Aragon’s key backers doubled down on their controversial banning of Discord members, arguing in a Friday blog post that the decentralized crypto governance project can be a DAO even if its town square is on lockdown.
The response escalated a brewing fight between Aragon and a cadre of activist investors who have taken interest in the project’s ANT token and multimillion-dollar treasury. But the nature of Aragon’s response also raised thorny questions over proper implementation of crypto governance itself, the subject at the center of the Aragon project.
While governance decisions over those riches will happen via votes on the blockchain, it is on Discord and project governance forums that members of Aragon’s community – like those nearly every other DAO – organizes its thoughts and coordinates action. “The AA will continue to carefully and empirically pace our decentralization to ensure that individuals and groups cannot use ANT for personal profit at the expense of building the technology which ANT is intended to govern,” the Aragon Association said.