Modular Onchain Governance Guide

This guide will walk you through the process of building your onchain governance structure step-by-step.

You can now launch a modular onchain organization with no code using the Aragon app. This guide will walk you through the process of building your onchain governance structure step-by-step.

Understand the building blocks

Before designing your modular onchain organization, it’s helpful to understand the three main concepts: Processes, Stages, and Bodies. These components are the building blocks of your governance system.

Processes

Processes represent distinct governance activities required to execute specific onchain actions. Different types of proposals can each go through their own process. A DAO can have multiple Processes, each tailored to specific decisions. Processes are granted the permission to take actions on onchain protocols and assets.

Prompt: What decisions do you need to make onchain?

Stages

Stages are the sequential phases within a process that a proposal must advance through to be approved and executed. Each process can have any number of stages. Any Stage can be configured to be "Optimistic," allowing proposals to pass by default unless actively vetoed.

Prompt: What are the steps required to make decisions?

Bodies

Bodies are addresses that represent groups of stakeholders responsible for deciding if a proposal will advance through a stage, either by approving or vetoing, depending on their permission. A stage can have multiple bodies.

A body is typically represented by a multisig or token, but any Ethereum address can be used, such as a Safe, Governor, or even an EOA.

Prompt: Who is involved in these decisions?

Deploy a DAO

Getting started is easy and risk-free. To launch your DAO, choose a blockchain and add metadata to describe your DAO.

Your DAO is launched without governance and with you as a temporary admin, allowing you to iterate and test your governance design.

You can add or remove additional admin addresses from the Settings page.

If you prefer, you can use a testnet to iterate and test until you feel confident to deploy on your chain of choice.

From the App home page, click on "Create a DAO" and then "Get Started" to kick off the DAO creation process.

Design your governance

Creating your governance structure is a straightforward, step-by-step process using our no-code wizard. This intuitive tool lets you customize your DAO’s governance processes without writing a single line of code.

On your DAO's dashboard, you will see a yellow banner with the options to add governance or manage admins. Click on "Add Governance" to open the Governance Designer.

1. Add a process

Start by defining a process that represents a specific governance activity.

2. Add stages

Break down each process into stages, which represent the sequential phases of governance that a proposal must pass through before it's approved and executed.

Choose the stage type

Normal: Proposals pass the stage if approved.
Optimistic: Proposals pass the stage unless they are vetoed.
Timelock: Proposals pass the stage once the timelock period ends.

Configuring the timing settings for each stage

Define the time limits for each stage to ensure proposals move smoothly through your governance process. You can also:

Early advance proposals to the next stage if it's approved before the voting period ends.
Limit the amount of time after the voting period ends to advance proposals to the next stage.

Scroll towards the bottom of the Governance Designer and click on "Edit Timing" to open up settings.

3. Add governing bodies

Specify the governing bodies responsible for approving or vetoing the proposal during a stage. Bodies can be a multisig, token holders, or any Ethereum address. You can create a multisig or governance token directly in the app. Existing tokens that support ERC20Votes can be imported (coming soon).

At the very end of the Governance Designer, click on "Add Body" to edit governing bodies.

4. Define who can create the proposal

You can choose whether members from a select body can publish proposals, or whether it is open to anyone.

5. Publish

Once your governance process is defined, you can prepare the plugin and finalize the installation –all no code.

Click on "Publish Process" to finish and approve the transaction in your wallet to prepare the plugin.

You can repeat these steps to add as many governance processes as needed, making your organization as simple or complex as required.

Remove the admin

Once you’re satisfied with your governance design, you can remove the temporary admin function. To do this, you must create and pass a proposal through another governance process to remove admin control from the DAO. This ensures that you have a functional governance process that can pass proposals.

⚠️ Important: Only remove the admin when your DAO is fully ready and no longer requires admin control.