 minutes), it delivered a star: Brooke Lampley, Sotheby’s Chairman and Worldwide Head of Sales for Global Fine Art.

A 2018 profile of Lampley from Robb Report notes that she is a “reputed rainmaker” and “auction house darling” who became “a trailblazer” while at Christie’s (the main competitor to Sotheby’s) for “leading evening sales, a senior post long held by a man”.

Here is Brooke making it rain during the auction. As it turns out, she was actually bidding against ConstitutionDAO…

…but the internet embraced her, nonetheless.

Enter the memes (with some solid Succession references): 

Twitter avatar for @adriyoung
paddingtonbear.eth (📜,📜) @adriyoung
i knew it
Image
Image
1:31 AM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
494Likes29Retweets
Twitter avatar for @litcapital
litquidity @litcapital
“Put me down for $50M for the Constitution. My husband just closed out some profitable options trades”
Image
Image
1:54 AM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
1,757Likes94Retweets
Twitter avatar for @202accepted
jimmy hsu (F,F) (❤️‍🔥,❤️‍🔥) @202accepted
crypto bros trying to ask Brooke Lampley out after seeing the Constitution bid
Image
2:02 AM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
102Likes10Retweets
Twitter avatar for @packyM
Packy McCormick (📜,📜) @packyM
deciding whether to use the beautiful, fresh 5 hour block I protected all week to actually write or jump into the seventh circle of hell that is my inbox
Image
4:11 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
324Likes1Retweet

Someone made a Brooke Fan Cam LOL.

To respond, Brooke created a Twitter account and posted her first tweet ever:

Twitter avatar for @brookemlampley
Brooke Lampley @brookemlampley
This is the real point. @ConstitutionDAO made history last night and will be back for more. And next time maybe with me...
Twitter avatar for @ConstitutionDAO
ConstitutionDAO (📜, 📜) @ConstitutionDAO
https://t.co/6GVxlkvJbj
9:27 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
830Likes73Retweets

Her identity confirmed by Sotheby’s:

Twitter avatar for @Sothebys
Sotheby's @Sothebys
*Brooke has entered the chat*
Twitter avatar for @brookemlampley
Brooke Lampley @brookemlampley
@ConstitutionDAO This is the real point. @ConstitutionDAO made history last night and will be back for more. And next time maybe with me...
10:12 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
71Likes9Retweets

Who won the auction?

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHA.

Ken Griffin, who bid $43m+ for the US Constitution (in addition to the bid, there are costs for insurance, storage and transportation).

For the uninitiated, Griffin is:

  • Founder and CEO of Citadel, a huge investment management firm and market marker

  • Worth $20B+ and is the richest person in the State of Illinois

  • An absolute VILLAIN to the Wall Street Bets / Reddit community, who believe he colluded with RobinHood to stymie their trading on GameStop and AMC

If you want to see a steady stream of unprintable words, do a search of “Ken Griffin” on Reddit.

So, Griffin is already hated by a massive meme-loving community of stock investors. Now, he’s taken a dump right on the front lawn of the Web3 community.

Just unreal.

The ConstitutionDAO response was fantastic:

Twitter avatar for @ConstitutionDAO
ConstitutionDAO (📜, 📜) @ConstitutionDAO
how much for citadel?
8:54 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
5,844Likes500Retweets

It’s too cliche at this point to even say “no Hollywood screenwriter could have dreamed this up”.

What an absolutely absurd outcome. Unfathomable.

I have nothing else to add…enjoy these:

Twitter avatar for @ParikPatelCFA
Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. 💸 @ParikPatelCFA
Ken Griffin was mad about Gamestop so he decided to rug pull the constitution instead
8:58 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
2,128Likes180Retweets
Twitter avatar for @michaelbatnick
Michael Batnick @michaelbatnick
Elon Musk: “I’m the richest troll in the world” Ken Griffin: “Hold my Constitution”
8:21 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
2,921Likes287Retweets
Twitter avatar for @KennethDredd
Kenneth Dredd @KennethDredd
the virgin dao v. chad ken griffin
Image
9:44 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
3,831Likes418Retweets
Twitter avatar for @IvanTheK
Ivan the K™ @IvanTheK
KEN GRIFFIN AMENDS CONSTITUTION; ADDS PAYMENT FOR ORDER FLOW TO BILL OF RIGHTS
8:57 PM ∙ Nov 19, 2021
2,955Likes270Retweets
Twitter avatar for @TrungTPhan
Trung Phan 🇨🇦 @TrungTPhan
Ken Griffin after getting shit on non-stop by the internet for the past 6 months
Image
4:47 AM ∙ Nov 20, 2021
351Likes21Retweets

Will this happen again?

Yes! Of course.

As long as the internet, funny shit and infinite money exist.

Having said that, it’s gonna be pretty difficult to top this trifecta:

  1. Nicholas Cage

  2. Coming out party for DAOs (this last point can only happen the first time once)

  3. The mystique of the US Constitution (with the added time element of an auction deadline)

As an exercise, I did a quick summary of other Cage-themed DAO opportunities. They don’t look as good:

The only thing I know for sure…Nic Cage is def laying low right now:

Twitter avatar for @TrungTPhan
Trung Phan 🇨🇦 @TrungTPhan
Nicholas Cage spotted in public wearing his disguise after a flood of attention from the @ConstitutionDAO project
Image
5:11 AM ∙ Nov 18, 2021
750Likes30Retweets

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Final Notes

Here is ConstitutionDAO’s post-auction message to the community:

Contributors also have the option to continue supporting ConstitutionDAO. To do so, they leave their funds in the DAO’s treasury for future initiatives.

Twitter avatar for @ConstitutionDAO
ConstitutionDAO (📜, 📜) @ConstitutionDAO
For everyone who wants to continue riding with us, you'll also be able to sign a message (without paying for gas) committing your funds to the DAO's treasury and get our governance token $WTP (We The People) back. Of course, you can also do nothing and see how things play out 😁
6:40 AM ∙ Nov 20, 2021
217Likes17Retweets
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ConstitutionDAO: A meme history

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