What is Aragon?
The Aragon protocol is a decentralized platform that allows for the creation and management of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) on the Ethereum blockchain. It is an important player in the crypto space because it provides a set of tools and smart contracts that make it easy for anyone to create and manage a DAO, regardless of technical experience.
DAOs are important in the crypto space because they offer a new way for communities and organizations to govern themselves in a decentralized and transparent way. They allow for a more fair and democratic decision-making process and reduce the risk of centralization of power.
With Aragon, individuals and businesses can easily create and manage their own DAOs, making it an important tool in the crypto space that contributes to the growth and adoption of decentralized systems.
The concept of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) dated back from 2016, when "The DAO" was launched. Participants had envisioned an internet hedge fund operated by its participants. The DAO had did not have a physical address or people in formal management roles. Furthermore, everything was done by the code, which anyone could see.
Although The DAO ended up being hacked two months after its launch, its principles persisted in the minds of entrepreneurs. Giving a voice to the protocol participants was the right way to go about decentralization. The concept of DAO was revolutionary, it just needed some tweaking.
Learning from The DAO's mistakes, the Aragon team saw an opportunity to create a secure DAO framework that could easily be integrated by crypto projects and companies. Aragon's first version was launched in 2018.
The protocol provided a set of smart contracts and tools that allowed users to define the rules of their organization, raise funds, and make decisions collectively in a secure and transparent way. It didn't take long before Aragon became the go-to solution for DeFi projects to grow their community.
Aragon derives its value from its robust and secure governance structure, which makes it safer to use than The DAO. Aragon has never been hacked, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware of its potential weak points.
The Aragon protocol is built on the Ethereum blockchain, which is considered to be a secure and reliable platform. The protocol uses smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. This ensures that the terms of the contract are transparent and cannot be altered, making it difficult for any party to cheat or act maliciously.
The protocol also uses a governance system that allows members of a DAO to vote on proposals and make decisions collectively. This allows for a transparent and fair decision-making process and reduces the risk of centralization of power.
The Aragon network has its own native token, ANT, which is used to govern and interact with the protocol. This token has a utility, which is required to vote on proposals and make decisions collectively within the organization. This, along with the token's scarcity and the network effects, can provide a disincentive for bad actors to try to manipulate the system for their own gain.
Aragon implements a KYC process to prevent illegal activities and money laundering. This process verifies the identity of the user before they can use the platform and create their own DAO. We will dive deeper into the KYC implications as we explain how Aragon works.
How does Aragon work?
At its core, Aragon is made out of a set of smart contracts that empowers communities to create their own governance systems. To give more info, you can create DAOs with basic organization functions such as table management, token transfer, voting, role assignment, payroll, fundraising, and accounting. Each of these elements strive to cut out intermediaries, and most importantly, Aragon creates an easy interface to manage all aspects of an organization.
Aragon Client
The Aragon client is a user-interface that allows users to interact with the Aragon protocol and create and manage DAOs on the Ethereum blockchain. It is the portal to your organization where you can add or remove templates fit for your organization within minutes.
The client provides a range of features that include creating and managing smart contracts, managing community engagement, and providing administrative services. It also includes a built-in governance system that allows members of the DAO to vote on proposals and make decisions collectively. Additionally, the client provides tools for fundraising and accounting, making it a versatile platform for creating and managing decentralized organizations.
The client can be accessed via web or mobile apps and it is open source, which allows for anyone to review and contribute to the code. It is designed to work seamlessly with the Ethereum network, and all transactions made through the client are recorded on the Ethereum blockchain, providing transparency and security.
Aragon Voice
Aragon Vocdoni
Aragon Vocdoni is a decentralized voting platform that allows for secure and transparent voting and decision-making processes. It is designed to be a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional voting solutions.
Vocdoni is built on top of the Aragon protocol and uses a set of smart contracts to create a decentralized voting system. It uses a technique called "proof of vote" to ensure that each vote is recorded and counted accurately, and that the results are tamper-proof. This ensures that the voting process is fair and transparent, and that the results cannot be manipulated.
One of the key advantages of Vocdoni over traditional voting solutions is its ability to scale. It uses a technique called sharding to divide the voting process into smaller chunks, which allows for a much larger number of voters to participate in a single election. This makes it more suitable for large-scale elections and referendums.
Vocdoni also includes a built-in KYC process, which verifies the identity of voters before they can participate in an election. This helps to prevent voter fraud and ensures that only eligible voters can participate.
Several projects are already using Vocdoni, such as OceanDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization focused on creating a sustainable future for the ocean. And also, Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange on Ethereum, used Vocdoni for their governance vote.
Aragon Govern
Aragon Govern is a framework for frictionless DAO governance. What sets Aragon Govern apart from other governance solutions is its speed. This is because Aragon makes use of optimistic governance to boost the decision-making process.
In traditional DAO governance models, all members must wait for the outcome of the vote to be confirmed by the blockchain before any action can be taken. This can lead to delays and inefficiencies, especially when dealing with time-sensitive decisions.
Optimistic governance solves this problem by allowing members to vote and make decisions before the outcome of the vote is confirmed by the blockchain. This allows for faster decision-making and reduces the time required for proposals to be passed and implemented.
However, this model also introduce the risk of bad actors trying to manipulate the vote by claiming that a different outcome occurred. To mitigate this risk, optimistic governance models typically include a dispute resolution mechanism that allows members to challenge the outcome of a vote if they suspect that it has been manipulated.
