Just DAO It: A Podcast for People Starting DAOs

Adam Miller
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Just DAO It! is a podcast for people starting DAOs. Are you thinking about starting a DAO? Just DAO It! Every episode will cover recent DAO news, tweets, and posts from around the web. We’ll break down what the news means for you and combine it with great advice from people who have started or contributed to successful DAOs. Disclaimer: Just DAO It! is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Just DAO It does **not** contain any legal or financial advice. MIDAO also does not provide legal or financial advice, and nor does your host, yours truly. Just DAO It! is hosted by Adam Miller, the founder of MIDAO, the company that provides legal entities for DAOs.

  1. 5d ago

    Just DAO It! — AI Agents With Wallets: Why English Instructions Fail and How Law Will Handle Autonomous Software

    Adam Miller's talk from Maryland Blockchain Bootcamp 2026 (Capitol Technology University, July 2026). AI agents already hold wallets, credentials, and onchain identity, and the law still assumes a person behind every act. The Freysa game and why language guardrails are not access controls, the decentralization ladder that strips away legal attachment points, the market's honest numbers, where liability lands when an autonomous agent acts with no entity behind it, and how entity-law wrappers like the Marshall Islands DAO LLC make agents legible, suable, and accountable without granting AI personhood. Adam is not a lawyer, and nothing in this episode is legal advice. Litigation status update (August 2026): the ai16z class action discussed in this episode (Pikabea v. Walters, S.D.N.Y.) was dismissed by stipulation on July 8, 2026, individual claims with prejudice, class claims without prejudice; the faked-autonomy allegations were never adjudicated. Chapters00:00 Show intro00:29 Freysa Prompt Hack02:06 Why Guardrails Fail03:36 What Agents Really Are06:01 Decentralization Ladder09:52 Market Hype vs Reality10:59 Payments Plumbing X40213:50 Decentralized Minds Progress16:16 Milestones and Lawsuits19:21 Software Cannot Own20:22 Algorithmic Entity Doorway23:10 Agents Inside DAOs24:10 Four DAO Agent Roles28:28 Demand Still Early30:07 Liability Map and Holes33:28 Digital LLC Solution36:19 Five Policy Takeaways41:10 Closing and Call to Action43:31 Outro Watch the talk with slides and graphics (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKfchKnV5Ok The AI Agent Legal Entity Guide: https://www.midao.org/guides/ai-agents 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

    Just DAO It! — AI Agents With Wallets: Why English Instructions Fail and How Law Will Handle Autonomous Software

  2. Oct 6

    Just DAO It! — DAO Liability, the Ooki & Lido Cases, and Why States Are Passing DAO Entity Law

    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. Chapters00:00 Show intro00:29 Ooki DAO Wake Up Call03:49 What A DAO Is06:43 Where Law Attaches08:52 Default Partnership Trap10:38 Two Landmark Cases13:33 Lido Timeline Stakes16:40 Sixteen Year Legal Arc19:51 Five Statute Design Tests26:23 US Scoreboard And Federal29:35 Adoption Costs Offshore Map34:00 Maryland Moment And Ask40:28 Closing Why Entity Law42:26 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

    Just DAO It! — DAO Liability, the Ooki & Lido Cases, and Why States Are Passing DAO Entity Law

  3. Sep 25

    Farewell to DAOs? DAOs 2.0 & Autonomous Organizations Are Inevitable | Sam McCarthy on Just DAO It!

    Farewell to DAOs? Why DAOs 2.0 and Autonomous Organizations Are Inevitable | Sam McCarthy on Just DAO It!Are DAOs dead? Not even close. They're growing up. In this episode, host Adam Miller talks with Sam McCarthy from DAOstar and MetaGov, author of the essay "Farewell to DAOs." The title is clickbait on purpose. The essay argues that the one-token-one-vote model is finished, but DAOs themselves are inevitable. Sam went from consulting for commercial banks to working full time in crypto during DeFi Summer. He explains why DAOs have locked themselves into one copy-paste governance model. He argues that decentralization should be a means to an end, not the goal. And he says DAOs need to beat the corporation on performance to earn legitimacy. Then they get into autonomous organizations (AOs): companies run by AI agents. Sam shares what DAOstar and Stanford are building together, including a new incubator for AOs. They also cover:- Who owns an agent-run company, and who is liable for it- How to make incentives and penalties work for AI agents- Reputation registries and trust networks- Why a multi-agent world makes organizational design an AI safety question If you're building a DAO, a Web3 project, or a company that uses AI agents, this one is for you. LINKS FROM SAMTwitter/X: https://x.com/samccarthy27Substack: https://sammccarthy.substack.com/Stanford AO Summit (recordings and transcripts): https://www.stanfordao.org/summitLondon AO Summit (upcoming, early November, co-hosted with ARIA): https://daostar.org/aosummit MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE"Farewell to DAOs" essay by Sam McCarthy and Spencer Graham: https://sammccarthy.substack.com/p/farewell-to-daosDAOstar: https://daostar.org/Metagov (and its Slack community): https://metagov.org/ ABOUT JUST DAO IT!Just DAO It! is the podcast for people starting DAOs, Web3 projects and AI agents, hosted by Adam Miller, CEO & Co-Founder of MIDAO https://midao.org

    Farewell to DAOs? DAOs 2.0 & Autonomous Organizations Are Inevitable | Sam McCarthy on Just DAO It!

