What is Aragon (ANT)? – Project Overview
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) play an important role in today’s cryptocurrency world, providing the ability to manage resources without standard hierarchical structures.
This article will look closely at Aragon DAO, an interesting and promising platform in the DAO industry.
A review of the project’s history, its investors, and tokenomics, as well as features and advantages. All this is in a detailed analysis of Aragon DAO from the CryptoDose team.
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General information on the Aragon project
Name | Aragon DAO |
Launch year | 2018 |
Aragon native token | ANT |
Official website | aragon.org |
Social networks | Discord, Twitter, Linkedin, Telegram, Reddit |
Where ANT tokens traded | Uniswap |
What is Aragon?
Aragon DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the Ethereum ecosystem, providing a platform and tools for creating and managing DAOs.
What makes Aragon special is the ability to quickly and easily create organizations with full management transparency and decentralization.
Aragon DAO creation history
The project was founded in 2016 by Spanish developers Luis Cuende and Jorge Izquierdo to simplify the management and coordination of decentralized autonomous organizations based on blockchain.
Even before founding Aragon, Luis Cuende strongly supported decentralization and cryptocurrencies. He believed these tools would lead to more transparent and equitable economic relations in society. In turn, Jorge influenced the technical implementation of the platform, bringing his experience in developing decentralized applications (DApps).
The project started with a hackathon. Luis and Jorge initially wanted to create a management tool for DAO that would allow voting, delegation, and asset management through a single interface. In February 2017, they released the first demo application that showed the concept of working with Aragon-based DAO.
It is important to note that at that time, other projects in the cryptocurrency market were already seeking to make the management of organizations more transparent and decentralized. However, the founders of Aragon worked to make their platform more user-friendly and functional to attract a wider audience.
The next stage in the project’s development was to raise funds through an ICO (Initial Coin Offering). The fundraising took place in May 2017 and took only a few hours. Aragon raised about 25 million dollars worth of investment in 15 minutes (literally). Thus, Aragon became one of the fastest ICOs in history.
About a year after the successful ICO, the project introduced improved Aragon Network 0.5 and 0.6 (Rinkeby). This allowed crypto-enthusiasts to use the platform, creating and managing DAOs through a transparent and accessible interface.
An important event in the history of Aragon is the formation of Aragon One, a commercial company that develops DApps, smart contracts, and the development of the Aragon Network. This move allowed to form another topic for criticism, as not all supporters of decentralization were satisfied with the idea of creating commercial structures around the platform.
At the time of writing, Aragon has an active community of developers and users. Despite criticism related to commercialization and unresolved scaling issues, it continues to develop its toolkit and offer new features for DAO management.
The next steps in Aragon’s development are expected to include integration with other blockchains, improved smart contracts and oracles for data validation, and improved voting and suggestion systems.
Aragon project’s main features
Aragon is an easy-to-use and intuitive product for creating and managing DAOs. It allows users at different levels to bypass technical complexities and apply the platform to their needs.
Here are the key features and reasons for its popularity:
- DAO templates: Project provides pre-configured templates that simplify the creation of different types of DAOs, making it easier for organizations to get started quickly. These templates include common features and configurations based on best practices, saving time and effort for organizations.
- Governance framework: Aragon provides a comprehensive governance framework that enables organizations to operate decentralized and transparently. It allows participants to make decisions collectively, using voting and consensus mechanisms embedded in smart contracts.
- Flexibility and customizability: Aragon provides a highly flexible platform that allows organizations to design their governance structures and rules. This enables them to adapt the platform to suit their specific requirements, whether small community-driven projects or large-scale enterprises.
- Integration with Ethereum: It is built on the Ethereum blockchain, leveraging its security and scalability. It benefits from the robustness of the Ethereum ecosystem and allows seamless integration with other Ethereum-based projects and tokens.
- User-friendly interface: Aragon offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive tools that simplify creating and managing decentralized organizations. This accessibility encourages wider adoption and makes it easier for non-technical users to participate in decentralized governance.
- Active community: Aragon has a vibrant and active community of developers, contributors, and users who continuously contribute to the improvement and expansion of the platform. This community-driven approach fosters innovation and ensures the platform remains updated with the latest decentralized governance advancements.
These key features, combined with its focus on decentralized governance and organizational management, have made Aragon popular among many projects and organizations.
Investors and project funding
Aragon has received support and recognition from an impressive list of influential funds such as Placeholder Venture, Draper Associates, Boost VC, and others.
According to Crunchbase, the project has secured $26 million through two funding rounds. The most recent funding round, the Seed round, was concluded on February 19, 2020, further strengthening Aragon’s financial position and growth prospects.
This substantial funding has been made possible by the support and investment of five prominent investors. Tim Draper has joined as the most recent investor, contributing his expertise and resources to propel Aragon’s mission forward.
With this backing, Aragon has demonstrated its appeal and potential in crypto. The financial support from renowned investors further validates the platform’s innovative approach to decentralized governance and organizational management.
Aragon native token – ANT
Aragon Native Token (ANT) is a proprietary utility token of the Aragon DAO platform. It is important to understand that ANT serves several key functions that impact the dynamics of the Aragon ecosystem.
- Governance – ANT holders have the right to vote and influence strategic decisions related to project development. By holding the token, users can make suggestions or vote for the suggestions of other participants;
- Payment – ANT is used to pay for services and applications available through the Aragon network, such as setting up organizations, installing add-ons and applications through the marketplace;
- Staking – ANT owners can participate in steaking by freezing their tokens and contributing resources to support the operation and security of the network and be rewarded for their contributions.
It is also worth noting that ANT does not have a strictly fixed issue, as it is possible to increase the number of tokens through new giveaways or payouts that the Aragon Association or other participants can assign through voting.
Pros and cons of Aragon DAO
Pros
- Simplification of managing and creating DAOs for all levels of users;
- Ability to create DApps and smart contracts;
- Support and investment from several well-known funds.
Cons
- Potential for faster development of competing projects;
- Difficulties scaling to larger organizations.
Conclusion
Aragon DAO successfully continues to develop, offering users tools and opportunities to create and manage decentralized organizations. Given the support from prominent investors and the continuous development of the platform, the project’s prospects look very optimistic.
Nevertheless, investors and interested parties should always conduct their analytics (DYOR) before participating in the project. This is what we wish you!
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