decentralized autonomous organizations

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The viability of DAO structures draws attention after a judge declares that a decentralized autonomous organization is a “person” under the law.

By Nima H. Mohebbi, Yvette D. Valdez, Stephen P. Wink, Douglas K. Yatter, Peter Trombly*, Adam Zuckerman, and Deric Behar

On June 8, 2023, the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a default judgment against Ooki DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that the CFTC charged in September 2022 with three violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).

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By authorizing the issuance of a stable token, “Blockchain Valley” leads the way in state digital asset adoption and integration.

By Jenny Cieplak, Arthur S. Long, Yvette Valdez, Stephen P. Wink, Adam Zuckerman, and Deric Behar

For the last few years, Wyoming has been a leader among US states at the intersection of digital asset innovation, adoption, and regulation. In July 2021, Wyoming became the first state in the nation to allow decentralized autonomous organizations…

Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake presents opportunities and pitfalls for certain digital assets and tokens built on the network.

By Jenny Cieplak, Ghaith Mahmood, Yvette D. Valdez, Stephen P. Wink, Adam Fovent, and Justin Tzeng

After years of development, the Ethereum blockchain appears poised to make its much-anticipated transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model. This change has been described as one of the most significant upgrades in the…

A complaint filed in federal court will test the boundaries of protection from liability for individuals behind decentralized autonomous organizations.

By Stephen P. Wink, Nima H. Mohebbi, Adam Zuckerman, and Deric Behar

On May 2, 2022, a putative class action was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California against the bZx protocol decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), the DAO’s two individual co-founders, two limited liability corporations (LLCs) that invested in the DAO and participated in its governance, and several other associated entities. DAOs are (in theory) organizations without a centralized leadership structure like traditional corporations or other limited liability entities. Their governance is generally driven by the coded terms of smart contracts maintained on a blockchain ledger, rather than top-down by a management team. And rather than having a hierarchy of control, DAO stakeholders with tokenized voting rights are typically considered “equals” in which one token equals one vote.