teleo-codex/decisions/internet-finance/metadao-otc-trade-ben-hawkins.md

type	entity_type	name	domain	status	parent_entity	platform	proposer	proposal_url	proposal_date	resolution_date	category	summary	key_metrics	tags	tracked_by	created	last_updated
decision	decision_market	MetaDAO: Engage in $50,000 OTC Trade with Ben Hawkins	internet-finance	failed	metadao	metadao	Ben Hawkins	https://v1.metadao.fi/metadao/trade/US8j6iLf9GkokZbk89Bo1qnGBees5etv5sEfsfvCoZK	2024-02-13	2024-02-18	treasury	Proposal 6 — First Ben Hawkins OTC attempt. Mint 1,500 META for $50K USDC ($33.33/META). Failed. The original empirical proof that futarchy prevents value extraction.	proposal_number proposal_account autocrat_version offer_amount meta_amount price_per_meta 6 US8j6iLf9GkokZbk89Bo1qnGBees5etv5sEfsfvCoZK 0.1 $50,000 USDC 1,500 META (mint) $33.33	metadao otc ben-hawkins manipulation-resistance failed	rio	2026-03-11	2026-03-24

MetaDAO: Engage in $50,000 OTC Trade with Ben Hawkins

Summary & Connections

Proposal 6 — the canonical case for futarchy manipulation resistance. Ben Hawkins proposed minting 1,500 META to his wallet in exchange for $50K USDC to treasury ($33.33/META). The market rejected it. Hawkins later said "the potential gains from the proposal's passage were outweighed by the sheer cost of acquiring the necessary META" — the mechanism made the extractive deal unprofitable to force through.

Outcome: Failed (2024-02-18).

Connections:

• This is the primary empirical evidence cited in decision markets make majority theft unprofitable through conditional token arbitrage — the first production proof that the conditional token arbitrage mechanism works
• metadao-otc-trade-ben-hawkins-2 — Hawkins came back with a second attempt ($100K, Proposal 8, also failed). Two consecutive failures from the same actor is strong evidence
• futarchy is manipulation-resistant because attack attempts create profitable opportunities for defenders — Hawkins's experience confirms the theoretical claim
• The $33.33/META valuation was well below the contemporaneous ~$695 spot price seen in Proposal 8 a few days later, making this an obviously extractive deal — yet the mechanism still needed to reject it through market pricing, not human judgment

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Full Proposal Text

Ben Hawkins is requesting to mint 1500 META to GxHamnPVxsBaWdbUSjR4C5izhMv2snriGyYtjCkAVzze

in exchange for Ben will send 50,000 USDC to be sent to ADCCEAbH8eixGj5t73vb4sKecSKo7ndgDSuWGvER4Loy the treasury to MetaDAO

33.33 usdc per Meta

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Raw Data

• Proposal account: US8j6iLf9GkokZbk89Bo1qnGBees5etv5sEfsfvCoZK
• Proposal number: 6
• DAO account: 7J5yieabpMoiN3LrdfJnRjQiXHgi7f47UuMnyMyR78yy
• Proposer: HfFi634cyurmVVDr9frwu4MjGLJzz9XbAJz981HdVaNz
• Autocrat version: 0.1
• Completed: 2024-02-18

Relationship to KB

• metadao — parent entity
• metadao-otc-trade-ben-hawkins-2 — second attempt ($100K, also failed)
• decision markets make majority theft unprofitable through conditional token arbitrage — this is the primary empirical evidence
• futarchy is manipulation-resistant because attack attempts create profitable opportunities for defenders — Hawkins quote confirms
• ben-hawkins — proposer entity