A governance proposal is a formal submission to a DAO requesting a specific action: allocating treasury funds, changing protocol parameters, upgrading smart contracts, or establishing new policies. It typically includes a description of the change, its rationale, implementation details, and the on-chain actions that will execute if approved.
What Is a Governance Proposal?
3 min read
The short version
A proposal is the formal way to ask "can we do this?" in a DAO. You write up what you want to change, why it should change, and exactly how it would be implemented. The community discusses it, and then everyone votes. If it passes, the change happens. If it fails, nothing changes. The whole process is documented publicly.
How It Works
Typical proposal lifecycle: (1) Ideation: informal discussion on governance forums (Discourse) or Discord. (2) Temperature check: non-binding poll (often Snapshot) to gauge community interest before investing effort in formal write-up. (3) RFC (Request for Comments): detailed proposal posted publicly with technical specs, budget, timeline, and risk assessment. (4) Formal proposal: submitted on-chain (requires meeting the proposal threshold, often holding or being delegated 0.1-1% of token supply). (5) Voting period (3-14 days depending on protocol). (6) Execution (if passed, after timelock). Proposal types: executable (contains bytecode that runs on-chain), signaling (advisory, tells a multisig or team to do something), and constitutional (changes governance rules themselves). Proposal standards: many DAOs adopt numbering systems (AIP-1, GIP-42) and standardized templates to keep proposals consistent and readable.
Writing an Aave governance proposal
You want to add a new token (wstETH) as collateral on Aave V3. Steps: (1) Post on Aave governance forum outlining: token stats, oracle availability, risk parameters (LTV 70%, liquidation threshold 75%), and security audit status. (2) Community discusses for 5+ days. Risk service providers (Chaos Labs, Gauntlet) publish risk assessments. (3) If consensus forms, create an AIP (Aave Improvement Proposal) with the exact Solidity calldata that will configure the new asset. (4) Submit on-chain. Voting opens for 3 days. (5) If passed (quorum met, majority For): 1-day timelock, then execution configures wstETH on Aave with the voted parameters. Total timeline from idea to live: typically 3-6 weeks.
What People Get Wrong
Anyone can submit a proposal at any time
Most on-chain governance systems have proposal thresholds (Uniswap: 2.5M UNI to propose, Compound: 65,000 COMP). You either need significant holdings or delegation from others. Forum discussions and Snapshot votes are typically open to all holders regardless of amount.
Proposals always result in code changes
Many proposals are signaling: "the DAO supports X direction" or "the team should prioritize Y." These carry social weight but do not execute code. Only executable proposals with attached bytecode make on-chain changes automatically.
Failed proposals disappear
Failed proposals remain visible in the governance history forever (both on-chain and in forum archives). They serve as precedent and reference. A refined version of a failed proposal can be resubmitted later with changes addressing why it failed.
Keep Reading
Sources & Further Reading
- Boardroom
Unified dashboard for DAO proposal tracking and voting across protocols
Questions People Also Ask
- Where do I find active proposals?
- Tally.xyz aggregates on-chain proposals across major DAOs. Snapshot.org shows off-chain votes. Individual protocol governance forums (gov.uniswap.org, governance.aave.com) host discussions. Boardroom.io provides a unified dashboard.
- Can proposals be vetoed?
- Some DAOs have veto mechanisms (a security council or guardian multisig can block proposals during the timelock). Optimism has a "Token House" and "Citizens House" with checks on each other. Not all DAOs have veto power, and its existence is controversial.
- What makes a good governance proposal?
- Clear problem statement, concrete solution with technical details, risk assessment, cost/benefit analysis, implementation timeline, and measurable success criteria. Proposals that lack these elements typically face heavy criticism or fail to reach quorum because voters cannot evaluate them properly.