20 dApps to Build on Top of The New aragonOS
We’ve been dreaming up all the dApps that can be built on top of our protocol. Here are some ideas that excite us the most!
The new aragonOS allows for the modular, flexible, and ever-evolving organizations of the future. It’s a lean and lightweight protocol, so you can build efficiently and easily. Check out the Github repo here!
Here’s a quick TL;DR of the components:
- The DAO and its factory: the contracts that create DAOs, store them in the DAORegistry, and where DAOs manage their assets. You can envision the DAO.sol contract as a vault, enabling addresses (with certain permissions, of course) to withdraw and deposit assets.
- The permission management system: these are the contracts that determine which addresses (be them contracts or accounts) are able to execute which actions.
- The plugins and their manager: this is where we publish plugins, store them, and manage their versions. It contains the logic and the installing instructions for each of the plugins published to the protocol.
We’ve been dreaming up all the dApps that can be built on top of our protocol. Here are some ideas that excite us the most:
1. Your own custom DAO
In the short history of DAOs, we have already seen organizations as niche as school soccer clubs and as wide as software development guilds and DeFi protocols.
Through the years of testing and iterating, we’ve learned that each DAO has different requirements, culture, and procedures. DAOs are too wide to fit into one box.
Through our strategically lean framework, we hope to empower ever-evolving on-chain organizations to adapt as their needs change.
Anywhere from unique governance mechanisms to security measures or treasury management techniques, you can build your custom DAO as you see fit.
This is thanks to our permission management system, which allows DAOs to grant, revoke, or freeze permissions to whichever address you need.
Additionally, our framework is designed for plugins, which means your DAO can be integrated with any smart contract from the ecosystem. And, you can build any additional functionality your DAO might need through the UI of your dapp as well!
2. Vote delegation DAO framework
Example: Tally
Vote delegation is one of the most sought-after governance mechanisms for DAOs. But there’s a problem with delegate accountability, because token holders typically set-and-forget their delegation and don’t keep delegates accountable to their votes. One potential solution is auto-expiring delegation, reminding token holders to re-delegate their tokens.
We’re imagining a simple and lightweight DAO framework enabling DAOs to easily add delegated voting with extra features like auto-expire to their tech stack. Then, DAOs can unplug it if they want to use a different governance mechanism later on.
In order to do this, you'll need to first create a delegated voting plugin which wraps pre-existing tokens or creates new ones with this functionality. Then, simply make sure that that plugin is installed on every DAO created in your dApp et voila!
3. NFT voting
Example: SZNS
NFT-voting means 1 NFT == 1 vote. Whether it’s non-transferrable NFTs held by the wallet address they’re minted on, or transferable tokens that can be sold along with the governance rights, NFT voting has tons of possibilities to explore as a dApp on top of our new OS.
An interesting project in this space to draw inspiration from is SZNS, where community members can fractionalize ownership of a single NFT and create a DAO with it. But this is not the extent of NFT voting. You could create an admin dashboard for NFT communities, where holders get rewarded for performing actions in the DAO. Think of the on-chain events the DAO might want to incentivize, and see what you come up with from there!
Especially as the NFT-Fi space keeps growing, we’re only going to keep seeing NFTs intermixed with more governance mechanisms within DAOs. Build the first few products in this realm and you’ll have a first-creator advantage!
4. Automation tools connecting the on and off-chain worlds
Example: Zapier, but for on-chain products
Want to automate an email blast to contributors whenever a proposal is submitted on-chain? Or auto-magically add tasks to Trello right after a proposal has been approved? Use the events our protocol emits to track on-chain transactions and connect them with off-chain flows!
Through using our permission management system and our plugins, building an automation tool connecting on-chain events with off-chain tools would be an incredibly useful value-add for tons of organizations that call the blockchain home.
5. Token-gate your DAO’s actions
Example: Guild, Collab.land
Members-only spaces are becoming key to decentralized organizations with hundreds (or thousands!) of members. Try using the new Aragon protocol to token-gate which actions a DAO’s member can perform. Imagine assigning a non-transferrable NFT to members who perform certain actions, which then gives them access to gated channels. This would incentivize those actions and help further curate the community into smaller guilds or subDAOs.
