Clarifying this week's events
It's been a hectic week at Aragon. Here's what happened.
We have some explaining to do 👇
Last June, ANT Holders signaled for the Aragon Association (AA) to move the treasury into a delegate voting DAO.
The AA is the Swiss entity safeguarding the Aragon treasury and core infrastructure.
This February, we deployed the Aragon DAO. The AA has no control over this DAO, it is governed by ANT Holders.
Last week, the AA sent an initial treasury transfer of 300,000 USDC to the Aragon DAO.
A series of transfers were planned out in phases to move the treasury from the AA to ANT Holders in the Aragon DAO.
Immediately upon the first transfer, the teams noticed a suspicious uptick in Discord and our community was spammed by a coordinated group of RFV Raiders.
This was closely followed by a sudden change in wANT supply in the Aragon DAO. Accounts suspected to be linked to the group went from 0 to ~47% of the wANT supply.
We believed that this group was planning a 51% attack. The first transfer of $300k was the first of a series of transfers. This forced the AA to take quick action and clarify its position towards this group.
The Aragon Association attempted to clarify the following:
The treasury is currently controlled by the AA, who serves as its custodian;
The AA is transferring the treasury and core infrastructure to the Aragon DAO gradually to mitigate risk;
As a non-profit, the AA has the responsibility to ensure the treasury goes towards its purpose, building decentralized governance infrastructure.
As the RFV Raiders had publicly stated and their previous actions demonstrated, the funds may not go towards the mission of the project, and the AA would be in a position where it could no longer transfer funds to the Aragon DAO.
Rather than abruptly ceasing all transfers to the Aragon DAO, the AA clarified it would only send subsequent funds for the purposes of administering a grants program, to adjust course and continue its effort to decentralize the treasury.
In an attempt to make this easier to understand, we used the term “repurpose”. It was wrong. The AA cannot repurpose the DAO itself. However, if the funds are misused, it would no longer be able to keep transferring funds.
Only ANT Holders control the Aragon DAO.
We then momentarily rebranded the Aragon DAO to the Aragon Grants DAO to make the message to the RFV Raiders crystal clear: any more funds sent from the Association to the DAO are for builders.
This was a mistake, we screwed up and we apologize.
Our communication made it seem like the Aragon DAO is stoppable, that’s not true.
The Aragon DAO is unstoppable. It is deployed onchain. ANT Holders are using it.
What is stoppable are subsequent transfers to the DAO by the AA, if it is deemed unsafe. But once a transfer is made to the DAO, it is governed by ANT Holders. The AA cannot stop that and doesn’t want to. We’re sorry this wasn’t clear.
The AA will keep following a gradual transfer approach, making sure it aligns with the mission of the project.
The Aragon Project has been attempting to decentralize its governance to ANT Holders for years. It has not been easy, but we are steadfast in succeeding, and were well on the way before these events. We remain committed to that path.
All opinions are valued in our community. We invite everyone to join a constructive debate in our Forum.
Lines of communication are opened to resolve the situation.
Every account is now unbanned across social platforms, and we apologize for the temporary measure.
It will not happen again although we will keep upholding our code of conduct in case of clear breaches.
However, we won’t stand for hostile and coordinated attacks, particularly not ones that involve social engineering. Not last week, not today, and we hope to raise awareness to these types of practices that affect not only us, but the industry as a whole.
Sending clear communication while under stress is a challenge. We’re doing our best to do so while also focusing on delivering value to the community pushing our mission forward. Thank you to the countless builders and friends who reached out with constructive feedback and support.
Here’s to experimenting with governance at the speed of software. It’s the only way we are going to succeed. Finally, thank you for keeping faith in us.
Onwards and upwards 🦅
For questions and inquiries, reach out to press@aragon.org