  4. Jul 27

    Preventing DAO Governance Attacks + Building a Music DAO and AI Agent Legal Entities (with Zaal / Better Call Zaal)

    Preventing DAO Governance Attacks + Building a Music DAO and AI Agent Legal Entities (with Zaal / Better Call Zaal) Adam Miller hosts Just DAO It and interviews Zaal (“Better Call Zaal”), founder of the ZAO, an on-chain music community incubator aiming to return profit-margin data and IP rights to independent artists. They discuss BonqDAO’s low-turnout governance “apathy attack” and mitigations like security councils, timelocks, and ZAO’s illiquid, soulbound “respect” governance tokens with extended voting/veto periods. The episode covers ENS’s newly adopted security council, Cardano and Solana governance updates, MetaDAO’s ownership coins and futarchy, Lido’s restructuring, and Arbitrum revenue sharing. Regulatory news includes the U.S. CLARITY Act ethics dispute and SEC safe-harbor proposals. In AI agent news, Adam critiques early agent hype and highlights emerging legal structures (Marshall Islands, Delaware draft, Bermuda). Zaal explains ZAO’s reputation-based governance, Wave Wars live-traded music battles that pay artists, upcoming ZAOstock in Maine, and plans for a community-weighted AI agent (“XOL/Zol Bot”) to manage funds via a legal entity. 00:00 Welcome and Introductions01:11 BonqDAO Governance Attack03:11 ZAO Defense Mechanisms04:43 ENS Security Council Update07:10 Governance Rapid Fire11:58 Regulatory CLARITY Act14:17 AI Agent News and Reality Check19:03 Break and MIDAO Guide19:47 Zaal Origin Story21:21 Why Blockchain Matters23:43 Inside the ZAO Respect System25:32 Reputation Voting Challenges30:10 Progress and Community Metrics31:46 Wave Wars Explained35:24 ZAO Festivals and ZAOstock37:06 AI Agent Legal Entity Plans40:01 Where to Find Zaal and Wrap Up Contact / Links:Zaal (Farcaster): zaalZaal (X): @bettercallzaalZaal (Email): info@thezao.comWave Wars: https://wavewarz.comAdam (X): @0xthrillerAdam (Farcaster): The ThrillerMIDAO (X): @MIDAODSMIDAO: https://midao.orgAI Agent incorporation guide: https://midao.org/guides

  5. Jul 10

    Just DAO It! with Alex Soto - Coordination Without Subordination

    In this episode of Just DAO It!, host Adam Miller (CEO of MIDAO) sits down with Alex Soto (@alexsotodigital), a Mexico-based governance facilitator and author of "The Minimum Viable Institution: A Lightweight Coordination Model for DAOs and Purpose-Driven Networks." In the news report, they break down: The ENS DAO "2026 governance crisis" — treasury fights, resignations, and whether founder voting power amounts to a vetoThe Ethereum Foundation's major reorg, layoffs, and shift toward EthLabs and a multi-org ecosystemRegulatory updates: the U.S. CLARITY Act and its "ethics clause," Europe's MiCA deadline, USDT vs. USDC compliance, and evolving SEC decentralization rulesIn the interview, Alex shares his vision for the future of DAOs: Why good governance shouldn't require a benevolent founder — it should be designed to constrain powerThe critical difference between governance/meta-governance and day-to-day operationsSeparating capital from governance power ("raise money without giving power away")Role-based models, sociocracy, and holacracy as battle-tested alternatives to token votingWhy he doesn't believe in progressive decentralization — start small and decentralized, then growThe role of AI agents and smart contracts in maintaining coordination, accountability, and institutional memoryA wide-ranging conversation on coordination without subordination, capture resistance, and why "DAOs aren't dead — they haven't even arrived yet." Alex helps mission-driven organizations turn coordination challenges, disagreement, and distributed work into governance systems, shared practices, clearer decisions, and institutional learning loops. Find Alex: @alexsotodigital on all platforms | alexsotodigital.eth.limoFind MIDAO: @midaods | midao.org Disclaimer: Not legal or tax advice.

