<strong>Aragon</strong> is an open-source software project building tools and a platform for creating and managing digital organizations, companies and communities.^[1] It was founded by Spaniard tech prodigies Luis Cuende and Jorge Izquierdo in November 2015. Aragon provides a platform for users to build a Decentralized Autonomous Organization on open-source infrastructure with governance plugins.

The blockchain native organizations created on Aragon utilize Ethereum smart contracts and IPFS for a decentralized, peer-to-peer operating system. These types of organizations are often called decentralized autonomous organizations, however other kinds of organizations can be created on Aragon as well.

In March 2019 around 400 organizations had been created using Aragon on the Ethereum mainnet.

Development was funded by an online Initial coin offering on May 17, 2017, raising 275,000 ETH ($25,000,000 USD) in under 15 minutes.^[2][3]

Architecture

ANT

The value token of the Aragon Network is called ANT. It is listed under the code ANT and traded on cryptocurrency exchanges.

As of November 2017, the value of one ANT token is worth $1.48 USD.

Aragon Core & Aragon Network

The Aragon Network will be the first decentralized autonomous organization whose goal is to act as a digital jurisdiction that makes it easy for organizations, entrepreneurs, and investors to operate.

The mission of the network will be the development of the Aragon Core contracts, contract upgradability services for all Aragon Core contracts with a built-in bug bounty mechanism, and a decentralized court system.

Aragon Network is a part of the Aragon project alongside the client and tools. It is a digital jurisdiction with its own court system that is currently under development and scheduled to launch in 2019. Aragon Network is going to be a community governed jurisdiction that offers insured agreements and dispute resolution to entities that opt-in to the system.^[4]

History

The project was originally started in November 2016 by founders Luis Cuende and Jorge Izquierdo. It was officially announced to the public on February 10th 2017 in a blog post.

Luis Cuende who had been coder and an entrepreneur since a young age was initially named as Project Lead for Aragon. He's most notable work before Aragon include Asturix and Stampery and was an Advisor to the VP of the European Commission. For Asturix he won the Hack Now contest (in the under-18 category), an award for the best app or "hack" sponsored by HackFwd in Spain. He has also received recognition as Forbes 30 Under 30 and MIT Technology Review, Spanish Edition's Innovators Under 35

Jorge Izquierdo was named as Tech Lead for the project. His previous work included successful iOS apps and he had mostly worked as a iOS Developer. In 2017 he was named as a Thiel Fellow for his work on Aragon.

Development

The first Aragon client alpha version was released March 20th 2017. The early version of the client and platform was geared towards creating digital companies on the blockchain, but evolved over time to cover much broader and general use cases than just companies. It was claimed to be “everything you need to run your company”, with accounting, bylaws, cap table, governance, fundraising and payroll covered through a unified interface.

Releases

• v0.1 (Ethereum Kovan testnet) 1 March 2017 (released as private alpha)
• v0.2 (Ethereum Kovan testnet) 9 March 2017 (released as private alpha) 20 March 2017 (public alpha release)
• v0.3 (Ethereum Kovan testnet) 30 March 2017
• v0.5 (Ethereum Rinkeby testnet) Release title: Architect 29 March 2018
• v0.6 (Ethereum Mainnet) Release title: Alba 30 October 2018

Mission statement

We are building Aragon because we believe decentralized organizations can solve the world’s worst problems. Aragon empowers you to freely organize and collaborate without borders or intermediaries, providing the tools for anyone to become an entrepreneur and run their own organization on their own terms. By making it possible for everyone in the world to organize, we are enabling a borderless, permissionless, and more efficient creation of value.

Association

The Aragon Association is a Swiss-based, nonprofit organization. It is the legal steward of the Aragon project and is responsible for managing the funds raised from the Token sale of the Aragon Network.

Achievements

Aragon has passed 500 organizations on mainnet.

Aragon Manifesto

Decentralized technologies provide unparalleled transactional power for users and interact with a level of security that has never been seen before. Users can now own truly sovereign properties, establish fully sovereign entities and develop truly sovereign identities thanks to cryptography and economic incentives.

A pledge to fight for freedom

We believe that the fate of humanity will be decided at the frontier of technological innovation.We will either see technology lead to a more free, open, and fair society or reinforce a global regime of centralized control, surveillance, and oppression. Our fear is that without a global, conscious, and concerted effort, the outlook is incredibly bleak.The Internet has opened the doors for universal, cross-border, and non-violent collaborative effort to fight for our freedom.However, the Internet has also opened the doors for global surveillance and manipulation. We believe humankind should use technology as a liberating tool to unleash all the goodwill and creativity of our species, rather than as a tool to enslave and take advantage of one another. Thus, Aragon is a fight for freedom. Aragon empowers freedom by creating liberating tools that leverage decentralized technologies.

Argon is committed to:

• Building organizational forms that defend self-sovereignty.
• Creating collaboration mechanisms in which violence is not only disincentivized, but impossible.
• Decentralizing power in order to dismantle unjustified power .
• The creation of long-term value versus short-term profit.
• A world in which every person can participate in these new organizational structures^[5]