Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the questions we hear most. If you're brand new, the What is a DAO? concept page is a gentler place to start.
What is DAO Ships?
DAO Ships is a framework for launching, governing, and managing DAOs on Quai Network. It packages governance, two membership tokens, and a secured multisig treasury into a single deploy. You create a DAO — a "ship" — through a 7-step wizard at app.daoships.org, with no Solidity required.
Is it audited?
The contracts have been through multiple internal security review passes with zero unresolved findings — see the Security page for the specifics. DAO Ships is now live on Quai mainnet, which means real funds are at stake. It is young software under active development, so start small and don't commit funds you can't afford to lose. If you want to experiment first, the Orchard testnet deployment at testnet.daoships.org uses testnet QUAI with no real-world value.
How is it different from MolochDAO or Baal?
DAO Ships descends from the Moloch and Baal lineage and keeps their best ideas — a shared treasury, proposal-based governance, and the ragequit exit hatch. It adapts that model to Quai Network's sharded architecture and adds a hardened Quai Vault treasury, a Navigator plug-in system, and a separation of voting power (Shares) from economic stake (Loot). If you've used Baal, the concepts will feel familiar; the names changed (Baal became DAOShip, Shaman became Navigator).
What is a Quai Vault treasury?
Instead of holding funds in a bare contract, every DAO Ships ship stores its treasury in a Quai Vault — a hardened M-of-N multisig wallet. The DAO governs the vault, and the vault holds the assets. This means no single key controls the money, and the launcher wires the vault and DAO together automatically. See Quai Vault Treasury.
Can I change governance after launch?
Yes. Parameters like votingPeriod, quorumPercent, and sponsorThreshold are set at launch but can be changed later through a Governance Config proposal — the DAO votes to change its own rules. Choose sensible defaults up front using the governance parameters guide, knowing you can adjust later.
What happens when someone ragequits?
Ragequit is the exit hatch. A member burns their Shares and Loot and receives a proportional slice of the treasury's guild-token assets. It's how anyone who disagrees with a passing proposal can leave with their fair share before the action executes — usually during the grace period. A minRetentionPercent setting prevents a mass exit from draining the DAO entirely. See Ragequit.
What are Shares versus Loot?
Both are membership tokens, but they do different jobs. Shares carry voting power and can sponsor and submit proposals. Loot has no vote — it's pure economic stake. Both count equally toward your ragequit payout. This split lets a DAO reward an advisor or contributor financially without handing them governance power. See Shares vs. Loot.
What are Navigators?
Navigators are immutable extension contracts that give a DAO extra capabilities without a full proposal every time. Eight ship today — onboarding by native QUAI (Onboarder), ERC-20 (Tribute) or NFT (Gate); non-binding Signal polls; a governance Timelock; Vesting; recurring Budget payouts; and membership Subscription dues. How each one is endorsed depends on its trust class — a governance permission grant, a vault sanction post, or a vault module-enable. See the Navigators overview for the full catalog and trust model.
What does it cost to launch?
Only gas. There is no platform fee to create a DAO — on mainnet you pay gas in QUAI, and on the Orchard testnet in free testnet QUAI from the Quai faucet. Launching uses more gas than a typical transaction because it deploys several contracts at once, so keep a comfortable balance on hand.
Is it on mainnet?
Yes. DAO Ships is live on Quai mainnet at app.daoships.org. The Orchard testnet deployment at testnet.daoships.org stays online for testing and experimentation — the two are entirely separate, with their own contracts, DAOs, and data. See Contracts & addresses for both address sets.
Which wallets are supported?
Pelagus (pelaguswallet.io) is the recommended wallet and the smoothest path. WalletConnect is also supported, so you can connect compatible mobile or hardware wallets. Whatever you use, connect it to the Quai Cyprus-1 zone — chain id 9 for mainnet, or 15000 for the Orchard testnet.
How many proposal types are there?
Eight: Funding, Membership, Guild Tokens, Governance Config, Navigators, Profile Update, Announcement, and Custom Action. Each is encoded as an on-chain action that executes when the proposal passes and is processed. Walk through one in Create Your First Proposal.
Can I build on it?
Yes. DAO Ships is built around the Navigator plug-in system, which is designed for extension — onboarding, budgets, vesting, timelocks, and more can be implemented as Navigators. The protocol spans the contracts, an event indexer, and the app. If you want to build a Navigator or integrate the data, the on-chain contracts and indexed data are the place to start.
What is the grace period for?
After a proposal's voting closes, a grace period opens before the action can execute. Its purpose is to give any member who disagrees with the outcome time to ragequit and exit with their fair share before the decision takes effect. Longer grace periods give stronger exit protection; shorter ones keep operations fast.