Protocol Separation & DevCos, OpCos, LabCos, etc.

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Protocol Separation

Most crypto projects keep their legal entities legally and financially separate from the protocols they may develop, govern, market, or otherwise operate. For example, consider that activity related to the Uniswap smart contracts is not considered to be activity related to Uniswap Labs or the Uniswap Foundation.

This distinction is made even more explicit thanks to the Marshall Islands DAO Act, which specifies, "DAO LLCs are permitted to create open source software, which is then used by other people on a blockchain independent of the DAO LLC' s involvement."

DevCos, OpCos, LabCos, etc.

It is common for projects to combine multiple legal entities to achieve their goals. For example, many projects will have a "DevCo", "OpCo", or "LabCo" for the primary team of founders or developers, often local to where that team is located. For example, many American founders use a Delaware C-Corp to complement their RMI DAO LLC.