Aragon, an Ethereum-based DAO, is being merged with a blockchain voting protocol to improve the governance technology of its ecosystem.
Aragon (ANT) , a platform specialized in the management of decentralized autonomous organizations, announced a merger with the Vocdoni protocol , a provider of blockchain voting and governance solutions.
Unlike the Yearn.finance mergers, this acquisition is much more traditional in nature . Aragon acquired Dvote Labs OU , the company behind the Vocdoni protocol. His 11 team members will be hired in a new company controlled by members of Aragon and Vocdoni.
The teams will work on building an integrated solution to power the Aragon ecosystem . Vocdoni's technology uses zero-knowledge encryption to enable anonymous voting , as well as leveraging decentralized technologies such as the Interplanetary File System , or IPFS, and libp2p , a network solution. Vocdoni's technology has been one of the main reasons for the merger, said Joe Charlesworth , CEO of the Aragon Association. "We believe that leveraging Aragon's brand, treasury and domain expertise will help drive adoption of decentralized governance , " he added.
Vocdoni previously held voting trials in Europe for Omnium Cultural , a cultural association with more than 180,000 members. Project team members will continue to work with traditional and enterprise clients as they develop technology for use in DAOs.
The merger model is markedly different from that used by Yearn.finance . Luis Cuende , founder of the Aragon Association, told Cointelegraph that he "really likes Yearn's approach to mergers and acquisitions," noting that it is a "refreshing version" of cryptocurrency network mergers.
Yearn's acquisitions were marked by informality . Development teams simply found themselves working with each other overnight, as Leo Cheng , founder of Cream Finance , told Cointelegraph . There were also few financial relationships involved , leading Cuende to conclude that it is the biggest difference between the two types of acquisitions:
“I would say the difference is that some of the mergers that Yearn has done are more akin to a partnership, with each project keeping its token. Here, we all come together around ANT and make it stronger. "Some critics of Yearn's approach pointed out that the token holder communities had very little say in most of the new venture plans . Joan Arus , Vocdoni's COO, explained that this criticism does not apply to the protocol:
“Although we initially wanted to launch our own VOC token in the first half of 2021, after starting a conversation with the Aragon Association, we decided not to do so and adopt ANT as our native token (to be implemented in the first half of 2021) . [...] So, as we are still in the initial stage and we still did not have a token, the fact is that there was not yet a community that supposedly had a voice ”.
Arus noted that Vocdoni's early investors were included in the newly merged company, while the Dvote Labs board and active members voted unanimously in favor of the acquisition . The token economy for the new combined platform is yet to be defined, but the team hopes to involve the Aragon community in this process.