Optimistic governance is still a relatively new concept in the context of DAOs, but it is gaining traction as a way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of decentralized decision-making. A few projects such as OceanDAO, Uniswap and Gnosis have began using it.
It's worth noting that, as Aragon Govern is an open-source platform and it is possible that other projects are using it as well, but they are not publicly disclosed.
Aragon Court
Aragon Court represents the dispute resolution mechanism that works in conjunction with Aragon Govern.
Aragon Court allows users to submit disputes to a panel of jurors, who will review the evidence and make a decision. The process is designed to be transparent, fair, and efficient, and is based on the use of smart contracts and the native token of the Aragon network, ANT.
The platform uses a system of bonding and penalties, in which parties to a dispute must put up a bond in order to participate. If a party loses the dispute, their bond is transferred to the winning party as a penalty. This incentivizes parties to only submit legitimate disputes and to present strong evidence.
Jurors are incentivized to make fair and unbiased decisions by being rewarded with ANT tokens for their participation. They are also penalized if they make decisions that are later overturned.
How to make money on Aragon?
Aragon serves as the go-to infrastructure tool for projects who want to launch their own DAO. In its current format, the only way to make money on Aragon is by becoming a juror.
Being a juror isn't all rosy. Your mission is to settle disputes between people and other organizations.
If you do well, you will be rewarded.
If you don't, you will be penalized.
Jurors will be paid as a portion of the subscriptions paid by users and organizations to access the Aragon Court. Even if no disputes are created in a period, jurors should expect a predictable income from passive users of the Court who are getting security from it even if they don't need to create disputes.
An additional source of income will come from dispute fees and appeal fees – just like a legal court. The difference is that jurors are made of regular people, just like you.
In order to apply for a juror positions you will need at least 100 ANT. These ANT tokens will be converted to ANJ tokens, which is the equivalent to your stake. If the juror makes a bad call, his stake will be slashed.
Here are the steps to apply as a juror on Aragon:
Go to anj.aragon.org
Input the amount of ANT you want to convert
Provide your email address to be notified when courts go live
Approve the transaction
Convert!
Congrats! You've successfully applied to become a juror. In case of a dispute, you will be notified via email.
Price Prediction for Aragon — Can it hit $1000?
Buying and hodling ANT — the native token of the Aragon protocol — is one way of potentially making money on Aragon.
The main utility for ANT is to serve as the governance token for the Aragon DAO. Because Aragon is the de facto solution for governance services, ANT holders carry a lot of influence over the protocol and other projects using Aragon's infrastructure.
As DAO governance becomes the norm in DeFi and beyond, the value of ANT will follow suit. Furthermore, projects who choose Aragon's governance structure will pay for the service using ANT tokens.
By looking at its current price, it’s natural to think about the chance of ANT hitting $1000 per token. This can happen sooner, or way in the future, and is determined by a couple of ever changing factors.
Let’s examine the potential growth of the ANT token by analyzing its tokenomics. ANT’s current market cap sits comfortably at ${MARKET_CAP}. With {CIRCULATING_SUPPLY} ANT tokens being in circulation today, that means a price of {PRICE} per ANT.
How did we come to that calculation? It’s quite easy, the price of an ANT token is equal to its current market cap divided by the number of tokens in circulation. Dividing ${MARKET_CAP} by {CIRCULATING_SUPPLY} gives us a result of {PRICE} for each ANT coin.
By changing the order in the simple formula above we can use it to calculate other things as well. This helps us a lot because we can deduce the market cap of ANT at different token prices. Then, we can use the result to compare it to the current state of the network and see what would be required for ANT to hit that price.
At a price of $1000 per token, that means the current market cap of ANT would equal ${{CIRCULATING_SUPPLY} * 1000}. Remember that we arrived at this number by multiplying the amount of circulating tokens by $1000.
Now let’s shift our attention to the fully diluted market cap.
Some blockchains may have their tokenomics built in a way that only a small percentage of tokens are circulating at the beginning. This can be misleading because we don’t have the full picture and only take into account the current number of coins released in the market.
The fully diluted market cap represents the total value of a coin if all tokens were in circulation. ANT’s whole supply of tokens is {MAX_SUPPLY - TOTAL_SUPPLY + CIRCULATING_SUPPLY} ANT which means that no more coins above that number will ever be created.
These tokens are not created at the discretion of a specific entity. They are created automatically by the network to reward different actors that keep it secure.
How does this impact the price of ANT? Taking into account the current price of an ANT token, that would result in a fully diluted market cap of ${MAX_SUPPLY - TOTAL_SUPPLY + CIRCULATING_SUPPLY * PRICE}. ANT coins that have been burned are not taken into consideration because they have been permanently removed from circulation.
Whether it seems gigantic or not, the number we came to above only takes into account the current price of an ANT token. Doing the same calculation but with a price of $1000 gives us a result of ${{MAX_SUPPLY - TOTAL_SUPPLY + CIRCULATING_SUPPLY} * 1000} for the ANT protocol fully diluted market cap.
These are all crucial details to know when calculating if ANT can reach the price of $1000 per token. If the diluted market capitalization is way too high, the token has little room left to grow. Blockchains in general have no cap on the value they can reach, whether that number seems possible it’s totally up to you.
The future of ANT depends solely on its growth as a network used by tens and hundreds of millions of users. In a crypto world where every DeFi protocol has its own DAO, many will look to implement Aragon's DAO infrastructure. It is within the realm of possibilities for the price of ANT can reach $1000 by 2030.
If you’re looking to add some ANT to your portfolio, the most trusted places to get some are Binance and Coinbase.