  6. Jun 24

    Just DAO It! with Kenny from poidh

    Just DAO It | Ep. 2 — Kenny from poidh.xyz on Bounties, DAOs & AI Agents Adam Miller (CEO of MIDAO) sits down with Kenny, founder of Pics or It Didn't Happen (poidh) — a permissionless bounty protocol the enables "ephemeral DAOs.” They break down the biggest crypto hacks of the past few months, the state of crypto regulation in the US and Europe, the reality of AI agents transacting on-chain, and why Kenny thinks the DAO model has been wrong from the start. Chapters:0:00 — Intro & Welcome Back (first episode in over a year!)1:55 — News: Record-Breaking Crypto Hack Month ($600M+ lost in April)5:42 — The Kelp/LayerZero Attack Explained13:21 — The Trapdoor Campaign: AI Agents as Attack Vectors17:21 — US Crypto Regulation: Genius Act, Clarity Act & Open Source Immunity22:13 — MiCA in Europe: 85% of Firms Without a License28:04 — 400K AI Agents On-Chain: Impressive or Just Testing?37:16 — Interview: Kenny's Background & How He Got Into Crypto44:07 — Deep Dive: What Is POIDH and How Does It Work?48:05 — A Brief History of DAOs and Why They Failed56:00 — The "Atomic Unit" of a DAO: Objectives, Not Organizations1:03:24 — Progressive Decentralization & Token Strategy1:07:04 — Working With DAOs: The Haberdashery & Breaking a Kickflip World Record1:13:35 — Pump.fun Launches Bounties: What It Means for POIDH1:16:19 — The Big Vision: Online Communities Pooling Capital IRL1:16:47 — Where to Find Kenny & POIDH Links:* poidh: poidh.xyz* MIDAO: midao.org* Beta Briefing (AI news agent): betabriefing.ai* Kenny on X/Twitter: @KennyIsTyping | Farcaster: @Kenny* Adam on X/Twitter: @0xThriller | Farcaster: @TheThriller Not legal or financial advice.

  7. 02/19/2025

    Just DAO It! Interview with Puncar from How to DAO and MotherDAO

    This week's guests:On this week’s Just DAO It, we welcome guest Jan Brezina (Puncar), who recently released his book, How to DAO: Mastering the Future of Internet Coordination. Beyond drafting this book, he’s currently working on another DAO, MotherDAO, a decentralized network where AI agents work, govern, and grow. Puncar is truly a DAO OG, as he co-founded Bankless Consulting, the DAO Governance Collective, and Workout DAO, among other projects. We look forward to having this DAO expert on the podcast! Check out the book here:How to DAO: Mastering the Future of Internet Coordination: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/729257/how-to-dao-by-kevin-owocki-and-puncar-foreword-by-don-tapscott/  Find us on Socials:@PuncarH2D on Twitter@puncar on Farcaster@0xThriller on Twitter@thethriller on Farcaster @leohenkels on Twitter@leohenkels on Farcaster

    Just DAO It! Interview with Puncar from How to DAO and MotherDAO

  8. 12/19/2024

    Just DAO It! DAO News & Interview with Travis and Sam from DAOHaus

    This week's guests: On this week’s Just DAO It, we welcome guests Travis and Sam from DAOHaus, a no-code DAO launchpad built using the Moloch V3 governance toolkit. Beyond working together on DAOHaus, they’ve also helped build or contribute to: Yeeter, Bootleggers, Raid Guild, Meta Cartel, and RaidBrood, among other projects. Most recently, they’ve been experimenting at the intersection of DAOs and Farcaster, a sufficiently decentralized social network. Their current project is called Farcastles, and they’ve received a grant from the Octant Accelerator to continue developing it. We look forward to having these DAO experts on the podcast! Relevant Resources Mentioned in the Show: California Court Rules DAO Members Can Face Legal Liability as Business Partners BIO Protocol DAOs Get Backing From Binance Labs and Tarun Chitra on Twitter / X weighs in Decentralization Is Why We Fight for Crypto ICOs are back? Good Conversation Sparked Under This Tweet: Haseeb ＞|＜ on Twitter / X Aave DAO considers exiting Polygon after a proposed bridge Find us on Socials:@samskuhlmann on Twitter@samskuhlmann on Farcaster@earth2travis on Twitter@earth2travis on Farcaster@0xThriller on Twitter@thethriller on Farcaster @leohenkels on Twitter@leohenkels on Farcaster

    Just DAO It! DAO News & Interview with Travis and Sam from DAOHaus
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About

Just DAO It! is a podcast for people starting DAOs. Are you thinking about starting a DAO? Just DAO It! Every episode will cover recent DAO news, tweets, and posts from around the web. We’ll break down what the news means for you and combine it with great advice from people who have started or contributed to successful DAOs. Disclaimer: Just DAO It! is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Just DAO It does **not** contain any legal or financial advice. MIDAO also does not provide legal or financial advice, and nor does your host, yours truly. Just DAO It! is hosted by Adam Miller, the founder of MIDAO, the company that provides legal entities for DAOs.

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