Aragon Fires Back at Activist Investors in Early Stages of DAO Governance Fight

After attempting to thwart what it called a "coordinated" attack on its town square, Aragon reiterated its “code is law” position.

AccessTimeIconMay 5, 2023 at 8:27 p.m. UTC
Updated Sep 29, 2023 at 3:35 p.m. UTC
10 Years of Decentralizing the Future
May 29-31, 2024 - Austin, TexasThe biggest and most established global hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3.Register Now

Aragon’s key backers doubled down on their controversial banning of Discord members, arguing in a Friday blog post that the decentralized crypto governance project can be a DAO even if its town square is on lockdown.

“Discord servers and other trusted coordination platforms are tools used by DAOs, but they themselves are not DAOs,” wrote the Swiss nonprofit Aragon Association in a statement circulated via Aragon’s weekly newsletter. The statement served to justify Aragon’s exile of at least half a dozen community members for “spamming” Aragon’s Discord server with questions over its finances.

  • Over $1B in U.S. Treasury Notes Has Been Tokenized; FATF Calls for More Regions to Regulate Crypto
    02:04
    Over $1B in U.S. Treasury Notes Has Been Tokenized; FATF Calls for More Regions to Regulate Crypto
  • Moondance Labs CEO on 'Barriers of Entry' for Building Layer 1s
    01:28
    Moondance Labs CEO on 'Barriers of Entry' for Building Layer 1s
  • What Challenges Do Appchains Solve?
    00:59
    What Challenges Do Appchains Solve?
  • Appchain Protocol Tanssi Raises $6M
    18:57
    Appchain Protocol Tanssi Raises $6M
  • The response escalated a brewing fight between Aragon and a cadre of activist investors who have taken interest in the project’s ANT token and multimillion-dollar treasury. But the nature of Aragon’s response also raised thorny questions over proper implementation of crypto governance itself, the subject at the center of the Aragon project.

    A DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, is a method of governance in which crypto investors vote to decide how a project is run. Aragon builds tools to help other DAOs operate and is itself partially governed by a DAO. This week it began moving its treasury toward community control, an effort nearly a year in the making.

    While governance decisions over those riches will happen via votes on the blockchain, it is on Discord and project governance forums that members of Aragon’s community – like those at nearly every other DAO – organize their thoughts and coordinate action.

    On Wednesday Aragon insiders booted people whose speech was deemed detrimental to the community. Many – but not all – of the members it exiled are aligned with crypto’s underground activist investor movement, the RFV raiders, who have taken an interest in Aragon. In its Friday blog post, Aragon declared it would stand firm against them.

    “The AA will continue to carefully and empirically pace our decentralization to ensure that individuals and groups cannot use ANT for personal profit at the expense of building the technology which ANT is intended to govern,” the Aragon Association said.

    The Aragon Association gave no timeline for future efforts to move its treasury to community control. This week’s governance debacle had concluded with the mass banning and an announcement that Aragon had moved $300,000 of a nearly $70 million treasury to a wallet that the DAO will ultimately operate.

    It also gave no timeline for reinstating the banned members to Discord, some of whom told CoinDesk they were also booted from Aragon’s governance forum.

    One exiled observer who asked not to be named told CoinDesk the Aragon fight was just getting started.

    Edited by Stephen Alpher.

    Disclosure

    Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

    CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

    Danny Nelson

    Danny is CoinDesk's Managing Editor for Data & Tokens. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL.


    Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.