ENS Founder Seeks to 'Seize Power' from DAO
On June 29th, the ENS community entered the on-chain voting phase for a proposal to renew the ENS DAO Security Council's veto power for two more years. Shortly after voting began, ENS founder Nick Johnson used his substantial ENS holdings to cast over 3.55 million votes against the proposal, swinging the outcome despite initial strong support.
The Security Council was established in July 2024 with a 4/8 multisig veto power to protect the DAO's treasury (valued over $350 million) from malicious proposals during a period of low voter participation. Its powers were limited to vetoing only harmful proposals, not normal ones.
Nick Johnson's opposition stems from broader concerns about ENS DAO's governance. In late 2025, he and others expressed frustration that the DAO had become mired in political gamesmanship, with capable contributors leaving and leadership falling to less experienced or misaligned parties. This context set the stage for a major restructuring proposal by ENS COO Katherine Wu on June 19th, titled "Next Era of ENS DAO: Empowering the ENS Foundation."
The controversial proposal aims to transfer daily operations, treasury management, and long-term strategy to a restructured ENS Foundation with a professional board, while the DAO would retain core protocol governance powers. Critics, including original ENS constitution author Brantly Millegan, argue this effectively transfers treasury control from token holders to ENS Labs (the core development team), undermining the DAO's original decentralized design.
Nick's massive "no" vote on the Security Council renewal is seen as the first move in this power struggle. He explained his vote was due to concerns about insufficient checks on the Council's power and the potential for its veto to be used politically. In response, Katherine Wu submitted a revised proposal with higher execution thresholds (5/8 instead of 4/8) and stricter limits.
The push for change comes as ENS's annual revenue has declined significantly, from over $10 million in 2023 to under $2 million in 2025, increasing pressure to manage the treasury more effectively. Nick Johnson now faces the challenge of proving that a more structured foundation can steer ENS better than the current DAO model.
Foresight News07/02 02:13
