Sometimes called 'lazy' consensus, Optimistic Governance assumes that all actions are legitimate unless proven otherwise. In practice, this means that governance becomes a perpetual-motion machine of proposals that are scheduled as on-chain transactions to execute by default unless they are specifically challenged in Aragon Court during a Dispute Time Delay set by the DAO.

First, every DAO must have a DAO Agreement that defines the purpose and parameters of the community. Any transaction that deviates from this document may be challenged in Aragon Court and have its collateral slashed.

Second, for more community control, Govern DAOs may restrict executive power to a whitelist of selected addresses so only they may schedule the transfer of funds.

‍Third, DAO transactions cannot be executed immediately. Instead, these are delayed by a period of time set by the DAO. This assumes 'optimistically' that all transactions are legitimate but gives any DAO member the opportunity to challenge the transaction in our decentralized dispute resolution system, Aragon Court. A successful challenge will cancel the transaction.

‍Fourth, a collateral deposit set by the DAO is required to schedule a transfer of DAO funds. This is refunded at the close of the execution window unless someone has successfully challenged the transaction in Aragon Court, in which case it will be forfeited to the Court Guardians.

No. Optimistic governance and lazy consensus rely on the assumption that actions are predominantly correct and do not require voting support. These actions can however be interrupted and disputed at any point in time, by any member, during the delay period before being executed.

You can still run proposals and votes for free as a signaling mechanism with your community with Aragon Voice, and use the voting results as your action justification on Aragon Govern.

DAOs created with Aragon Govern are based on written, subjective agreements between all participating members. These documents ought to be written carefully and should cover as many scenarios as possible so as to reduce the scope of interpretation. Nevertheless, any transaction that is deemed contrary to the DAO agreement may be challenged in Aragon Court.