Just DAO It: A Podcast for People Starting DAOs

Adam Miller's talk from Maryland Blockchain Bootcamp 2026 (Capitol Technology University, July 2026).

How courts have begun treating unwrapped DAOs as unincorporated associations or general partnerships, what the Ooki and Lido cases did and did not decide, the five design problems any DAO statute has to solve, and an honest map of the US and offshore frameworks, from Wyoming's DUNA to the Marshall Islands DAO LLC.

Adam is not a lawyer, and nothing in this episode is legal advice.

Litigation status update (August 2026): the Lido DAO case discussed in this episode is stayed pending a Ninth Circuit appeal on arbitration; no summary judgment hearing is currently scheduled.

State law correction (September 2026): the US scoreboard in this episode says seven states and eight statutes, and that West Virginia signed a DUNA act in April 2026. West Virginia's bill (HB 5060) never passed its Senate and did not become law. The accurate count is six states and seven statutes, and the DUNA is law in two states: Wyoming and Alabama.

Chapters
00:00 Show intro
00:29 Ooki DAO Wake Up Call
03:49 What A DAO Is
06:43 Where Law Attaches
08:52 Default Partnership Trap
10:38 Two Landmark Cases
13:33 Lido Timeline Stakes
16:40 Sixteen Year Legal Arc
19:51 Five Statute Design Tests
26:23 US Scoreboard And Federal
29:35 Adoption Costs Offshore Map
34:00 Maryland Moment And Ask
40:28 Closing Why Entity Law
42:26 Outro

Watch the talk with slides and graphics (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWDuwmizO08

Free guides on DAO, Web3, and AI agent legal structuring: https://www.midao.org/guides

MIDAO is the sole registered agent for DAO LLCs in the Marshall Islands: https://www.midao.org