ENS DAO Proposes Establishment of Full-Time Operating Foundation
ENS DAO has released a new proposal on platform X to establish a full-time operating foundation managed by a five-member board overseeing the donation fund.
The proposal plans to allocate 1 million ENS tokens for staff salaries, while token holders retain rights over the protocol, DAO-held ENS, operational wallets, and the appointment and dismissal of board members.
This event-driven shift transforms the ENS governance structure from a purely DAO operation to a foundation execution layer, concentrating donation fund management in a professional board, while control of the protocol remains with token holders.
Source: Public Information
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Since the ENS DAO's airdrop in 2021, it has long relied on working groups and part-time governance. In 2022, it established an Endowment managed by karpatkey to ensure long-term financial sustainability. This proposal, led by katherine.eth, was narrowed down after community feedback to only transfer the management of the donation fund to the foundation, retaining the DAO's ultimate control over core assets and the protocol.
In terms of capital, the foundation will receive a one-time allocation of 1 million ENS for employee salaries with a multi-year vesting schedule. The board will consist of Nick Johnson, Executive Director Alexander Urbelis, and three independent directors. Donation transactions will require a time lock and can be canceled by a security committee, shifting funding and decision-making power from decentralized working groups to a dedicated executive layer.
Similar cases can be seen with Uniswap and other protocols transferring operational functions to foundations to enhance efficiency while retaining veto power for token holders. Currently, ENS is transitioning from early DAO experiments to a mature stage of dual governance with a professional foundation and DAO.
This essentially represents a restructuring of the industry chain: DAO governance is shifting from universal voting to a separation of execution and oversight, driven by increased operational complexity that necessitates professional entities to take over daily management, while maintaining a decentralized baseline through retained appointment rights and time locks.
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Operational efficiency requires dedicated entities
Control and execution rights can be separated
Time locks are the last line of defense for decentralization