May 2025: Smarter frameworks for token incentives, modular governance with the Aragon app, and thoughts from DeFi OGs
This month we reflect on critical features of our Value Accrual Toolkit, the Aragon app as a multichain launchpad, team op-eds on ownership and value accrual, plus watch our stream with Defi OGs.
TL;DR
Here’s a roundup of Aragon highlights from the past month:
Multichain launchpad: For onchain organizations to be unstoppable, they need the right tools—and chains—to share their vision. This month we highlighted each chain you can deploy on.
Team Op-eds: Our CTO Carlos penned a blog about automating and optimizing resource allocation for onchain organizations using ve and gauges. Meanwhile Anthony, wrote about why we need to shift how we discuss decentralization.
Livestream with Defi OGs: We hosted a livestream with some of the best minds in Defi from Curve, Velodrome, mode, and RingsProtocol to discuss “Unlocking Defi Flywheels and Token Value with veTokenomics.” Watch it here.
Ve and Gauges driving growth for PufferDAO: Read their combined reports for Epochs 4 & 5.
Taiko Security Council: As Taiko's governance platform provider, we're proud to be a part of their Security Council, contributing our expertise in building robust, scalable governance solutions that will help drive their vision for a fully decentralized Ethereum ecosystem.
Events: We were recently at ETH Bucharest, the Base Community Meetup in Brussels, and now Token2049. Stay tuned for our whereabouts at ETH Prague, ETH CC, Berlin Blockchain Week, and ETH Sofia.
Aragon on the StablePod: Our CEO Anthony was on the StablePod where he shared some product alpha, onboarding onchain organizations, and more. Watch it here.
App Highlights: The OGs in the industry govern on Aragon, explore more DAOs here.
Building for Building for Value Accrual: A Smarter Framework for Token Incentives
In the evolving world of onchain ownership, one of the most persistent challenges for decentralized organizations is incentive alignment, ensuring that builders, token holders, and core teams are working toward shared outcomes. At Aragon, we’ve spent years at the infrastructure layer, witnessing first-hand how organizations often becomes bogged down by misaligned motivations, unclear constraints, and disorganized spending.
With the Value Accrual Toolkit, used by projects like Mode and Puffer, we’ve introduced a powerful suite of modularized tokenomic primitives designed to help onchain organizations align incentives at every layer, from governance, to treasury management, to liquidity growth.
The Impact of Gauge-Based Budgeting and Linear Incentives
One key to solving this lies in restructuring how we allocate capital. Instead of requiring majority consensus to pass proposals, effectively disempowering minority stakeholders, we introduced a gauge system that allows proportional control over shared resources. Own 1% of governance tokens? You can direct 1% of capital.
This linear model enables more dynamic and continuous decision-making and gives every stakeholder a meaningful voice. Paired with structured initiative planning, separating what to fund from who executes, it reduces gridlock and encourages more thoughtful budgeting.
Learn more about how the gauge system works in the full Value Accrual Toolkit breakdown.
Lockers and Bootstrapping Sustainable Liquidity
A significant portion of decisions for decentralized organizations revolve around resource allocation, yet processes are often heavily politicized, slowing execution, limiting meaningful ecosystem engagement, and stifling growth. Much of the focus is placed on delegation processes and voting coordination, rather than on the outcomes of proposals and initiatives.
Locker-based infrastructure fixes this by connecting governance weight directly to long-term economic commitments. Through veLockers, stakeholders are enabled to lock tokens for increased governance power, allowing incentives to be directed strategically toward liquidity, integrations, and other growth priorities.
Dive deeper into how veLockers create sustainable protocol growth in the Toolkit’s official launch post.
What’s Next?
We will be at the PizzaDAO Global Party this May 22 🍕
Our Tokenomics Lead, Ivan will be speaking at ETH Sofia in September.
Heading to ETH Prague? Be sure not to miss our CEO, Anthony’s talk. Details soon!
We’re working hard to bring in a new era for operating organizations onchain, with some cool stuff cooking in the kitchen. Keep in touch with us to see what’s next!
Have a great weekend, see you next month, and follow us on X in the meantime!
—Aragon X