“A Pocket Guide to DAO Frameworks” offers a clear, accessible overview of the primary technical infrastructures used to create and govern Decentralized Autonomous Organizations. Written by MoreReese, this guide demystifies the technical landscape by comparing the core frameworks that power most DAOs, highlighting their unique approaches to governance, security, and operational functionality. The guide serves as an orientation for those exploring DAO creation or seeking to understand the technical underpinnings of different governance models.
Key Highlights
- OpenZeppelin Governor: The guide explains how this modular, security-focused framework (developed with Compound) powers many major DAOs through its flexible, customizable approach to on-chain governance. It emphasizes OpenZeppelin’s strong security track record and adaptability to different governance requirements.
- Moloch Framework: Described as a “minimum viable DAO,” the Moloch framework is presented as a streamlined approach focused originally on grant distribution. The guide highlights its distinctive “Ragequit” mechanism that allows members to exit with their proportional share of treasury funds if they disagree with governance decisions.
- Aragon Framework: The guide details how Aragon provides a comprehensive ecosystem for DAO creation and management, emphasizing its “Optimistic Governance” model that streamlines decision-making by assuming proposals pass unless challenged, and its extensive tooling for creating token-based governance systems.
- Framework Selection Considerations: Rather than advocating for one solution, the guide presents a nuanced view of how factors like governance complexity, treasury size, security requirements, and community structure should inform framework selection, emphasizing that different DAOs have different optimal technical foundations.
- Governance Spectrum: The guide places these frameworks along a spectrum from minimalist to comprehensive, and from deterministic to flexible governance, showing how technical choices reflect philosophical governance approaches.
Practical Applications
The guide’s framework comparisons can be applied in several contexts:
- For new communities developing their first DAO, providing clarity on which technical framework best aligns with their governance philosophy and operational needs
- For existing DAOs considering migration between frameworks as their governance requirements evolve
- For protocol developers seeking to incorporate DAO governance into their projects, offering guidance on which frameworks provide appropriate security and flexibility
- For governance researchers and designers who need to understand the technical constraints and possibilities offered by different frameworks
- For DAO participants seeking to understand how their organization’s technical infrastructure shapes its governance processes and capabilities
The guide helps bridge the gap between governance theory and technical implementation, showing how philosophical choices about decision-making manifest in technical architecture.
Connection With SuperBenefit
- Clarifies how different technical infrastructures implement the building blocks of decentralized organization, evoking SuperBenefit’s work on the DAO Primitives framework.
- The comparative approach aligns with SuperBenefit’s pattern-based organizational design, recognizing that different contexts require different implementations of governance principles.
- Helps bridge theory and practice by showing how conceptual frameworks can be implemented in real technical systems.