Aragon Guardians Secure DeFi Assets on Morpho for the Ethereum Foundation

Through its governance services, designed to propel organizations' abilities to operate and scale onchain, Aragon is committed to not only ensuring protocols have the tooling they need to not only create and distribute value, but to safeguard it too.

Aragon has long been a partner of Morpho Labs to protect depositors in its DeFi vaults by offering Guardians as their onchain safety operators.

Aragon Guardians are an onchain security and governance safety feature within the Aragon OSx framework. They serve as a protective layer for projects to ensure that if something goes wrong, like a malicious proposal, exploit, or smart contract bug, the community or trusted actors have a way to veto before damage is done. Since its V1 launch, Aragon Guardians have been adopted by MetaMorpho curators, as well as DeFi protocols such as Steakhouse Financial, Hyperithm, MEV Capital, and Re7 Labs to safeguard assets. And now other major players in the Ethereum ecosystem are also putting their trust in Morpho and Aragon Guardians as part of their DeFi portfolios.

Leveraging the security of Guardians v1 and flexibility of the TokenVoting plugin, the Ethereum Foundation is now participating in low risk DeFi when holding assets. On October 15th, the Ethereum Foundation shared on X how they're storing 2400 ETH and approximately $6M in stablecoins in Morpho’s yield-bearing vaults, safeguarded by Aragon Guardians and the Aragon TokenVoting plugin.

Improving the Guardian experience with LockToVote

Building on this milestone, Aragon is taking the Guardians experience to the next level with LockToVote, a new governance plugin available for Aragon OSx.

Released in September alongside Morpho Vaults v2, Aragon Guardians v2 is powered by the LockToVote plugin and introduces a more secure, transparent, and flexible approach to onchain governance. It also gives users of protocols like Morpho a more resilient foundation for safeguarding their assets. Let’s deep dive into how LockToVote works.

How LockToVote works

LockToVote is Aragon’s latest governance plugin that enables any ERC20 token to be used in onchain governance. Here’s how it works:

• Token holders lock their ERC-20 tokens into a LockManager contract and that locked balance becomes their voting power.
• While locked, tokens are non-transferable, preventing double voting across multiple addresses during an active proposal.
• Once unlocked, holders regain full control of their tokens, and their voting power resets to zero, ensuring every vote reflects genuine, active participation.

The Lock-to-Vote plugin introduces key benefits that enhance both flexibility and accountability in governance. First, it enables onchain veto power, allowing shareholders to challenge or block curator actions in real time, anchoring Vault governance in user consent. Second, it promotes frictionless participation, letting tokens remain liquid for trading, collateral, or yield strategies right up until a governance decision is at stake. This balance between liquidity and control ensures more active, aligned participation across the ecosystem.

Improve your tokenomics with Aragon OSx flexible governance

LockToVote is designed for tokens that aren’t governance compatible. Presently it’s available to whitelisted projects only, and teams can contact us here to get started.

Aragon Guardians v1 and our TokenVoting plugin remain available for projects that have already deployed their guardian DAOs, but for those that require or are looking to upgrade to v2.

Discover how Aragon OSx makes decentralized governance simple, modular, and secure here.