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How to vote on and execute proposals with the Aragon App

Voting is a key part of how many DAOs make decisions. But it doesn’t stop there: executing the actions that the vote calls for has to come next. Communities that operate offchain have to rely on a trusted actor to perform this step, but not in the Aragon App.

In the Aragon App, you can add onchain actions to your proposal so that the action can become executable when the proposal passes. This puts the “A” (autonomous) in DAOs, because you don’t need to rely on a single actor to follow-through and complete the action once the proposal passes. Instead, any wallet can do that.

Adding onchain actions into proposals also makes DAOs more secure, because wallets can only execute what was approved by the DAO. There’s no potential for someone to change their mind and execute something different—they can only follow what was voted in by members.

In this guide, we’ll cover how to vote on and execute the onchain actions in proposals with the Aragon App!

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What is an onchain action?

An onchain action is a task carried out on the blockchain after a proposal has passed.

A few examples of onchain actions:

Send tokens from the DAO treasury to wallet addresses
Mint new governance tokens and send them to wallet addresses
Add or remove multisig members
Interact with an external contract using the smart contract composer

You can add onchain actions into your proposal, so that if the proposal passes, they are automatically executable by any wallet.

Now that we’ve covered what the actions are, let’s look at how to cast votes for or against them in a proposal.

How to vote on a proposal

Only DAO members—meaning you hold the governance tokens in the DAO or are an allowlisted wallet—can vote on proposals.

1: Start from the dashboard and find an active proposal

From the DAO dashboard, you can see all the recent proposals and their status. Find an active proposal and click into it.

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2: Open the active proposal

When you open the active proposal, you’ll find:

Voter breakdown: which addresses have voted and what they cast their vote for.
Automatic actions: what onchain actions will become executable if the vote passes.
Time left: how long until the vote ends.

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3: Click “vote now” to cast your vote

When you click “Vote now,” a drop-down menu will appear, showing your options to vote.

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4: Sign a transaction

Sign a transaction and pay the gas fees required to vote. On Polygon, they’re typically just around 2 cents!

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Now, you can see your vote!

If you enabled vote change when you built your DAO, you will be able to revote later if you change your mind. Vote change allows members to change their vote during the proposal duration.

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How to execute the onchain actions after a proposal has passed

If a vote passes, any wallet address can execute the action, which involves signing a transaction.

Executing the action is not necessary if the vote does not have automatic actions and is just a signaling vote. An example of a signaling vote is a decision about something happening offchain, like what event to attend as an organization.

Only one wallet needs to execute the action. You can only execute the action that was voted in by the DAO, making the DAO more secure.