We have an important update for all stakeholders in the Aragon project.
The Aragon Association (AA), the legal agent of the Aragon Treasury, its assets and its mission, issued the following resolution:
- Deploying most of the treasury to allow all ANT holders to redeem their ANT for ETH;
- AA solution.
- Continue the mission in a product-focused structure.
Token holders can exchange their ANT for ETH at a fixed rate of 0.0025376 ETH/You. AA is published 86,343 Ethereum To a redemption contract for this purpose on the Ethereum mainnet. Token holders can participate in the redemption here. Deploying the smart contract in Etherescan can be found here.
AA reached the best recovery rate it could achieve for all ANT holders by identifying the most compliant and tax-efficient path forward allowing the project to continue and be protected. This decision cannot be put to a public vote due to legal restrictions, especially regulatory risks resulting from token speculation and market manipulation. The discussions that took place at the Aragon Forum were taken into account in the decision.
Aragon was founded in 2016 with the goal of creating better organizations that are networked, borderless, and transparent. Since then, Aragon has popularized DAOs, generating its first $1 billion in assets under management across thousands of deployments.
In 2017, Aragon raised 275,000 ETH (about $25 million) selling ANT. ANT's ambition was bold: a token that would be used in a dispute resolution system within a new digital jurisdiction, the Aragon Network. The Fight for Freedom video brought together some of the most talented developers in the industry to realize this vision.
Aragon launched its grant program, Aragon Nest, in 2018. This was the second grant program to be launched in the Ethereum ecosystem, following the Ethereum Foundation's seed projects such as DAppNode and Frame. It also funded Prysmatic Labs to work on the first Ethereum 2.0 client, Prysm.
Meanwhile, the early Aragon team built the majority of the tools from scratch. From the world's first decentralized front-end, to Ethereum's first on-chain package manager, to aragonOS – a DAO framework for experimenting with governance at the speed of software. Today, aragonOS powers the DAOs that are core to Ethereum, like Lido and Curve, helping these projects manage more than $16 billion in assets.
We succeeded in many things and failed in others.
We have tried, and failed, to launch a judicial system to allow DAOs to benefit from human judgment.
We tried, and failed, to launch a series of applications on Cosmos when Ethereum gas fees threatened adoption of the product.
We have tried, and failed, to find a way to transform the DAO framework from a public good into a valuable protocol.
The AA was created to oversee the project's treasury, assets, and multiple teams. We have tried to balance these commitments by giving ANT holders and the community more control over the project. The AA's goal has always been to provide sustained support for the Aragon mission.
Over several years, AA has experimented with various governance initiatives, such as decentralizing the project with multiple teams, implementing an Aragon governance proposal process, and creating a parallel DAO for Optimistic Governance for the community. While the treasury has grown significantly after several bull markets, bureaucratic complexity, misaligned stakeholders, and failed attempts to tweak governance have increased tensions within the project.
This led the AA to make a hasty attempt to put control of the treasury directly into the hands of ANT holders. However, very few ANTs were in the hands of users, partners, and builders after years of product pivot, and there was a fluctuating gap between treasury value and token market value. This puts Aragon's mission in jeopardy.
Instead of continuing on the current path, after several months of deep reflection, we concluded that the shaky foundations of the current structure were beyond repair, and had held the project back for too long. Neither AA nor ANT are currently suitable for project management. A fresh start is needed and there will be nothing less than a complete reset.
It's time for a new chapter that not only protects the project's mission, but advances it, with new leadership and a leaner, product-focused structure.
The Aragon Assembly passed the following resolution:
- Deploy most of the vault to allow all token holders to redeem their ANT for sending ETH 86,343 Ethereum to the redemption contract (≈ 87% of treasury held in non-domestic assets);
- Dissolution of the AA Agreement – Allocating $11 million to cover outstanding liabilities and mitigate regulatory uncertainty;
- Continue the mission in a product-focused structure – with remaining funds allocated to product development.
