Unfortunately, it's not clear that they did anything of value with the money. According to the website, the money was returned to the donors.
" In exchange for donating to the DAO, contributors would receive a corresponding number of cryptocurrency tokens known as FREE, which function as voting shares for the organization’s subsequent decisions—like what to do with the NFT or the excess funds. The FreeRossDAO ultimately raised $12.5 million and won the NFT for $6.2 million. The profits from the auction will go to paying the lawyers, political consultants, and PR representatives that the Ulbricht family hires, along with his efforts to support kids of incarcerated parents. “To bring this to the forefront of peoples’ minds and to get support, there’s all kinds of expenses involved,” Lyn said. Some of the money is currently sitting in a donor-advised fund while Ulbricht’s close contacts research charities that support the wellbeing of incarcerated individuals.
So Step 1 succeeded: The RossDAO had successfully transferred $6 million to Ross Ulbricht’s family to fund their cause. But what, exactly, was supposed to be Step 2?
After the rush of excitement from winning the auction, the FreeRossDAO was in the awkward position of figuring out what to do next. The DAO’s manifesto spells out three goals: “1. We will help Free Ross. 2. We will advance prison reform. 3. We will share Ross’s work with the world and give everyone a unique opportunity to own a piece of it.” At the moment, the DAO is trying to figure out exactly how it can continue trying to do all that. “To be honest, we had a tremendous amount of momentum purchasing the NFT, and then the momentum slowed down a lot,” said René Pinnell, one of Ulbricht’s childhood friends who now serves as the “operational lead” for the DAO. “The FreeRossDao is different from most in that there’s a real human’s life at stake, and we want to be very thoughtful and very careful with the actions that we take.”
To generate ideas for what to do with the $6 million that the DAO has left over, Pinnell and other administrators have been perusing the Discord’s chats and polling members for initiative ideas. There are working groups—a treasury, NFTs, media/marketing, operations—in which members draft proposals based on their specialties. These proposals then go through an approval process that’s somewhat reminiscent of how a bill becomes a law. Pinnell first brings the proposal to an advisory council, consisting of Ulbricht’s mother, fiancé, lifelong friend, and lawyer. A nay vote from two or more of them results in a veto. “They’re really just there to make sure that we don’t do anything reckless, because they’re the ones who know the case and know Ross better than anyone else,” said Pinnell. If approved, the proposal goes up for a vote among the coin holders. Some of the upcoming proposals include funding a documentary series about Ulbricht, donating to criminal justice reform charities, and selling NFTs from the art of other prisoners. Both Pinnell and Lyn told me that they think Ulbricht’s best shot at freedom is getting President Joe Biden to grant him clemency, so the DAO has mainly been considering initiatives that will raise awareness about his case."
" In exchange for donating to the DAO, contributors would receive a corresponding number of cryptocurrency tokens known as FREE, which function as voting shares for the organization’s subsequent decisions—like what to do with the NFT or the excess funds. The FreeRossDAO ultimately raised $12.5 million and won the NFT for $6.2 million. The profits from the auction will go to paying the lawyers, political consultants, and PR representatives that the Ulbricht family hires, along with his efforts to support kids of incarcerated parents. “To bring this to the forefront of peoples’ minds and to get support, there’s all kinds of expenses involved,” Lyn said. Some of the money is currently sitting in a donor-advised fund while Ulbricht’s close contacts research charities that support the wellbeing of incarcerated individuals.
So Step 1 succeeded: The RossDAO had successfully transferred $6 million to Ross Ulbricht’s family to fund their cause. But what, exactly, was supposed to be Step 2?
After the rush of excitement from winning the auction, the FreeRossDAO was in the awkward position of figuring out what to do next. The DAO’s manifesto spells out three goals: “1. We will help Free Ross. 2. We will advance prison reform. 3. We will share Ross’s work with the world and give everyone a unique opportunity to own a piece of it.” At the moment, the DAO is trying to figure out exactly how it can continue trying to do all that. “To be honest, we had a tremendous amount of momentum purchasing the NFT, and then the momentum slowed down a lot,” said René Pinnell, one of Ulbricht’s childhood friends who now serves as the “operational lead” for the DAO. “The FreeRossDao is different from most in that there’s a real human’s life at stake, and we want to be very thoughtful and very careful with the actions that we take.”
To generate ideas for what to do with the $6 million that the DAO has left over, Pinnell and other administrators have been perusing the Discord’s chats and polling members for initiative ideas. There are working groups—a treasury, NFTs, media/marketing, operations—in which members draft proposals based on their specialties. These proposals then go through an approval process that’s somewhat reminiscent of how a bill becomes a law. Pinnell first brings the proposal to an advisory council, consisting of Ulbricht’s mother, fiancé, lifelong friend, and lawyer. A nay vote from two or more of them results in a veto. “They’re really just there to make sure that we don’t do anything reckless, because they’re the ones who know the case and know Ross better than anyone else,” said Pinnell. If approved, the proposal goes up for a vote among the coin holders. Some of the upcoming proposals include funding a documentary series about Ulbricht, donating to criminal justice reform charities, and selling NFTs from the art of other prisoners. Both Pinnell and Lyn told me that they think Ulbricht’s best shot at freedom is getting President Joe Biden to grant him clemency, so the DAO has mainly been considering initiatives that will raise awareness about his case."