# The DAO > **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] places this node within the history and governance of substrate-independent evolution. **Domain:** Blockchain / Governance **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition The DAO was a 2016 Ethereum-based decentralized investment organization implemented through smart contracts and funded with ether. ## Nexus Context An exploit drained about 3.6 million ETH. The community’s corrective hard fork and the continuation of the unforked chain as Ethereum Classic provide a clear case of technological branching and governance selection. ## Evidence Boundary The event was not Darwinian evolution in the strict sense: the split was deliberate and human-governed rather than generated by recurrent blind heritable variation. ## Relationships [[wiki/Ethereum|Ethereum]], [[wiki/Smart Contract|Smart Contract]], [[wiki/Hard Fork|Hard Fork]], [[wiki/Ethereum Classic|Ethereum Classic]] ## Sources / Provenance - Ethereum.org fork timeline; Ethereum Foundation, “Hard Fork Completed” (2016).