Beyond that, as we start to see on-chain organizations grow in complexity, our permission management system enables you to easily have a tiered structure so only certain addresses are able to use certain products. Have a product with only a certain number of paid seats available? Token-gate it!
6. Collaboration tools for your Lens, Reddit, or Mirror communities
Example: Crowdfunds run on Mirror
As communities form online, DAOs unlock greater incentive alignment and collaboration mechanisms between its members.
By tapping into Aragon’s new protocol, we can build organizations based on those who collect your Lens post, follow your subreddit, or minted your Mirror NFT.
Any community can become a DAO with a simple voting mechanism through creating a plugin that connects those tools with our protocol. Even Facebook groups could become DAOs! Yes, with the right tools, one day your grandma could be part of a DAO. Imagine how many people will be onboarded into web3 once we make it easy for their existing group to start voting and holding assets on-chain.
7. Payment streams for DAO contributors
Examples: Superfluid, Furo streaming from SushiSwap
An integration that allows easy, automatic payments for DAO contributors is necessary for organizations to function. Services like Superfluid and Furo make it easy to stream tokens to contributors or guilds over time. But there’s still opportunity to customize and gate those streams so they’re primed to best fit the needs of the organizations of the future.
What kind of payment system can you come up with for DAOs? Automatic payroll executions on-chain, immediate token swaps upon an approved proposal—anything is possible through plugins connecting other smart contracts in the ecosystem and giving your plugin the right permissions!
8. Investment DAO framework
Example: Syndicate
Investment DAOs have unique needs, such as making fast decisions and deploying capital on the spot. In general, they need to be much more agile and lean than most existing DAOs are today. They are also more likely to engage in advanced treasury management and yield strategies, as well as have different regulatory mandates.
Build an investment DAO framework on top of the new aragonOS to seamlessly manage permissions to plugins that are necessary for the DAO’s operations. Imagine a framework that integrates a DAO’s treasury directly with DeFi players, like Aave, Lido, and Uniswap. Or, create multiple decision-making flows based on how much the proposed investment is, so they can move fast when necessary.
9. Smart wallet with plugins enabling multiple owners and security measures
Take custody to the next level with a smart wallet that does the work for you. A smart wallet designed for specific verticals, like Openfort's GameFi-focused wallet, can help onboard more users to web3 and make on-chain actions easier and faster.
Enable plugins to seamlessly delegate tokens, enable multiple owners, or add additional security measures for smart wallets that may not exist in the market today. Imagine how much simpler many DAO activities will get when you can automate more actions directly from your wallet.
10. DAO-2-DAO proposal framework
Example: Prime Deals
DAO-2-DAO will be the new B2B. But without contracts between DAOs, how do you trustlessly execute proposals and token swaps across both organizations? Without a contract, one DAO could take the other DAO’s token and never send their own, failing to uphold their side of the deal.
Design a dApp that makes it simple for DAOs to lock their tokens in escrow while the transactions are going through, so neither DAO can rug the other while performing the swap. Bonus idea: make these transactions happen on a binding execution after a proposal passes.
11. Proposal search and discovery platform
Example: Messari Governor, Boardroom
Finding DAO proposals across DAOs can be challenging—especially if you’re a new member with a fresh idea, but want to see if it’s already been proposed. A proposal discovery platform could allow DAO members to filter proposals and see them across all Aragon DAOs.
Also filtering, sorting, mapping proposals to certain topics could help us better understand where the DAO ecosystem is in terms of trends and development. Are most DAOs starting to propose legal wrappers? Maybe there’s a trend of adding OpSec teams to their payroll? That’s valuable data to share with the world!
Bonus tip: forking proposals and using them in your own DAO!
12. DAO on-chain statistics
Example: Dune Analytics
Just because everything is on-chain doesn’t mean everything is easy to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for. An analytics platform for Aragon DAOs could allow them to track voter rates, proposal creation, token purchases, and more.
