Nick Johnson files a new ENS DAO security council vote weeks after blocking renewal

Nick Johnson, the co-founder of ENS, has chosen to file an executable on-chain proposal to establish a new Security Council. The proposal is set to seat the council elected from EP 6.50. It was published on Tally (now rebranded Cactus) under Johnson’s nick.eth handle.

The same day the proposal was published, voting began, and it runs until around July 20. Voting is currently at 712,350 votes in favor, none against, and 66,730 abstaining, clearing the one-million-token quorum with 779,080 votes cast.

What does the ENS Security Council do, and how does the vote work?

The Security Council was first brought to life under EP 5.13 as a four-of-eight multisig, a shared wallet that needs four of its eight signers before any action takes place. Its scope is quite narrow, as it is tasked with canceling a malicious proposal that has been passed and gotten into the timelock, the compulsory waiting window before a governance action executes. It is not expected to write, change, or start proposals of its own.

Johnson’s new proposal extends that authority for two more years, until July 16, 2028. It works by making a single call to the DAO’s TimelockController that gives the proposer role to a Security Council contract built by Blockful, and controlled by a multisig holding the members elected in EP 6.50. 

The proposal’s description states clearly that the powers expire automatically after two years, unless the DAO offers an extension.

The reversal that led to the filing

The filing comes barely two weeks after Johnson canceled the council’s renewal. Johnson cast ~3.26 million ENS tokens against the on-chain renewal vote on June 330. Although the measure wasn’t successful, with ~82% in opposition. Earlier on, Johnson abstained from an off-chain “soft” vote because he believed in renewing the council without its current members. He went on to vote no on the binding vote.

That single vote could only happen due to the concentrated nature of ENS’ governance. Johnson’s ~3.26 million tokens add up to 3% of the 100-million ENS supply, but almost 50% of the voting power is actually delegated and active. 

Lefteris Karapetsas, founder of Rotki stated clearly on X that Johnson had “delegated ~50% of the voting supply to himself, essentially becoming the DAO.”

Why the vote needs to go forward 

Beyond the procedural issues, there are also financial matters to resolve. The ENS DAO is in control of ~$350 million (actually $88 million if ENS holdings are excluded). This has drawn criticism from many quarters, with many warning that with the token’s market value way below the treasury it guards, cheap ENS could be accumulated by a buyer. 

The buyer can then seize the vote and proceed to drain the money in the treasury, essentially carrying out an RFV raid. On July 14, ENS traded around $4.20, a 95% freduction from its peak of $85.69 in November 2021.