Just DAO It: A Podcast for People Starting DAOs

Hosted by Adam Miller

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Oct 2026

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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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October 20, 2026Episode 7448 min

How to Create a DAO: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide (Adam Miller at Maryland Blockchain Bootcamp 2026)

Ever wondered how a group of internet strangers raised $47 million in a week, or how another group actually sent two people to space? In this talk, MIDAO CEO Adam Miller breaks down exactly what a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) is and shows you how to build one yourself, for free, in a single weekend. No coding required. No money required. Just a laptop, a few friends, and the willingness to learn. What you'll learn: What a DAO actually is, in plain English (membership + governance + treasury) Real stories: ConstitutionDAO's failed bid, MoonDAO sending humans to space, and Pyth Network powering official U.S. government economic data The ENS governance crisis: how one person ended up controlling 80% of a vote with just 3% of the tokens, and the 5 design questions every DAO needs to answer before it's too late A full 7-step walkthrough to launch your own DAO: charter, treasury (Safe), membership NFTs, voting (Snapshot), execution, and community (Discord + Guild) A real example: "Turtle DAO", five friends, a shared treasury, and their first vote from proposal to payout The story of how the Republic of the Marshall Islands created legal recognition for DAOs, and how "The DAO" from 2016 finally found its legal home Your next moves: how to join a DAO, start a tiny one, or build a career in this space Recorded July 2026 at Maryland Blockchain Bootcamp 2026. The three short explainer videos from the talk play as narrated segments in this episode. Governance status update (September 2026): the ENS Security Council dispute discussed in this talk was resolved with a new council seated in July 2026; ENS tokenholders separately voted in August 2026 (about 70% support) to move administrative control of the DAO's roughly $65M endowment to a new ENS Foundation, a move some in the ENS community view as governance overreach. Litigation status (September 2026): the Lido DAO case referenced in this talk (Samuels v. Lido DAO) is stayed pending a Ninth Circuit appeal on arbitration; the merits have not been decided. Chapters 00:00 Just DAO It! intro 00:29 Cold open and who I am 02:51 What a DAO actually is 10:16 How DAOs win, and how they blow up 13:05 The ENS blow-up and the five design questions 21:29 Explainer: A DAO in Three Minutes 24:42 The build-along: seven steps 32:11 Explainer: A Proposal's Journey 38:20 Explainer: Why Ships Have Flags 41:08 The real-world part: the Marshall Islands DAO LLC 43:51 Your move 46:24 Close 47:14 MIDAO outro Free guide, How to Create a DAO: https://www.midao.org/guides/dao Watch the talk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAyuQyC3Bco MIDAO is the sole registered agent for DAO LLCs in the Marshall Islands: https://www.midao.org

October 13, 2026Episode 7344 min

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. Chapters 00:00 Show intro 00:29 Freysa Prompt Hack 02:06 Why Guardrails Fail 03:36 What Agents Really Are 06:01 Decentralization Ladder 09:52 Market Hype vs Reality 10:59 Payments Plumbing X402 13:50 Decentralized Minds Progress 16:16 Milestones and Lawsuits 19:21 Software Cannot Own 20:22 Algorithmic Entity Doorway 23:10 Agents Inside DAOs 24:10 Four DAO Agent Roles 28:28 Demand Still Early 30:07 Liability Map and Holes 33:28 Digital LLC Solution 36:19 Five Policy Takeaways 41:10 Closing and Call to Action 43:31 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

October 6, 2026Episode 7243 min

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. 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

September 25, 2026Episode 751 hr 6 min

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 SAM Twitter/X: https://x.com/samccarthy27 Substack: https://sammccarthy.substack.com/ Stanford AO Summit (recordings and transcripts): https://www.stanfordao.org/summit London 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-daos DAOstar: 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

July 27, 2026Episode 7141 min

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 Introductions 01:11 BonqDAO Governance Attack 03:11 ZAO Defense Mechanisms 04:43 ENS Security Council Update 07:10 Governance Rapid Fire 11:58 Regulatory CLARITY Act 14:17 AI Agent News and Reality Check 19:03 Break and MIDAO Guide 19:47 Zaal Origin Story 21:21 Why Blockchain Matters 23:43 Inside the ZAO Respect System 25:32 Reputation Voting Challenges 30:10 Progress and Community Metrics 31:46 Wave Wars Explained 35:24 ZAO Festivals and ZAOstock 37:06 AI Agent Legal Entity Plans 40:01 Where to Find Zaal and Wrap Up Contact / Links: Zaal (Farcaster): zaal Zaal (X): @bettercallzaal Zaal (Email): info@thezao.com Wave Wars: https://wavewarz.com Adam (X): @0xthriller Adam (Farcaster): The Thriller MIDAO (X): @MIDAODS MIDAO: https://midao.org AI Agent incorporation guide: https://midao.org/guides

July 10, 2026Episode 701 hr 21 min

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 veto The Ethereum Foundation's major reorg, layoffs, and shift toward EthLabs and a multi-org ecosystem Regulatory updates: the U.S. CLARITY Act and its "ethics clause," Europe's MiCA deadline, USDT vs. USDC compliance, and evolving SEC decentralization rules In 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 power The critical difference between governance/meta-governance and day-to-day operations Separating capital from governance power ("raise money without giving power away") Role-based models, sociocracy, and holacracy as battle-tested alternatives to token voting Why he doesn't believe in progressive decentralization — start small and decentralized, then grow The role of AI agents and smart contracts in maintaining coordination, accountability, and institutional memory A 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.limo Find MIDAO: @midaods | midao.org Disclaimer: Not legal or tax advice.

June 24, 2026Episode 691 hr 18 min

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 Explained 13:21 — The Trapdoor Campaign: AI Agents as Attack Vectors 17:21 — US Crypto Regulation: Genius Act, Clarity Act & Open Source Immunity 22:13 — MiCA in Europe: 85% of Firms Without a License 28:04 — 400K AI Agents On-Chain: Impressive or Just Testing? 37:16 — Interview: Kenny's Background & How He Got Into Crypto 44:07 — Deep Dive: What Is POIDH and How Does It Work? 48:05 — A Brief History of DAOs and Why They Failed 56:00 — The "Atomic Unit" of a DAO: Objectives, Not Organizations 1:03:24 — Progressive Decentralization & Token Strategy 1:07:04 — Working With DAOs: The Haberdashery & Breaking a Kickflip World Record 1:13:35 — Pump.fun Launches Bounties: What It Means for POIDH 1:16:19 — The Big Vision: Online Communities Pooling Capital IRL 1:16:47 — 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.

February 19, 2025Episode 681 hr 28 min

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

December 19, 2024Episode 671 hr 29 min

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

October 3, 2024Episode 661 hr 1 min

Just DAO It! Lawyer Series: Featuring Tatyana Cerullo

Introducing the Just DAO It Lawyer Series: On this episode, leading Marshall Islands DAO Lawyer Tatyana Cerullo and MIDAO Co-Founder Adam Miller sit down for a discussion about DAO legal issues, Tatyana's experience with DAOs, Operating Agreements for DAO LLCs, and a recent controversial post on X from Gabriel Shapiro Find us on Socials: @RMILawyer on Twitter @0xThriller on Twitter @thethriller on Farcaster @leohenkels on Twitter @leohenkels on Farcaster