Anthony Leutenegger, Head of Growth at Aragon, the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) platform that grows with you and allows users to mint tokens, set governance, and easily onboard members, recently shared his views and insights with Crowdfund Insider.
Anthony Leutenegger of Aragon discussed the launch of the no-code Aragon App and modular Aragon OSx protocol on Base.
Anthony talked about what the team is doing to help users build their own DAOs. He also touched on why users should deploy Aragon DAOs on Base.
He went on to explain how DAOs can improve the way we organize and how they could be the key to unlocking the full potential of Web3.
Anthony further commented on some of the key challenges that DAOs face. Finally, he revealed how Aragon is focused on ensuring robust and decentralized onchain infrastructure for users building DAOs.
Our discussion with Anthony Leutenegger is shared below.
Crowdfund Inside: Tell us a bit about Aragon and what you are doing to help users build their own DAOs?
Anthony Leutenegger: Aragon builds flexible and secure tools that enable anyone to launch and manage Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). During its ICO in May 2017, Aragon raised 275,000 ETH worth almost $25 million in just 15 minutes, the largest amount ever raised in an ICO at the time. Following this, Aragon built the first DAO framework, which has since powered the creation of over 6000 DAOs and secured over 15B in value for leading projects like Lido, Decentraland, and API3.
Aragon recently deployed the new modular Aragon OSx protocol and no-code Aragon App for anyone to launch and manage their DAO. The modularity of Aragon OSx allows DAO builders to install, upgrade or uninstall any governance mechanism via plugins. The no-code Aragon App allows builders to launch and manage their DAOs with a secure and user-friendly interface that intuitively guides them through every step of the process.
Our education portal offers step-by-step guides for users to ideate, launch and manage their DAO, and our DAO Experts program connects DAO builders with a curated list of industry experts to support their needs.
Crowdfund Insider: Can you tell us more about the no-code Aragon App and modular Aragon OSx protocol launching on Base?
Anthony Leutenegger: To move the world onchain, we need to govern the world onchain, and the new Aragon tech stack makes onchain governance more accessible than ever. The Aragon App makes it easy for users to launch and manage their DAO. Using the app, users can mint and distribute tokens, authorize wallets for voting, and set governance parameters without writing a single line of code.
The modular Aragon OSx protocol is the foundation layer of the new Aragon stack. It allows users to build custom DAOs in a way that is lean, adaptable, and secure.
By deploying on Base, Aragon aims to make onchain governance user-friendly, cost-effective, and secure for builders and users. We want the next billion users onboarded into the cryptoeconomy to be active participants in onchain governance.
Incubated by Coinbase and aiming to offer the benefits of an EVM environment, Base aims to usher millions of users into the broader cryptoeconomy. By making the Aragon App and Aragon OSx available on Base, we hope to bring a seamless onboarding experience to crypto and into a DAO to users, and help these users become active participants in onchain governance.
Crowdfund Insider: Why should users deploy Aragon DAOs on Base?
Anthony Leutenegger: Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network, incubated by Coinbase that provides users with a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly platform to build onchain.
Coinbase has played an important role in onboarding millions of users and organizations to crypto, by creating a user-friendly and secure platform. Aragon does the same thing for DAOs. User experience and security go hand in hand. When users can easily navigate and understand their onchain actions, they can make more informed decisions and safely interact with assets and contracts.
Crowdfund Insider: How can DAOs improve how we organize and are they key to unlocking the full potential of Web3?
Anthony Leutenegger: Humans have always organized themselves into groups, tribes, teams, companies, and other units of collective action. DAOs are another step forward in the evolution of human organizations. The main difference between DAOs and traditional organizations is that instead of enabling coordination by trusting central intermediaries to enforce decisions, DAOs can remove this need for trust by making and executing decisions on the blockchain.
Using blockchain as an infrastructure grants DAOs unique properties to improve human coordination compared to traditional organizations. A vital part of this is smart contract technology integration, which enables the trustless execution of collective decision-making. This trustless architecture allows people to come together to achieve a common objective, knowing that the technology will handle the trust side of things.
DAO technology allows participants to program incentives directly into your organization’s governance through smart contracts. In contrast to traditional companies, these incentives foster a more engaged environment that raises participation rates and a sense of ownership. Likewise, DAOs can experiment more freely than conventional large-scale organizations. Internet-native organizations can be more agile, creative, and dynamic, rather than slow and cumbersome governance in more traditional organizations.
The vision of Web3 is a fairer internet that allows users to participate in the governance and operation of the protocols themselves. DAOs are well-positioned to unlock the full potential of Web3 by creating an empowered ecosystem that ensures greater transparency and collective ownership. We need robust and decentralized on-chain infrastructure to create systems that increase economic and political freedom globally. To achieve decentralization, infrastructure must be governed on-chain by various stakeholders.
Onchain governance allows us to align these stakeholders’ incentives with the ecosystem’s security and growth. A robust DAO framework, particularly a lean, secure, and modular one like Aragon OSx, is essential to achieving these goals. Onchain governance is key to creating the resilient, future-proof, and unstoppable technology necessary to power the new systems we envision.
Crowdfund Insider: What are some challenges DAO faces?
Anthony Leutenegger: DAO technology is still in the early adoption phase. There is a lot of experimentation and we are still discovering which governance models and best practices will be successful and sustainable to reach different goals. One of the biggest challenges is that the blockchain is an immutable record, which can make it difficult to adapt and experiment.
If adaptability isn’t built into the smart contracts of the DAO framework, it makes it very difficult for DAOs to adapt their governance as they learn and grow. That’s why we deployed a new DAO framework: Aragon OSx. It was built to be lean and modular, so that organizations could easily customize and adapt their governance.
Another challenge DAO builders face is user experience and participation. We have heard a wide range of feedback from DAO builders struggling with software spaghetti, having their communities scattered throughout different platforms and struggling with voter engagement. We built the Aragon App to be a homebase for DAOs that is easy and intuitive for anyone to navigate. This helps keep the DAO experience in a consolidated place and helps keep communities up to date and engaged.
Crowdfund Insider; How is Aragon ensuring robust and decentralized onchain infrastructure for users building DAOs?
Anthony Leutenegger: In order to create systems that increase economic and political freedom globally, we need robust and decentralized onchain infrastructure. Both Base and Aragon share a deep commitment to safe and progressive decentralization. To achieve decentralization, infrastructure must be governed onchain by a wide range of stakeholders. Onchain governance allows us to align the incentives of these stakeholders with the security and growth of the ecosystem.
A robust DAO framework, particularly a lean, secure, and modular one like Aragon OSx, is essential to achieving these goals. Onchain governance is key to creating the resilient, future-proof, and unstoppable technology necessary to power the new systems we envision.
There are many ways to onboard and participate in the cryptoeconomy, and Base is paving a trusted, secure and user-friendly path for a million builders and a billion users. It was for this reason that Aragon chose to deploy on Base to bring onchain governance to new users.