Matthew Leising of Bloomberg Crypto published an article about the new Ether-based investment vehicle, the LAO or Limited Liability Autonomous Organization.

DAO 2.0?

The analyst highlights that this way of fundraising has some limitations that were not common for DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) of the blessed era of 2016-2017. For instance, participation in the LAO-powered investment rounds is limited, as is the amount of Ether one holder can invest.

The LAO has already managed to raise $878,000 and funded its first startup. This is the Ethereum (ETH) mixer Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused instrument designed to enhance the level of anonymity in Ethereum (ETH) transactions. The Tornado Cash team received 244 Ether, worth about $59,000.

According to Aaron Wright, a co-founder of Open Law, the firm behind the initial design and codebase of the LAO, the participants within this community interact like partners. Each of them can contribute 120 ETH maximum.

Then, startup representatives pitch their products to the LAO investors. At press time, LAO has received 42 proposals for valuation and fundraising.

Reinventing the ideology of decentralization

Mr. Wright outlines that the LAO is much more mature than its ultimately decentralized predecessor. Great progress was made in terms of compliance with strict U.S. legal requirements. 

Now, every LAO transaction is tied to legal documents. Also, the ecosystem carries out thorough 'know-your-customer' and 'anti-money-laundering' checks. The level of security within LAO also can't be compared to that of DAO.

One percent of the LAO is owned by Christoph Jentzsch, who developed a codebase for the DAO four years ago. Mr. Jentzsch believes that the idea of limited liability is definitely what DAO missed.

At the same time, every participant of the LAO has a small amount of Ethereum (ETH) at stake, so, the interest in vetting the project is significantly smaller than it was with the DAO, Mr. Jentzsch admits.