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The ENS DAO Security Council is a 5-of-8 Safe multi-sig with a limited mandate: to cancel malicious proposals that threaten the DAO, particularly those that would compromise the treasury. It exists because the treasury is large relative to active voting power, which leaves the DAO open to governance attacks.
The current Council was elected by the DAO in July 2026 and serves a two-year term ending 16 July 2028. It succeeds the first Security Council, which served from July 2024 until its authority expired in July 2026.
Purpose and Powers
The Security Council is expected to act only in an emergency, in the following situations or similar cases:
- If a proposal goes against the ENS Constitution
- If a proposal is approved with malicious intent against the DAO's longevity/sustainability
- If such a proposal is approved by any group of voters, but they are directly financially incentivised to vote against the DAO's interests to preserve their own financial stake
- If any approved proposal goes directly against the DAO for the sole benefit of an attacker
The Council cannot propose, amend, or otherwise initiate governance actions. Its only power is to cancel timelocked proposals — nothing more.
The current Council operates under a tighter public mandate than the first: each member has publicly affirmed the Security Council Charter, signed a binding Appointment Agreement with the ENS Foundation, and completed KYC and background checks. Members who act outside the mandate can be removed.
Current Members
The Council consists of the following eight individuals, operating as a 5-of-8 multisig:
- Nick Johnson (nick.eth) — nomination
- Alex Van de Sande (avsa.eth) — nomination
- Griff Green (griff.eth) — nomination
- Alex Netto (netto.eth) — nomination
- Pablo Sabbatella (pablito.eth) — nomination
- Colton Liberacki (coltron.eth) — nomination
- Kevin Gaspar (validator.eth) — nomination
- Hudson Jameson (hudson.eth) — nomination
Time-Limited Authority
The Council's cancel authority is time-limited. When the two-year term ends on 16 July 2028, any address may call renounceTimelockRoleByExpiration() to permanently disable the cancel role, promoting decentralisation over time.
Unlike the first Council's contract, the current contract also has an extend() function callable only by the DAO's timelock. This means a future DAO vote can renew the Council's term with a single proposal, without deploying a new contract and re-granting the role.
EP 6.45 [Social] Renewal of the Security Council
With the first Council's authority due to expire on 24 July 2026, EP 6.45 [Social] Renewal of the Security Council proposed renewing the existing council for a further two years, with an updated contract and one signer rotation. The social vote passed on Snapshot in June 2026, but the matching onchain proposal, EP 6.49 [Executable] Renewal of the Security Council (Term 2), was rejected on 6 July 2026 with 77% voting Against. The renewal did not proceed, and the DAO instead moved to a fresh election with a revised mandate.
Note: EP 6.49 was originally published as EP 6.48; the ENS docs numbering is used here.
EP 6.50 [Social] Election of the New ENS DAO Security Council
EP 6.50 [Social] Election of the New ENS DAO Security Council asked the DAO to elect the eight members of the successor Council. Nominations were open to anyone; fourteen candidates met the eligibility criteria, which included a public affirmation of the new mandate and charter.
Note: EP 6.50 was originally published as EP 6.47, and the Snapshot ballot carries the original number; the ENS docs numbering is used here.
The election ran on Snapshot from 7 to 12 July 2026 as a ranked-choice ballot counted with the Copeland method, with NONE BELOW as a rankable option. The eight highest-ranked candidates who also defeated NONE BELOW head-to-head were elected, subject to signing the Appointment Agreement and completing KYC.
View the proposal on the forum and the vote on Snapshot.
[Executable] Establishing a new Security Council
The executable proposal put the result of EP 6.50 into effect with a single call to the DAO's TimelockController, granting PROPOSER_ROLE to the new Security Council contract, which is owned by the members' 5-of-8 multisig.
The DAO voted in favour — 92.6% For with quorum at 447% — and the proposal was executed on 22 July 2026.
Note: this proposal has not yet been assigned an EP number in the ENS docs; the latest listed at the time of writing is EP 6.51.
View the proposal on the forum and the vote on vote.ensdao.org.
The First Security Council (2024–2026)
The veto was first introduced in Introducing veto.ensdao.eth, and approved via social proposal [EP5.7][Social] Security Council. Member appointments were confirmed in [EP5.10][Social] Confirming the ENS DAO Security Council Members, and the Council was formally established by [EP5.13][Executable] Security Council, which passed on 25 July 2024.
The first Council was a 4-of-8 multisig made up of nick.eth, griff.eth, avsa.eth, lefteris.eth, katherineykwu.eth, fireeyes.eth, brantly.eth, and alextnetto.eth. Its cancel authority expired on 24 July 2026, as designed.
Contract Details
Current Council:
- Contract: SecurityCouncil.sol (Etherscan)
- Multisig (5-of-8 Safe): Etherscan
- Cancel authority function: cancelProposal
- Implementation repo: blockful/security-council-ens
First Council (expired):
- Contract: SecurityCouncil.sol (Etherscan)
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