> First of all, the "officious bystander" test is from English law, not US law.
Yeah, sorry. But as you say there are similar tests in other countries.
> it's not that clear cut whether this would be considered such a case or not
Whether it would be considered a contract, or what are you referring to? Either way, Etherium and/or the authors of the DAO will get sued, and the investors will win the suit. If you think there's a scenario where someone walks away with $50 million and nobody goes to jail as a result, I'm sorry to say that you're delusional.
And if Etherium hard forks the blockchain, then people have lost faith in the system. So IMO this won't end well for Etherium in either case.
>If you think there's a scenario where someone walks away with $50 million and nobody goes to jail as a result, I'm sorry to say that you're delusional.
Maybe you should read up on financial fraud, white collar crime and Wall Street?
Second, while there are similar tests in other countries' legal systems, it's not that clear cut whether this would be considered such a case or not -- a single lawyer's opinion aside.