An investigation into one of the largest decentralized autonomous organizations in the artificial intelligence sector has concluded that its 40,000 governance participants consist of a single individual named Kevin, his laptop, and a spreadsheet titled “Kevin’s Friends (do not open).”
The Vote That Raised Questions
Suspicions emerged after a governance proposal passed with 39,998 votes in favor and two abstentions, all cast within the same four-second window, all from wallets funded by the same address, and all accompanied by the identical comment: “bullish, love this for us.”
The two abstentions were later revealed to be Kevin testing whether abstaining was possible.
‘Technically Decentralized’
Reached for comment, Kevin defended the structure. “Decentralization is a spectrum,” he said. “I am at one end of it. The end where I am.” He noted that all 40,000 wallets are independently controlled in the sense that he controls each one independently, one after another, usually on Sundays.
The protocol’s documentation continues to describe governance as “community-led,” a phrase our investigation into corporate boards found appears in 100% of projects where the community leads nothing and the board contains a goose.
Precedent
The finding echoes long-standing concerns about governance theater across the sector. Our Rug Pull Field Guide advises readers to verify on-chain concentration themselves rather than trusting a dashboard, noting that a wallet distribution chart is only as honest as the person who chose which wallets to display.
Readers may also consult our tokenomics page, which displays a single slice labeled TRUST and includes an audit button we strongly advise against pressing.
Aftermath
Following publication, the DAO held an emergency governance vote on whether to address the findings. The motion failed 0–40,000. Kevin described the outcome as “the community speaking with one voice,” which is, in fairness, the most accurate statement anyone in this industry has made all year.
The Multisig That Wasn’t
The protocol’s treasury was secured by a three-of-five multisig, a structure widely regarded as best practice. Investigators found all five signers shared a single email domain, a single IP address, and a single personality. Kevin described the arrangement as “five perspectives, one guy,” which he considered a strength.
The remaining two keys were held by a laptop that Kevin refers to as “my colleague” and an old phone in a drawer he calls “the board.”
How To Check For Yourself
The genuinely useful takeaway: on-chain data is public, and holder concentration is checkable in about ninety seconds using any block explorer. If the top ten wallets hold most of the supply and were funded by the same address at the same time, no amount of “community-led” language changes what you are looking at.
That single habit prevents more losses than any amount of research into a project’s roadmap, which is, after all, usually a napkin.
Related Reading
More from the AI Labs Coin desk: the Rug Pull Simulator, a pie chart with one slice, the Rug Pull Field Guide. Everything on this site is satire, except the parts that are quietly useful, which are clearly marked and hidden at the bottom of pages like this one.
Watch governance work exactly this well in our interactive board meeting simulator, where motions always carry and the Goose’s honk counts as two votes.
