DAO Faces Difficultly Transfering Ownership Of a Book Over To The Organization

DuneDao is the latest community formed around the purchase of a real-world item, just as ConstutuionDAO aimed to buy a first-issue copy of the U.S Constitution and Krause House is aiming to do with an NBA team.

Co-founded by Soban Saqib (Soby), along with his friend to raise money and bid on the cultural mystery that is the planned but unfilmed 1970s movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel, “Dune.”

Though the $750,000 in Ethereum raised by the community, was significantly more than the estimated value of $25,000-$35,000, needed to win the auction. Even more concerning, the seller did not accept Ethereum, even though that’s what the money was raised in.

Not wanting to see the project go the way of ConstutionDAO, which had raised $45 million but decided to pull its bid due to concerns over whether the funds raised could cover both the bid and auction fees, Soby put down his own cash.

$3,010,750 in fiat of Soban money was used at the auction. "No one wants to fail, no one wants to raise all this money and not win, so I did it," he told Decrypt, adding that he was a little worried about putting down that much of his own cash, but knew the community would support him.

Since winning the auction, he has been looking for a way to transfer the won Dune Bible to the community, with the group reimbursing him, sub whatever his total ownership from being a part of the DAO is.

But this still leaves questions: Where will the book be stored and how will members access its contents? As of right now, the book is being held with the auction house until ownership is figured out.

One suggestion is for the book to be placed in a public place for viewing, but the final decision will come down to a community vote utilizing the $SPICE—the token given to users upon their initial ETH investment. The token will eventually give them voting rights within the DAO.

This process of transfer will begin with another fundraising campaign, this time under the name SpiceDAO, due to Soby’s fear of copyright law in the original community’s name. Impressively, Spice has already raised $11.8 million in ETH and fiat, which will include Soby’s payment at the auction. Any fees still to be paid to Christie’s will be paid and any funds left will be held to fund future projects.

Soby’s posted a blog on Monday detailing his hopes for the project stating, “…a goal of funding an animated film or series and other creative projects, directed by community decisions, inspired by the intent and vision of Jodorowsky's Dune."

While not the smoothest process, it was a harrowing deed that Soby did. The man obviously has a passion for Dune (and a pocket full of disposable cash), but the process of ownership logistics and physical storage seems to grind against DAO idealist realities.