Documentary Explores Contentious Code Is Law Principle Through DAO and Mango Markets Cases

A new documentary titled Code Is Law was released on October 21, 2025, examining whether blockchain immutability should override human intent when exploits occur. According to Blockworks, the film directed by James Craig and Louis Giles focuses on three case studies: The DAO hack in 2016, the Indexed Finance exploit in 2021, and the Mango Markets incident in 2022. The documentary features interviews with key figures including Griff Green, Fabian Vogelsteller, and Laurence Day. The film is now streaming worldwide on Journeyman TV.
The DAO hack occurred on April 30, 2016, resulting in millions of dollars in ether losses. This event led to Ethereum's only contentious hard fork, splitting the community between those who supported reversing the exploit and those who maintained that code should be immutable. Fabian Vogelsteller explained in the film that when something is truly decentralized and unowned, there is no one who can fix problems when they occur. Griff Green noted that during The DAO launch, no one had formal training in smart contract audits because the field was entirely new.
Why Courts Reject the Defense
The documentary shows how legal systems have consistently rejected code is law as a defense in criminal proceedings. TRM Labs reports that while Avraham Eisenberg's Mango Markets convictions were vacated in May 2025, the ruling focused on venue issues and lack of material misrepresentation. Judge Arun Subramanian found that prosecutors failed to prove essential conduct elements occurred in New York, where Eisenberg executed trades from Puerto Rico. The court determined Mango Markets operated with no terms of service, no prohibition against manipulation, and no requirement for loan repayment.
The Indexed Finance case demonstrates legal consequences more clearly. Canadian math prodigy Andean Medjedovic was identified as the perpetrator of the $16 million exploit in 2021. Ontario courts granted extraordinary relief and treated the on-chain manipulation as theft. US prosecutors charged Medjedovic over both Indexed and Kyber exploits worth approximately $65 million. Laurence Day, Indexed co-founder, called the code is law concept dystopian in the film. Medjedovic remains on the run from authorities and ironically lost the stolen Indexed funds to another hacker during the Profanity breach about a year later.
Impact on DeFi Security and Exploits
The documentary's release comes as DeFi platforms face ongoing security challenges. Protos reports that in October 2025, two brothers are standing trial for a $25 million MEV exploit on Ethereum from April 2023. The defense argues their actions aligned with Ethereum's economic incentives and that they simply outsmarted predatory trading bots. However, prosecutors allege the brothers fraudulently accessed pending transactions and took steps to hide proceeds, including searching online for information about washing crypto and wire fraud statutes.
Recovery efforts have shown mixed results across different exploits. The 2023 Euler hack resulted in almost all stolen funds being returned through pressure and negotiation. Recovery teams have retrieved hundreds of millions through similar interventions, showing that trust and coordination remain decisive factors during crises. The film explores the moral triangle between exploiters, users, and white-hat responders. As long as permissionless systems offer financial rewards, adversarial actors will continue testing their boundaries, though DeFi security has improved with exploits dropping in frequency and severity in recent years.
Further Reading
For those interested in decentralized governance and the technical infrastructure behind DAOs, our comprehensive DAO tooling guide provides detailed analysis of over 100 platforms and tools used in decentralized governance. The guide covers voting mechanisms, treasury management, and coordination tools that help DAOs operate securely.