Upcoming Aragon Token Holders Vote Looks to Prevent ETH App from Financing Polkadot Blockchain

As per a news report released earlier today, the coming couple of weeks will see Aragon users put the efficacy of their platform’s native “on-chain governance model” to the test and vote on some pressing matters that will determine the future of the project (to quite a large extent).

About Aragon

For those of our readers who may not be aware of what Aragon is, the project is essentially a collection of digital tools that are designed to help users build decentralized organizations that are cryptographically bolstered. Also, it should be mentioned that Aragon has primarily been built atop the Ether blockchain, however, over the course of the past couple of months, many of the project's core developers have showcased an increasing amount of interest in “launching a version of Aragon that is based solely on the Polkadot blockchain network.”

While the idea is still in its “nascent stages”, according to AragonONE CEO Luis Cuende, his team has no immediate intentions of moving away from the Ethereum network.

A Closer Look at the Issue

As things stand, Aragon token holders are currently required to decide between two competing AGPs (Governance Proposals) — which will have a direct impact on whether or not plans of approving/restricting applications outside of Ethereum will be given any credence by the Aragon investor community or not.

In this regard, it should be pointed out that the voting process will commence on the 25th of April and will last for a period of upto 48 hours. It is being said that the results of the election will be announced on the 27th of April (at 16:00 UTC).

So What do the aforementioned AGP’s Actually Entail?

According to information sourced from Github, AGP 42 was submitted by SpankChain CEO Ameen Soleimani, so as to help keep the Aragon dev team focused on Ethereum and not the Polkadot ecosystem.

On the other hand, AGP 41, was put forth by the Web3Foundation on the exact same day as when Soleimani’s submitted his proposal. The goal of AGP41 is to allow $1.5 Million of Aragon’s native holdings to be hedged in DOT tokens (Polkadot’s native cryptocurrency offering).

The above mentioned proposal reads as follows:

“The Aragon Association is seeking the signalling by the community for the approval of closer engagement in technology collaboration and parachain development, as well as in purchasing DOTs to diversify its crypto assets.”

Some Other Key Stats Worth Pointing Out

• At press time, Aragon’s parent foundation has under its possession roughly $37 million worth of assets (in both crypto and fiat).
• The organizations’ largest holding of around $33 million, is currently held in ETH.
• Even if AGP41 proposal is rejected, the Aragon Association will still have the option to raise the required money via alternative financial channels.

More on the Matter

In a recent interview with Cuende regarding the new AGPs, he clearly stated that proposal 42 posed a pertinent threat to the future success of the Aragon project.

Elaborating on his stance, he was quoted as saying:

“If it passes, the first thing I would do is just start drafting my own proposal for the next ballot [in June] basically doing a declaration of independence,” said Cuende to CoinDesk. “I think the fate of our project will be decided by the platform we build upon so having multiple really helps have choice and reclaim your independence as an app or second layer protocol.”

With that being said, Cuende did concede that regardless of his personal preferences and choices, the final decision ultimately lay in the hands of Aragon’s token holders — who always have the last word when it comes to deciding how the company’s funds are distributed and used.

Final Take

In closing out this piece, it should be highlighted that Aragon’s “plutocratic governance model” could possibly affect its overall utility later down the line (especially if the project’s voters do not understand the gravity of the matter).

On the subject, Soleimani added:

“[Aragon] has chosen to be governed by their tokens and in so far as their tokens are held by people who have a lot of ether…it might not make their token holders happy if they then go and build on another platform.”