PleasrDAO is a decentralized autonomous organisation “governed by a set of rules enforced onto the blockchain”. CointelegraphJust recently, it was made public that the Wu-Tang Clan paid $4 Million to purchase Wu-Tang Clan. Shaolin: Once Upon a TimeThe federal government.
What is the secret to the Federal Government’s access to the Wu-Tang Album? Martin Shkreli is your guide.
Shkreli, who was convicted in 2018 of securities fraud, is known for increasing the cost of Daraprim (a drug used to treat HIV/AIDS patients) from a mere $13 to $750 per tablet. To serve a seven year sentence, Shkreli was ordered to forfeit $7.4 mil in assets. Shkreli, who was serving a seven-year sentence, sold high value assets, including a Pablo Picasso painting, a rare Lil Wayne album and a lot of other art. Shaolin: Once Upon a Time
PleasrDAO bought the Wu-Tang rare album for $4 million. It has an epic origin story. Rolling StoneThese are the reports
A quick background: A Wu-Tang obsessed named Tarik “Cilvaringz”, Azzougarh slowly works his way to the fringe of Nineties hip-hop band and eventually hits upon the idea of recording one copy of an album, and restricting its use. In a day when nearly all music could be downloaded instantly, Shaolin: Once Upon a Time it would be almost impossible to hear. For 88 years there was no commercial release. You could not record the original or remix it, or play it at large parties, stream it online, or livestream it. The only way you can listen is to get to know the owner, and then be invited to small events.
Jamis Johnson from PleasrDAO stated that “this album in its inception was kind of protest gegen rent-seeking intermediarmen, people who take a cut off the artist.” TelledIt New York Times. “Crypto has a very similar ethos.”
It is ironic that the rent-seeking intermediary was needed in order to obtain the album. Because the federal government doesn’t allow crypto transactions, DAO needed to hire an intermediary. Still, DAOs may well in the future help reduce middlemen in art markets, cutting down on the need for collectors, galleries, and auction houses, allowing creators to more directly sell their work—especially digital works like non-fungible tokens or NFTs—and bypass some of the dues-paying process and formal art-world institutions. This deal involved both the government, as well as the physical album. Rent-seeking middlemen were not excluded. Did Participation is essential. The NFT is still the legal title for the physical album, and it was used to tie Once Upon a Time to the digital universe. Times
“Interest in [the album]”Flows from the secrecy it,” said Peter Scoolidge (New York lawyer), who was involved with the transaction. Plus “yWe want an art buyer to make the story about the work more compelling. A natural match seems to be the 74-member DAO which also includes Pussy Riot’s member. Shkreli purchased the album originally in 2015 right as he began to be known for being a price-gouging “pharmabro”. Strangely, he seemed to be less interested in the new toy than one would expect. BloombergHe had never listened to it before 2015 and was “sav” instead.[ing]It’s good for rainy days. He allowed me to hear a small portion of the song pre-purchase and then he bizarrely gave it to an employee.
Federal government kept the album in an isolated vault, but it was not appreciated. However, the federal government has since lost interest in it and kept it locked up.
“The concept is enduring; Cilvaringz had this concept—everyone else is blasting their music out there through as many channels as they can,” Scoolidge tells Reason. Wu-Tang Clan released an album completely different from what people are used to. It captures imagination.
PleasrDAO is still unable to release the album to the public before 2103 because of the original restrictions. However, PleasrDAO hopes to share their 31-track discovery with a limited audience if Wu Tang will permit it.
Scoolidge says that the use of property and contract rights almost as an aesthetic component is part of what Cilvaringz discovered.