The emergent Ethereum stack

district0x, the first manifestation of the Ethereum + Aragon stack

Software allows us to abstract away from existing functionality to focus on building.

At Aragon, we use Ethereum. Ethereum provides us the consensus layer to establish truth. And the ability to create smart contracts that are self-enforcing.

So, generally speaking, we don't have to worry about Ethereum. We use Ethereum, driving usage to the platform, thus increasing its value. So we're indirectly funding its further development.

That's the virtuous circle that tokenization makes possible.

And now, the same is happening with Aragon. We're also building something that other projects want to abstract away. We're creating the most complete solution to create and maintain DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), taking care of things such as upgradeability, conflict resolution, etc.

A lot of emerging projects in the space will be DAOs, or will use DAOs for some aspect. The most common right now is token-driven governance, but there are more.

But what's more exciting is not the projects that will just use it — it is the ones that will build on top of it.

And it is exciting because a new stack is being created. We're not talking about what blockchain are you using anymore, we will be talking about what's your stack.

The first project to make use of the stack we're providing is district0x. district0x aims to create a network of decentralized markets on Ethereum, by using Aragon.

Their stack will consist of Ethereum + Aragon + IPFS to power their platform. What Ethereum offers to Aragon is passed on to district0x, who benefits from what Aragon offers to them. district0x as a platform creates opportunities for others to benefit from their services. Decentraland's use of district0x will then gain all the benefits that this stack has to offer. Smart contracts by Ethereum, governance by Aragon, marketplace by district0x. All bringing their unique flavour to the stack that will enable Decentraland to create and explore shared experiences in virtual reality.

I'm excited about district0x for many reasons. First of all, it is making markets truly P2P (peer to peer). The whole wave of crowd-sharing/riding/etc wasn't truly P2P. They empowered human beings to do trade without companies or conglomerates, for sure. But they did always intermediate the connection between the peers.

That causes a misalignment of incentives. The central company that runs the marketplace wants to squeeze both ends as much as possible to increase revenue.

At Aragon, we believe that disintermediated models can align incentives much better. Or, as I previously stated:

Disintermediating human trade — business — is the first step towards a more fair world

There is something funny about these blockchain stacks. Blockchain projects can sometimes seem as political parties, or at least, manifestations of ideas and values.

And when you choose a blockchain stack, you are indirectly choosing your values.

Ethereum's mission statement is to decentralize the world.

Aragon's mission statement is to disintermediate trade.

district0x's mission statement is to decentralize markets.

Decentraland's mission statement is to create a decentralized metaverse.

Each one's mission is a subset of the others.

If you have coded before, this will sound a lot like inheritance.

And it is, but heavily incentivized by tokens.

In the old world, someone using your work would be seen as a thief, stealing. Now, the more people build upon your work, the more successful you will be. This also provides a new path for open source projects to grow and sustain their work.

This inheritance also serves to help execute the previous projects visions. When someone creates a district on district0x, they're helping execute district0x's vision. But also Aragon's. And Ethereum's. Network effects arise and accumulate.

So if district0x succeeds, we do too. They will be the first to try this blockchain stack model out which we're a part of. And we couldn't be more excited about that.