In a significant development for the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) ecosystem, Aragon has announced the introduction of multichain governance capabilities on its Aragon OSx platform. This addition leverages LayerZero for cross-chain messaging and zkSync Era rollup technology to provide low-cost and secure voting, further advancing the scalability and functionality of DAOs within the Ethereum ecosystem.
The newly unveiled Aragon OSx plugin allows DAOs to exercise governance over assets and permissions across multiple Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains through a single mainnet DAO smart contract. This innovative solution is set to empower DAOs with enhanced control and flexibility, all while reducing costs and increasing security.
Carlos Juarez, Chief Technology Officer at Aragon, emphasized the significance of multichain governance in the evolving Ethereum landscape, stating, “It’s clear now that Ethereum is scaling through rollups, but we’ve left behind the piece about connecting and managing accounts across them. By working on multichain governance, we’re enabling Ethereum to scale by helping distribute liquidity and offloading some transactions to L2s, while protocols will still be able to live on mainnet.”
Here’s a breakdown of how governance in multichain DAOs will function using Aragon OSx’s new plugin:
- Create a Custom Census Across Chains: DAOs can create a custom census using governance tokens from various chains, utilizing LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard.
- Low-Cost Voting on zkSync: Once the census is established, members can cast votes on zkSync at a fraction of the cost compared to other methods.
- Execute Actions Across Chains Simultaneously: Following a successful vote, users can employ the Aragon OSx permission management system to execute the proposed action on multiple chains simultaneously from their mainnet DAO.
A key enabler of this multichain governance solution is Aragon OSx’s modular permission management system, which simplifies the process of granting and revoking permissions to external contracts from a DAO contract. This level of flexibility allows DAOs to execute actions on any chain simultaneously, providing governance flexibility to adjust parameters and send assets on the precise chain needed.
The Aragon OSx plugin also capitalizes on LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token Standard (OFT) to extend the capabilities of governance tokens. This feature enables token holders to cast votes on zkSync regardless of the chain on which their tokens originated. By allowing DAO members to vote on zkSync, this solution not only reduces gas costs but also promotes greater token participation.
Carlos Juarez expressed his optimism for the future of DAO governance with the launch of this new plugin, stating, “With the launch of the Aragon OSx plugin, DAOs can scale their activities across chains, increasing community participation while effectively managing costs and maintaining security. The next step in DAO governance is here.”
The plugin will launch on the no-code Aragon App in 2024.
Overall, Aragon’s introduction of multichain governance capabilities represents a significant step forward in the evolution of decentralized governance on the Ethereum network. This innovation aims to empower DAOs with increased scalability, cost-efficiency, and security, ultimately facilitating more comprehensive and impactful decentralized decision-making across multiple chains.
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