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How to create a DAO on Base with the Aragon App

Base is a Layer 2 blockchain built on Ethereum that has lower cost transactions, saving resources for your DAO. It only takes a few dollars of ETH and a few minutes to launch your DAO on Base and start working toward your mission today!

In this guide, we’ll walk through the steps to create a DAO on Base using the Aragon App.

"Starting a DAO is getting easier and more user friendly. The Aragon team has made strides by focusing on the specific challenges of community tools, and we're hyped about killer DAO features reaching wider adoption on L2s!"

— IndieDAO, the first DAO to use Base with the Aragon App

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1: Add Base Mainnet to your wallet

If you haven't already, add Base Mainnet to your wallet provider. From your wallet, find the section to add a new network and manually input the information on this page.

2: Bridge some ETH to Base Mainnet to use for gas fees

Next, you will need to get funds into your wallet. Use this bridge to bridge some ETH from Ethereum mainnet to Base mainnet. Around $10 is enough to deploy. Once the transaction has settled, you can create a DAO on Base!

3: Open the Aragon App

Got to app.aragon.org to get started! You’ll land on this homepage.

4: Connect the wallet that has the Base network added

Click “Connect Wallet” in the top right corner and choose from the options to connect. Choose the wallet that has Base mainnet and the funds you bridged.

5: Click “create a DAO” to launch the creation flow

Select the “create a DAO” button to get a preview of the steps you’ll take when building your DAO on Base.

You’ll see a preview of the four steps you’ll take to create your DAO. Click “Build your DAO” to continue.

6: Choose Base as your blockchain

If your wallet is already connected to Base, it will be automatically selected.

7: Set your DAO’s name, logo, and description

In this step you’ll name your DAO, upload a logo, and add a brief description. These will appear publicly on your DAO dashboard. You can also add links, such as ones to your Discord, website, Twitter, or Lens. You can change these settings later with a vote in your DAO.

8: Define membership: token holders or multisig members

Next, you’ll decide how you want to define DAO membership: token holders or multisig members. For help deciding if you should choose token holders or multisig members, read this guide to better understand the pros and cons of each.

If you choose token holders, you’ll give your token a name and symbol. Then, you’ll choose how many to mint and which wallets to distribute them to. You can always mint more tokens with a proposal in the future.

You will also choose who can create proposals. If you minted tokens, you can gate proposal creation to the number of tokens a wallet holds.

Multisig DAO membership

If you choose multisig members, you’ll paste in the wallet addresses you’d like to add. You can also gate proposal creation to just multisig members, or keep it open to any wallet on Base.

9: Select governance settings

Now, select the settings that will determine how voting works in your DAO. Here's a quick overview of the settings will you choose for a token-based DAO:

Support threshold is the percentage of tokens that need to vote “yes” for a proposal to pass. This is typically set at 50%, a majority.

You’ll also set minimum participation, which is the percentage of tokens that need to participate in a vote for it to be valid. This is typically set at 15% or less, unless your DAO members are very engaged in votes.

Minimum duration is the minimum amount of time a proposal can be live. You can always set the duration to be higher when you create proposals, but you can’t go below the minimum duration.

You will also choose to enable early execution, which means the vote can execute before the duration time ends as long as it has sufficient support and participation.

If you disable early execution, you can choose vote change, which allows voters to change their vote during the voting period.

For help setting your governance thresholds, check out this guide.

Multisig DAO governance settings

The only governance setting you need to choose for a multisig DAO is the minimum approval, which is the number of addresses that need to approve a transaction for it to pass.

10: Check that all settings are correct

Now that you’ve completed all the steps, check to make sure all the settings are correct. The only settings that are not changeable with a vote after you deploy are the blockchain you choose and the token you mint.

When you’ve checked the box in each section confirming that the values are correct, click “Deploy your DAO.”

11: Deploy your DAO

To deploy your DAO, you’ll need to pay the gas fees associated with the Base blockchain, which are typically less 10 dollars. You will need to sign a wallet transaction and wait for it to confirm.