This article is part of a series covering the Wonderland situation. See prior coverage here.
Daniele Sestagalli, founder of Wonderland Money, recently made a proposal to the Wonderland DAO, proposing to wind down the protocol and distribute its treasury to wMEMO holders. The proposal (snapshot voting here) was bitterly debated and the DAO vote was split nearly in two. Ultimately the Wonderland wind down proposal failed by a small margin.
The Daniele Autonomous Organization
In the original proposal, Dani delivered an ultimatum.
…if the proposal is voted against, and no counter proposal within 5 days is made by the community with relevant people who are willing to take over the multisig and willing to take on this challenge, we will still unwind the treasury.
A simple-majority vote is not enough for Dani to continue to operate his protocol. The DAO is currently in shambles attempting to come up with a solution before they are forcibly disbanded by the existing team. Five days is precious little time to drum up a team qualified and willing to lead a struggling, $300 million market cap organization.
However, the failed vote and the embattled DAO are not the end of the story. Observing the close split as the vote drew to an end, Dani took to Twitter in a thread to change course yet again.
Dani’s perceived “one path forward” is to offer his detractors an opportunity to “rage quit” and unwind their share of the protocol treasury, while finding an alternative way for the true believers to continue on. A more formal proposal should be incoming soon from the team.
In the thread, he also takes the opportunity to distance himself from Sifu, who is miraculously still a mod on the Wonderland Discord.
Wonderland Wind Down – The Final Rug?
The events of the last week revealed that Wonderland is not as decentralized as it may appear. Dani still retains immense control over the protocol, and actions indicate that he does not consider himself tightly bound by the will of its participants. He has also been reticent to fully renounce Sifu as a member of his protocols, and Sifu until recently remained on Abracadabra’s multisig.
One has to wonder if Dani’s insistent drive towards disbanding has an ulterior motive. Without attempting to lay any aspersions on his character, let’s consider a few facts. The dissolution of Wonderland may be the cleanest path forward for him personally.
It divests him of the absolutely radioactive Wonderland brand and allows that ugly chapter to fade from public memory. Treasury distribution presents a clean way to convert more of his native-token paper holdings into liquid wealth. It also divorces him from the protocol Sifu was most heavily involved in, serving as more distance between them.
Winding down Wonderland also may present a way to escape legal scrutiny. Last week’s shocking events percolated into mainstream financial news, and undoubtedly caught the attention of regulators. While Dani and his team may still face personal inquiry, Wonderland no longer existing as a business entity may stay the intrusion of investigators for the time being.
The saga of Wonderland has continued so long that the author is almost out of $TIME puns to close these articles. The next step forward is waiting for a proposal from Dani and his team. DAO members will no doubt work in the background to identify a new team, should Dani change his mind again and send the protocol down another rabbit hole.
