The image is called "chorus image" and it can be found on thecdn.vox-cdn.com.
There are 13 copies of the Constitution left.
The image is from Sotheby's.
ConstitutionDAO was in possession of almost 50 million dollars it wasn't able to spend. The group's organizers only had a mandate to spend the crowdfunded money on a rare copy of the US Constitution that they failed to win at auction, so instead of trying to get community approval to use the money toward other goals, they began the process of returning the money.
It has been difficult to return that much money. Even a week later, tens of millions of dollars are still sitting in ConstitutionDAO's pockets, because backers have to manually request refunds. Sending money back to contributors has become an expensive proposition because of the high transaction costs.
It is difficult to understand people who are new to this.
The return process has not been as chaotic as it could have been. Andrew Hong, a data scientist working in the space, pulled figures that show that more than half of the funds ConstitutionDAO collected have been returned. Almost half of the total raised has been sent back as of this afternoon. There is still $23 million waiting to be returned.
There is no time limit on when contributors can get their money back. If backers don't know or care to get their money out, the soon-to-be-dissolved organization could be sitting on a large and otherwise-unusable refund pile.
The ConstitutionDAO team has discussed creating educational resources on how to get refunds, according to a core contributor. He told The Verge that it was difficult to understand. It is not the ideal situation.
Transaction fees have been an issue. Fees are often steep and are required to transmit currency, along with performing many other tasks. It was already difficult to raise funds to buy the Constitution. When a small amount of ether is sent, gas fees don't shrink, so small dollar donors have to pay large sums just to send their contribution in the first place. He had to pay around $50 in fees to send $170 of ether.
Most of the contribution was eaten by fees.
According to the numbers pulled by Richard Chen, a general partner at 1confirmation, more than $1 million was spent on gas fees to make contributions to ConstitutionDAO. The gas fees for contributions could be as high as $1 million. The ConstitutionDAO system is not optimal for small value use cases at the moment.
More than $200,000 has been spent on gas fees for anyone who wants to get their money back, according to the two. The fees are not an issue for large donors, but they are not an issue for most of ConstitutionDAO's contributors. The contributor who sent the most was the median one. If that person spent $50 to send the money and another $50 to get it back, they would have lost half of their money.
That estimate may be conservative. A contributor paid for gas to send $200 and then spent another $70 to get the money back. They should have gotten a $200 refund. If you sent less than the current price, you won't get a refund.
That is part of the reason why this situation is so complicated. Many contributors hoped that ConstitutionDAO would shift its focus to another purpose. Organizers briefly floated launching a new token for those interested in reorganizing around a different goal, then reversed course and announced plans to shut down. It was a disappointment to many in the group that contributors were not allowed to influence the group's decision-making. The organization never achieved its goal of becoming a true DAO, and the organizers decided to focus on refunds.
The outcome shows the promise and challenges of the groups. In a week, ConstitutionDAO was able to raise an impressive amount of money. The project was hard for small donors to contribute to because of the high fees, and the organization decided to end it. Those who contributed the least will be burned the most.
Additional reporting by the man.
