08: Marshall Islands & DAO’s // Adam Miller from MIDAO
Background:
Adam Miller is the Co-Founder of MIDAO.org, which helps DAOs incorporate in the Marshall Islands. MIDAO helps DAOs incorporate in the only jurisdiction that explicitly recognizes the unique structure of DAOs and ensures limited liability to its members. Adam previously founded DAOPlatform.io, providing strategy and technology consulting to help others launch & operate DAOs. He has invested in public and private companies, founded start-ups, and held executive leadership and board positions at small businesses. Adam is also passionate about supporting social causes and serves on various non-profit boards.
Adam spent 6 years in Emerging Technology Research at Capital Group, a global investment management firm with over $2T in assets under management. He started his career investing in and founding several social web platforms, including StudyAbroad101. He has a BS in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and certificates in Cybersecurity from UC Irvine and Cryptocurrencies from MIT Media Lab.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- 3:55 Adam shares the story of what he has been doing for the past five years. It was only recently that Adam decided to focus on crypto and DAO. He also started a DAO consulting firm called DAOPlatform.io and he has been doing this for several months now.
- 5:25 MyDAO is an LLC based on the Marshall Islands and they are a company-helping DAO, which means they are not a DAO.
- 6:47 For the last several months, Adam and his co-founders were collaborating with the government of the Marshall Islands regarding the creation of a new type of legal entity for DAOs.
- 8:10 Adam thinks that 2022 is the year of the DAO.
- 10:28 Since launching his DAO LLC five days ago, they have been getting many inquiries, signed up 2 customers, and launched 1 DAO. They are also offering incentives for early customers.
- 15:32 Adam shares his insight on the risk of DAOs that are almost fully autonomous.
- 18:15 According to Adam, there’s a lot of ambiguity in the term Decentralized and Autonomous on DAO.
- 20:43 In the case of the Marshall Islands, their new law allows a DAO to really be a DAO.
- 26:04 When it comes to people residing in communist countries who are members of a certain DAO, Adam says that having an LLC does not give anyone permission to break the law.
- 31:37 This year, Adam believes that the SEC or government regulators will acknowledge the existence of DAOs and introduce a ruling for people who are crossing the line.
- 35:54 Eric reminds the listeners once again that everything they are saying in this podcast is information that you should not be basing your decisions on. You have to do your own research and make your own decisions.
- 37:01 For those looking for the official rules for the Marshall Islands, Adam is still sorting this out and they are currently working on their marketing materials and new website.
- 38:44 For people joining DAOs with high expectations, Eric reminds them that most of the people running DAOs are volunteers and they are not getting paid.
- 40:00 If you are looking for more information about DAO, Adam offers some of his best recommendations.
- 41:07 Adam shares a DAO that has registered in the Marshall Islands.
- 42:42 There are several reasons why people should consider the Marshall Islands instead of other regions.
- 44:53 Adam talks about some surprising facts about the Marshall Islands.
- 45:58 The best way to contact Adam is to visit MIDAO.org.
- 48:32 Adam provides more information about the Marshall Islands law and the Wyoming law.
- 50:36 Marshall Islands has recognized DAOs as corporate entities and they have allowed DAOs to register as limited liability entities in their country.
- 52:50 The community or social aspect of running a DAO is a hot subject for Adam.
Key Points from the Interview:
- “2022 is gonna be the year of the DAO and maybe a good year for other things like Defi’s and NFTs as well but this is gonna be the year of the DAOs.”
- “Literally every day I’m talking to several people who are involved in or starting DAOs and every single one is different from the last in some way and every single one is very interesting. And so that is probably the most personally rewarding part of what I’m doing and I’m sure we’re also helping these DAOs but just getting to learn about everything that people are doing and build all these awesome relationships with our potential customers is really cool.”