1. Deploy most of the vault to allow all token holders to redeem their ANT for ETH
AA decided to spread out 86,343 Ethereum To provide all ANT holders with the opportunity to exchange their ANT for ETH at a fixed price of 0.0025376 ETH/You. The goal of this initiative is to recover all outstanding rolling supplies.
AA will send the assets to a smart contract that will independently allow all ANT holders to transparently execute the redemption on-chain over the course of 12 Months. No further funds will be sent to Aragon DAO. From this moment on, there is no purpose for continuing to detain ANT.
At the end of the redemption period, the redeemed ANT will be burned and any remaining ETH will be sent to the Ethereum address of the new product-focused structure. The funds will be allocated to further the mission through the development of Aragon OSx. Token holders can participate in the redemption here. The smart contract audit report and publication on Etherescan can be viewed here. Questions regarding ANT redemption can be directed to ant@aragon.org.
Over the next 12 months, recurring communications will be issued across multiple channels, including working with exchanges, onchain notifications, social media, Aragon’s website and weekly newsletters. Token holders even have it November 2, 2024 at 23:59 UTC To redeem their ANT for ETH. After this date, redemption will no longer be an option and no further token redemptions will be performed.
2. AA solution
AA has agreed to a complete liquidation and dissolution. None of the association members will have a role in the future of the project.
$11 million will be protected by the Aragon Shield Foundation (ASF) to cover liabilities accrued following the dissolution of the AA and mitigate regulatory uncertainty. The funds will be held for a limited period of time and will be supervised by the ASF, a Swiss foundation firmly linked to the Aragon mission and reporting to a supervisory authority.
Any unused funds will be sent to the new product-focused structure, in order to fund the continuity of the project and comply with tax regulations.
3. Continue the mission in a product-focused structure
The Aragon Project's mission is to provide the most flexible and secure tools for creating and managing decentralized organizations, allowing everyone to experience management at the speed of software. In order to further advance this mission, intellectual property, critical infrastructure and operational runway will be transferred to a new product-focused structure:
- The product council that will receive and allocate resources; And
- Company consisting of the existing Aragon OSx team who will continue to develop the product.
The Product Council will be composed of product stakeholders who are industry experts and who will guide the development and management of Aragon's DAO framework. It will be rated by a representative of the Aragon Shield Foundation and a representative of the Aragon OSx team. Initially, the Product Council will operate as a multisig, wrapped into a non-profit association, using the Aragon app.
The criteria for participation in the new product council will be as follows:
- Ethereum infrastructure builders;
- Experience building on, supporting, using, or integrating with Aragon products.
Awareness and recruitment will begin soon. Any ANT holder who meets the above criteria and is interested in participating in the Product Council can get in touch here as well.
For builders and developers, this changes nothing. The Aragon Project will continue its mission by doubling down on building governance tools and resilient infrastructure.
In March 2023, the Aragon team launched a comprehensive new technology stack. Aragon OSx is a permissions management framework, with a secure vault at its core and a modular plugin architecture. Aragon is a user interface that enables anyone to deploy and manage a DAO without code. Developer tools allow the ecosystem to expand and build on the stack to create new, custom applications.
Restructuring to a product-focused setup will enable those most aligned with the project's mission—its users and partners—to take a leadership role. The goal of this new structure is to establish a solid foundation for success, by including Product Council members who are long-term users of Aragon's DAO framework and partners who align with the project's values.
The Product Council will advise on product development priorities, allocate funds, and oversee the management of Aragon OSx. By creating a structure where decision-making is in the hands of those most directly affected, Aragon will be better positioned to serve the needs of the industry and achieve long-term success.
By looking at the project's origins, failures, and accomplishments and taking these actions, we believe Aragon will be successful in getting the project back into the hands of developers and product stakeholders and moving the mission forward, with an unwavering focus on building a resilient community DAO framework for Ethereum and beyond.
We understand that this fundamentally changes the relationship between ANT and the project. We want to thank those of you who have supported the project over all these years, and who have helped Aragon build impactful technology.
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For media inquiries regarding this announcement, please contact the Aragon Association and Aragon Network Token (ANT). aragon@wachsman.com.
