A recent ruling from a California court has implications for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), especially those involved in Ethereum (ETH) liquid staking.

A California court ruled today that Lido DAO, which manages the Lido liquid staking protocol, is classified as a general partnership under California law, meaning its members could be held legally liable for the organization’s actions.

The case was brought to the courts by Andrew Samuels, an investor in Lido DAO’s native tokens (LDO), who asserted that the tokens should be legally regarded as unregistered securities.

US Judge Vince Chhabria’s ruling confirmed the notion that Lido DAO operates and functions as a general partnership, exposing its members to potential liability for the DAO’s actions.

According to Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) advisor Miles Jennings, the decision represents a “huge blow” to DAOs.

“Today, a California judge dealt a huge blow to decentralized governance.

Under the ruling, any DAO participation (even posting in a forum) could be sufficient to hold DAO members liable for the actions of other members under general partnership laws.”

This ruling essentially contests the idea that decentralized structures can evade legal accountability.

a16z and other investment firms including Dolphin, Paradigm and Dragonfly were all implicated in the ruling due to their involvement with contributing to the Lido DAO.

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