HBR Insights Web3, Crypto, and Blockchain Collection (3 Books)

3 WHAT A DAO CAN—AND CAN’T—DO

by Jonathan Ruane and Andrew McAfee

In November 2021, a group of individuals formed a legal entity that bought 40 acres of land in Wyoming. This kind of thing happens all the time, of course. But the closer we look at this particular real estate transaction, the stranger it becomes.

The purchasing group included approximately 6,000 people. They met via online discussion platforms such as Discord and bought the land not with dollars, yen, or any other fiat currency, but instead with cryptocurrency. It’s not clear exactly what they bought: Individuals’ legal claims on the land itself and the proceeds from its use or sale are not yet, as of writing, settled.

But the strangest part of this deal is that no one runs ...