The DAO of Wu

How a secret Wu-Tang Clan album sewed the philosophical seeds of the NFT movement.

Dana J. Wright
8 min readNov 1, 2021
Dana J. Wright | Product Designer
Image created by the author.

“A lot of things in life are temporary, fleeting, impermanent. But remember this — just like our blockchain, Wu-Tang is forever.”

Jamie Johnson, PleasrDAO

This space truly never ceases to amaze me, and I believe the story of the secret Wu-Tang Clan album will be one that historians recall with a much deeper appreciation than it’s been getting in real time.

The concept of things being owned by a widely dispersed group of individuals who agree to follow a set of rules enshrined in computer code (a DAO) is still brand new. But a couple months ago, one of the more high profile ones did a $4 million deal with the US government.

I think it’s safe to say, these things aren’t going anywhere.

The Wu

Before we get too deep into the DAO side of things, first we must understand the Wu.

Back in 2015, the Wu-Tang Clan announced that they had secretly recorded an album featuring every artist in the group (except ODB, who passed away in 2004). The album took seven years to produce, contained 31 tracks and would be entitled, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

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Dana J. Wright
Dana J. Wright

Written by Dana J. Wright

Designer · dreamer · dilettante · djw.eth

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