{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T17:52:08Z","timestamp":1775065928900,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"IGI Global","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,1,1]]},"abstract":"<p>In spring 2016, the Distributed Autonomous Organization (The DAO) was created on Ethereum. As with Bitcoin, Ethereum uses a P2P network, where distributed ledgers are implemented as daisy-chained blocks of data. Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, Ethers are spent to execute pieces of code called smart contracts. Investors paid their Ethers for the DAO to operate and received the opportunity to vote on and become investors in venture projects proposed by Ethereum-based startups. Transactions and settlements between investors and startups are executed autonomously. The DAO experiment failed shortly after inception as an anonymous hacker stole over $50M USD worth of Ethers out of the $168M invested. The Ethereum community voted to return (or fork) the state of the network to one prior to the hack, returning Ethers back to investors and shuttering the DAO. However, this action arguably represented as a bailout\u2014ironically, Bitcoin was conceived as a reaction against the 2008 bailout of US banks\u2014and violated the ledger immutability and \u201ccode is law\u201d ethos of the blockchain community.<\/p>","DOI":"10.4018\/jcit.2019010102","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,23]],"date-time":"2018-10-23T18:27:45Z","timestamp":1540319265000},"page":"19-32","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":307,"title":["Understanding a Revolutionary and Flawed Grand Experiment in Blockchain"],"prefix":"10.4018","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Muhammad Izhar","family":"Mehar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"York University, Toronto, Canada"}]},{"given":"Charles Louis","family":"Shier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Harvard Law School, Cambridge, USA"}]},{"given":"Alana","family":"Giambattista","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"York University, Toronto, Canada"}]},{"given":"Elgar","family":"Gong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"York University, Toronto, Canada"}]},{"given":"Gabrielle","family":"Fletcher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"York University, Toronto, Canada"}]},{"given":"Ryan","family":"Sanayhie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"York University, Toronto, Canada"}]},{"given":"Henry M.","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"York University, Toronto, Canada"}]},{"given":"Marek","family":"Laskowski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"York University, Toronto, Canada"}]}],"member":"2432","reference":[{"key":"JCIT.2019010102-0","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-662-54455-6_8"},{"key":"JCIT.2019010102-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/356842.356846"},{"key":"JCIT.2019010102-2","unstructured":"BlockChannel. 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The DAO Attacked: Code Issue Leads to $60 Million Ether Theft. CoinDesk. 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