The Ethereum created DAO has become one of the largest crowdsale in history, overtaking today the video game project Star Citizen, which has been a multi-year effort to raise $113,705,500. The DAO, a project curated by the founders of the Ethereum public blockchain, has raised $35 million more than that since May 28.
The DAO – essentially offshoots of Ethereum or subsidiaries with its own principals – claimed the number one spot on the list of highest crowd funds after it surpassed Star Citizen, a space simulation game for which crowdfunding began in late 2012.
Ethereum calls itself a decentralized “Virtual Machine” and, at its foundation, are peer-to-peer “smart contracts.” Smart contracts have been celebrated by the biggest names in technology, including IBM, Red Hat, the Linux Foundation, and essentially every bank in the world. It features its own native digital currency like Bitcoin, called Ether. Funds have been raised for the DAOs – such as Digix, Slock.it and Mobotix – in Ether. Ethereum originally raised funds in Bitcoin.
Described by its founder as “A Next-Generation Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Application Platform,” Ethereum has captured the attention of media, featured in The New York Times and other publications to date.
However, while crypto-enthusiasts have claimed that, indeed, the DAO is a crowdsale, an aggressive edit war on Wikipedia has demonstrated the issue is not so clear.
Many people on Wikipedia believe that The DAO – and presumably the other blockchain projects on the page – does not belong there. That, it is not a crowdsale, but, rather, an IPO of sorts.
The edit war has resulted in the Wikipedia page for “list of highest funded crowdfunding projects” being intensely edited – and, thus, debated- since the DAO climbed the ranks in largest crowdsales ever. Currently, DAO has raised $148,420,000. The previous largest crowdsale, which has […]
