Constitution DAO's Co-founder on Memecoins & the Rise and Fall of Web3 Community

It’s been nearly four years since ConstitutionDAO rallied more than 15,000 strangers on the internet to raise over $40 million in a bid to buy an original copy of the U.S. Constitution. It was a defining moment in crypto history —a chaotic, inspiring, and ultimately unsuccessful attempt that still reshaped how people thought about collective ownership in the era of Web3.

Reflecting on that moment today, ConstitutionDAO co-founder Graham Novak tells Coinage that the experience was "a fever dream."

“It was only one week from start to finish,” Novak said in a new Coinage interview. "From the night we hosted the kickoff call to the auction itself in New York City, it was exactly one week. So it’s an extremely condensed period of time."

The idea was sparked when Novak's friend shared an article in a group chat about the Constitution going up for auction. What started as a joke quickly snowballed into a serious plan to form a DAO, pool funds, and bid on the historic document. Leveraging Juicebox as the ideal smart contract fundraising platform at the time, they enabled contributors to receive PEOPLE tokens as receipts for their contributions — a move that would later have unforeseen implications. (In full disclosure, I participated by throwing in $250 worth of Ethereum at the time, which later turned into PEOPLE tokens worth more than $2,000 some time after.)

Novak recalls the tension leading up to auction day. Sotheby's approval to participate came only hours before the event, and a last-minute request to convert their Ethereum holdings into dollars added another layer of stress. Despite these hurdles, the DAO entered the auction with more than $40 million, only to be narrowly outbid by billionaire Ken Griffin. The twist was dramatic, with many initially believing the DAO had won.

But ConstitutionDAO's impact went beyond that moment. Its failure at auction was followed by a commitment to refund every contributor in full — an unusual move in the crypto world. As Novak puts it, "It’s the only sensible thing. It [was] the ethical thing to do."

Yet, even after refunds were processed, the PEOPLE token took on a life of its own. "It’s not rational. It’s not explicable,” Novak said of the token’s price surge. "But within an extremely short period of time, this thing is worth hundreds of millions of dollars." As an observer and participant, it was the first time I saw the power of Web3 — and the ability for collective attention and IP to bring about added value beyond just the money that was pooled. It made no sense otherwise, why the value of PEOPLE would have continued to rise.

Four years later, it's interesting to reflect on how the world of Web3 has evolved — and yet stayed the same since ConstitutionDAO. Has Web3 actually somehow gotten worse since then? Regardless, the movement sparked hundreds of similar DAOs — including Coinage. But outside of Coinage (which elected Novak to honorary membership last month) he can't help but feel that the DAO innovation he hoped to see has lagged.

"I think [I am] a little bit disappointed that we didn't actually see more innovation. A lot of people were just like, copy and paste it," he said. The rise of memecoins has also complicated the picture. Is it really ideal to have the token become the narrative rather than the mission of a project? With ConstitutionDAO no one really bought in for PEOPLE — since it was merely a byproduct of the goal to buy the Constitution at auction. So many memecoins have flipped that order to instead focus on using the token (and its price) as the mission in and of itself. That complicates things as it pits holders against each other rather than aligning their interests. But as they've shown, they can still be incredibly efficient at bringing in money.

"Inside me there are two wolves," Novak joked. "One wants to see productive projects. The other recognizes this [speculation] is going to happen no matter what."

While memecoins have become synonymous with speculative frenzy, ConstitutionDAO proved that tokens can represent more than just financial gain. It was born with a focus on community, purpose, and showing the potential for decentralized collaboration. As most memecoins come down in price, it's hard to say they've been any more effective at bringing value to communities as early entrants sell at the expense of those who come in after. Indeed, as Coinage covered, the Libra token, which was endorsed by Argentina President Javier Milei, may have ironically done the most damage to Argentinians.

Considering Novak's experiment encouraged a lot of builders to quit their jobs to dive into the world of Web3 (just as I did to start Coinage as a DAO) it's hard to see ConstitutionDAO as anything other than a massive success — even if they never accomplished the mission they set out to tackle. In fact, maybe the mission wasn't actually the Constitution anyways.

Today, Novak is continuing to build infrastructure for Web3 communities through Mezzanine Labs, creating tools to help DAOs operate more efficiently. The mission is rooted in the lessons of ConstitutionDAO: That successful collective action requires better infrastructure and tools, and that transparency and community-first values are essential.

"Whether you're a business, or you're a nonprofit, or you're a DAO, you should be able to store and manage these things and in some ways, if I were going back to the Constitution, I'd say ... freedom of assembly is not just bringing people together, but it's the right for an organization to be able to hold assets and to do things with that money," he said.

In that case, it's hard to look at ConstitutionDAO as anything other than a spark that lit up the crypto world — a moment that proved strangers could come together to try and change history. And while the Constitution slipped through their fingers, the DAO's legacy is still very much shaping what comes next for Web3 communities.

Coinage members can watch our full interview with Mezzanine Labs co-founder Graham Novak above. To support our community-owned outlet, own it with us, and unlock other exclusive benefits, mint one of our Membership Passes today or stake with us today! Chat with Coinage in our Discord.