June 2019

dOrg, a blockchain development cooperative, announced today that it is now the first legally established Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) under United States law.

After deploying its DAO to the Ethereum blockchain, dOrg formed a Blockchain-Based Limited Liability Company (BBLLC) in Vermont, dOrg LLC. By linking the DAO to this BBLLC, the DAO has official legal status, allowing it to enter contractual agreements and offer participants liability protections.

dOrg’s legal DAO is only the first step in a wider research collaboration to develop best practices and software that automates DAO legal formation. dOrg hopes that these efforts will catalyze a new wave of DAOs that can interoperate with the broader economy.

“We want to make what we just did accessible to anyone in the world,” according to a statement ratified by dOrg’s proposal engine. “Ultimately, the process of configuring and deploying a legally registered DAO will be as easy as creating a social media account.”

Vermont enacted the law that enables BBLLCs in July 2018. The law creates an enforceable legal framework for blockchain-based governance and organizational structures.

“dOrg asked us to help design a DAO legal wrapper after discovering the potential of BBLLCs,” said Oliver Goodenough, a law professor at Vermont Law School and special counsel to Gravel & Shea. “We believe that dOrg is now the first legal entity that directly references blockchain code as its source of governance. Its material operations and ownership interests are managed entirely on-chain.”

dOrg uses DAOstack– an open-source blockchain-based framework for decentralized governance– as the underlying technology for its DAO.

“We are very excited about the launch of dOrg’s legal DAO. This is a bold experiment to bridge the blockchain world with legacy systems,” said Matan Field, Chief Architect and CEO of DAOstack Technologies.

For more information, visit http://dorg.tech/. To view interviews about dOrg, visit law.mit.edu/BBLLC.

About dOrg

dOrg is a blockchain development shop that specializes in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). We build open-source tooling, execute on client work, and conduct research that advances the DAO ecosystem.

Contacts

dOrg

Ori Shimony: contact@dorg.tech

Gravel & Shea

Oliver Goodenough: ogoodenough@gravelshea.com

Catherine Burke: cburke@gravelshea.com

DAOstack

Patrick Rawson: pat@daostack.io