Tribute Labs

Basics

• Started in:
• Based in:
• Fka OpenLaw
• As Tribute Labs, the company plans to focus on helping DAOs operate in the U.S. legally as a DAO incubator.

History

• Fka OpenLaw (22-9-2021).

OpenLaw

• A protocol for binding legal contract on Ethereum and IPFS
• A platform for next-generation smart legal agreements. Relying on blockchain technology, OpenLaw is building a future where legal contracts are immutable, traceable, efficient, and equitable. The team recently published an article outlining an end-to-end real estate transaction entirely on the Ethereum blockchain. The piece shares how, in conjunction with law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth, OpenLaw facilitated a “Smart Sale of Land Contract” by leveraging the non-fungible properties of the ERC-721 protocol.
• On OpenLaw’s Integration Framework from the Token Economy newsletter:

"A framework for contracting parties register and interact with any third party service. OpenLaw serves one of the most important roles in the ecosystem: that of trying to connect the offline world to our decentralized internet, and it does so by turning paper-based contracts into programmable entities. Now they're releasing their integration framework, which enables the connection of any third party service to their tools. The first example is DocuSign, where the signing of a contract can trigger various executions included in the contract itself."

Tech

• Whitepaper can be found [insert here].

• Consensus Algorithm:
• Capacity (TPS):

Oracle Method being used

• Uses chainlink

Their Other Projects

The LAO

• Got put in the B category on a Crypto VC list (29-8-2022).
• Will (10-4-2020) launch on 28-4-2020. Update: it did.
• From The Defiant (10-4-2020):

"Wants to take the first step in “building a permissionless Silicon Valley,” by broadening access to investors in the fund.

But it can only be permissionless to some extent. Organizers of The LAO are heeding lessons from The DAO, a decentralized venture fund created in 2016, which was hacked and later found to be breaking securities laws. So this time around, The LAO is organized as a legal entity in the US — a Delaware limited liability company— and members need to be accredited investors.

Still, unlike in traditional VCs anyone meeting those requirements can join by buying LAO tokens and all members have a say. Fund members can vote on project funding proposals and other strategic decisions, and they all share the proceeds of their investments based on the number of LAO tokens they hold."

• From The Defiant (28-4-2020):

"Developers and entrepreneurs keep wanting to make capital formation happen on Ethereum. First with ICOs, which created a wild west of startups issuing coins to raise money, then with The DAO, a venture firm which ended up breaking securities laws.

The LAO, which was crated by the team behind OpenLaw, is betting this time it got it right. It wants to act enough like a venture fund to bet on promising projects poised to deliver, and not scams common in the ICO era, and do it in a legally compliant way. But it also wants to act enough like a DAO that it opens the fund to a wider group of investors and projects, and makes the whole process more efficient.

The LAO today is starting to accept investor contributions, with plans to raise up to 12,000 ETH (about $2.4 million). Each member can contribute 120 ETH for 1% of the LAO’s voting rights and profits.

Much like in a venture fund, The LAO members pool capital to invest in promising early stage ventures. The difference is that while it’s a Delaware limited liability company, it’s also organized as a blockchain-based company. That means its legal paperwork lives in smart contracts (organized by the OpenLaw system), members hold tokens linked to the organization, and funds are held in an Ethereum address.

Unlike most Silicon Valley funds, in which a small set of general partners make decisions, any accredited US investor and anyone outside of the US can buy LAO tokens to become a member of The LAO — though there’s a 100-member limit. Tokens give LAO members the right to vote in all major decisions, including where to invest funds, and also the right to receive profits in proportion to the tokens they hold.

After a 7-day voting period, funds can be deployed in seconds. The standard investment agreement is $50k in ETH per project."

Investments

• Armor.Fi. Joined Armor as one of its 'strategic investors' (31-1-2021).
• BoardRoom. Participated in a $2.2M raise for BoardRoom (13-10-2020).
• ConsenSys announced (19-4-2021) a $65m fundraising round which this project was a backer for.
• Enso Finance; part of a $5M funding round (13-4-2021).
• EPNS; is named as one of the backers (7-5-2021).
• Gitcoin; was part of a $11.4M raise for them (14-4-2021).
• Immunefi; part of the $5.5M raise (26-10-2021).
• Maple Finance; participated in a $1.3M raise (12-2020).
• Pods; participated in a $800k raise (19-2-2021).
• PoolTogether; participated a funding round (12-2020).
• Overlay; part of a $2.215M funding raising round (18-3-2021).
• Reflexer; on of its backers (22-2-2021).
• Zapper. Participated in the $1.5M seed round, among many other participants (27-8-2020).

Flamingo DAO

• Lens; Flamingo was part of the $15M raise by Aave (6-2023).
• Got put in the low scoring C category on a Crypto VC list (29-8-2022).
• From a blog by NEAR, which joined the Flamingo DAO (30-10-2020):

"The Flamingo DAO is a new initiative by The LAO that takes on the “hive mind” approach of decentralization to support the ever-growing NFT ecosystem. Flamingo is unique because it operates as a community-driven collective of members that will make decisions to support the NFT ecosystem. The LAO is behind the idea of Flamingo and already has experience supporting projects such as Aavegotchi and Shell Protocol."

• From Zima Red (1-10-2020):

"NFT-focused DAO that invest in NFTs directly. Brought to you by the people that launched the LAO - I assume Flamingo will quickly become a force within the ecosystem."

• Not to be confused with Flamingo Finance.
• Flamingo DAO, dropped $761,889 on a NFT (28-1-2021) "There’s also a hedge with punks because they are priced in ETH, have the longest historical sales record, and ultimately serve as a store of value. Some may laugh, but we believe punks are just as much a store of value as bitcoin is."

Neptune DAO

• From DeFi Prime (22-3-2021):

"The LAO has created the new Neptune DAO focused on providing DeFi on Ethereum and other blockchains with liquidity."

Audits

• Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].

Roadmap

• Can be found [Insert link here].

Usage

Projects that use or built on it

• TornadoCash formed a Moloch DAO with it (29-6-2020).

Team, investors, Partnerships, etc.

Team

• Reuben Bramanathan; advisor (28-9-2020)

Investors

• dHedge; one of the investors according to their blog (2-11-2020).

Partners 

• Part of the consensys meshblockchain
• Is named as part of the MetaCartel ecosystem (as of 1-2020 on the website)