DAOs could then use these analytics to determine the community’s needs and possible future direction. Is the DAO dropping in voter participation? Maybe time to add a delegated voting plugin! Or, maybe the number of proposals is increasing rapidly. Time to start running some proposals through subDAOs so subject matter experts can analyze them first! An analytics platform specifically for DAOs would give the entire ecosystem clarity on our biggest pain points as an industry.
13. Automatic DeFi strategy execution
Managing a DAO treasury via governance can be cumbersome and slow. On top of that, giving access too widely can be a huge security risk. You can find a balance with permission management!
Think about dApps that give special permissions to certain asset managers, execute DeFi yield strategies, and help treasuries risk-off to prepare for bear markets. It’s important for members to smartly manage their DAO’s treasury, so how can you help DAOs do it more trustlessly?
14. Legal DAO framework
Example: Otoco
Many DAOs are choosing to get a legal wrapper. But one wrapper might not be enough—they may need to add more wrappers, like one for each subDAO, as they grow and add more teams to their organization.
How can you bridge meatspace and metaverse with a framework that automatically generates a legal wrapper for you the moment you build your DAO? And, as you add more subDAOs, generates more wrappers? Legal frameworks for DAOs will likely only grow in popularity, so a simple legal framework plugin could help protect DAOs and their contributors!
15. SubDAO permission management
Example: Metropolis, Groups feature on Tally
Whether it’s a permission management system for each subDAO or an integration with Safe, your core teams need ways to manage their own treasuries, too! Can you apply our permission management system specifically for subDAOs?
Use special permissions for multi-sigs or smaller treasuries run by teams, freeing up the full DAO and moving decisions directly to subject matter experts.
16. Delegate health cards
Example: Gitcoin steward report cards
It’s challenging to keep up with how delegates are performing or decide who to delegate your tokens to if you’re new to the DAO and lack context. A dApp which helps DAOs produce and manage delegate health cards can make it easy for token-holders to see how often their delegates have voted, their voting weight over time, and more.
A Linkedin-type product for delegates can also help DAOs better understand who is running their DAO and who token-holders are voting for. Imagine a network of professional delegates all sharing their on-chain reputation, so DAO members can better understand who to delegate to!
17. Privacy-preserving productivity tools
What’s the future of collaborating on creative work? The problem with existing tools like Google Drive and Notion is that permissions are often too wide, leaving it open to attacks. If the DAO doesn’t have its own email address, “anyone can edit” links end up circulating around the Discord, which get breached. What alternatives can you build with more granular permissions?
A crypto-native, privacy-preserving tool like Skiff or Proton for DAO members to collaborate and manage permissions would be a great dApp! Imagine wallet sign-in, then permission-gating based on the tokens in that wallet.
18. Automatic delivery of POAPs or tokens when wallets perform certain actions
POAP and token delivery is often done manually. Create a simple way to reward community members for on-chain activity. A dApp that tracks an account’s actions and distributes POAPs or tokens to community members can make airdrops and community building simple!
For example, you could distribute a POAP to every wallet that has purchased your DAO’s token before a certain date, and use that POAP to gate content or channels. You could also create IRL events only for those POAP holders and reward your OG community.
19. Bounty and project management software—the Jira of web3
Examples: Clarity, Layer3, DeWork
DAOs need collaboration tools, just like any other organization. But web2 tools like Jira don’t have the necessary connection to web3 tools, like wallets. Use our permission management framework to grant access to DAO contributors working on different projects and generate different kanban boards, roadmaps, and task lists. Imagine how powerful the Jira of web3 will be!
You can also manage permissions for bounty hunters looking to pick up work in your organization. Take inspiration from tools like Layer3 and Dework, making payments automatically when a task is complete.
20. Private information stored in ZK rollups off-chain and accessed via granting permissions
There are tons of ways to use our permission management system to preserve privacy for users and give permission to certain people to access it.
Think of the private information you need to share but don’t want to give wide access to, such as health information you give to doctors. You could store this in ZK rollups off-chain, and grant permission to only the people who need it.
This solves the problem of health information being very localized, and often stored in paper documents around the world! How can you use the power of ZK to make sharing private information easier?
What exciting dApps can you come up with?
What are you building? What do you think could be a cool idea? Let us know! Hop into our Discord Developer chat to let us know what you’re building.