About Aragon
We build full-stack DAO technology that enables organizations to easily and securely govern their protocols and assets onchain.
Building DAO Technology
DAOs Launched
Governed by Aragon DAOs
Build on a solid foundation
The Aragon Project was the first DAO framework to launch in web3. Since 2016, Aragon has consistently pushed the boundaries of social and technological innovation, tackling new approaches to support onchain organizations today and well into the future.
Battle-tested
Over the past seven years, Aragon smart contracts have secured billions of dollars in assets. We prioritize security above all else, relying on rigorous audits and earning trust over time.
Open source
We’ve always built open-source software. Our code is AGPL/GPL 3.0 licensed to foster governance innovation.
Full-stack
From the ground up, we’ve built a robust smart contract framework and an intuitive user interface, continuously maintaining, developing, and enhancing leading governance tools and infrastructure.
Born out of necessity
Aragon was founded in 2016 with the belief that the fate of humanity will be decided at the frontier of technological innovation. We set out to build tools for everyone to experiment with governance at the speed of software, and deployed the first DAO framework helping thousands of projects secure and govern billions in value.
A story defined by experimentation
Nov 2024
Introducing the Aragon Foundation
A new non-profit entity led by a Strategic Council of reputable builders across the Ethereum ecosystem. The Aragon Foundation was created with the sole purpose of carrying forward and advancing the mission of the Aragon Project.
Jan 2024
Aragon 2024
With a new CEO, a restructured team, and a plan to get back to doing what we do best – building innovative technology – the team entered the new year energized and ready to solve the key challenges facing DAOs in 2024 and beyond.
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Nov 2023
ANT Redemption Initiative
The Aragon Association (AA) deploys most of the treasury to allow all token holders to redeem ANT for ETH, dissolves the AA, and passes the torch to continue the mission.
March 2023
New Tech Stack: Aragon OSx and Aragon App (Beta)
We launched our new user-friendly tech stack: Aragon OSx and Aragon App (Beta). Aragon OSx was built strategically lean and flexible, supporting the organizations of the future as the industry continues to evolve. The App is a no-code platform for building DAOs quickly and securely.
February 2023
Aragon DAO
We deployed a delegated voting DAO intended to govern the Aragon Project and treasury, if deemed safe to do so.
September 2022
Strategy to Become a Governance Hyperstructure
This strategy set the direction for the Aragon Project going forward. A hyperstructure is infrastructure that runs forever without a centralized party needing to maintain it, like the internet. We believe the hyperstructure for governance will be a permission management system.
June 2022
DAO Experts
DAOs face novel challenges that require a broad range of expertise. To tackle these challenges head-on, we've partnered with trusted, vetted web3 service providers who assist DAOs in navigating legal, HR, product design, and more.
March 2022
Aragon ZK Research
We expanded into zero-knowledge proofs to enable private, gasless voting. The Aragon ZK Research Guild focused on ZK research, helping to drive the development of scalable and privacy-preserving voting systems for DAOs.
November 2021
Aragon Network DAO: an experiment in Optimistic Governance
We launched the Aragon Network DAO to test our Optimistic Governance stack. We voted on Voice, executed votes in Govern, and resolved disputes in Court. After over a year of experimentation, this project sunsetted in January 2023.
September 2021
DAO Global Hackathon: bringing builders together
We brought together hundreds of developers to build tooling for DAOs in the first DAO Global Hackathon. A prize pool of over $200,000 was distributed amongst 12 winning teams.
September 2021
Aragon Voice: gasless voting platform
Aragon Voice, a gasless voting platform, was launched. Votes were encrypted but universally verifiable on vochain, a chain built by Vocdoni.
May 2021
Aragon Acquires Vocdoni
Aragon Association acquired Dvote Labs OÜ, the company behind Vocdoni, an open source technology stack that enables private, universally verifiable and scalable voting for traditional organizations.
June 2020
Aragon Client: build and manage DAOs
Aragon Client is a UI that taps into the power of aragonOS. With different apps managed via permissions to the kernel, Aragon Client was the big step forward in enabling adaptable organizations on the blockchain.
June 2020
Aragon Court: decentralized court system
Aragon Court, a digital jurisdiction and court system, was launched. This experiment in a digital court system was the first secure, borderless dispute resolution system for DAOs.
June 2020
Aragon Nest: grants program for the DAO ecosystem
Aragon Nest was a grants program that funded teams working to catalyze DAOs and the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole. The Aragon treasury funded teams that went on to build Snapshot, Dappnode, Unchain, and Frame.sh.
January 2019
AraCon: an Aragon community conference
The Aragon community gathered in Berlin for AraCon, an Aragon community conference with speeches about the future of Aragon and governance experimentation.
May 2018
The Aragon Manifesto: A Pledge to Fight for Freedom
We published the Aragon Manifesto along with the viral Fight for Freedom video. The manifesto outlined our goal to provide tools that allow anyone to experiment with governance at the speed of software.
October 2017
aragonOS deployed
The aragonOS, an open source smart contract development framework that can be used by any DAO, dApp, or protocol, was deployed. The architecture was based on the idea of an organization being the aggregate of multiple components (called applications). At the center is the Kernel, which governs how these applications talk to each other and interact.
May 2017
Aragon Network Token sale
The Aragon Network Token (ANT) sale raised 275,000 ETH in 26 minutes. At the time, it was the 4th largest crowdfunding event in history.
April 2017
Whitepaper published
"Aragon Network: A Decentralized Infrastructure for Value Exchange" was published.
November 2016
Aragon is born
Luis Cuende and Jorge Izquierdo founded Aragon to address emergent societal crises and failures of democracy.