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jordaniza/aragon-msig-vs-safe.md

Created September 18, 2025 09:45
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Aragon Multisig vs Safe comparison for Benqi governance
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aragon-msig-vs-safe.md

Summary

In Benqi's optimistic governance flow, a multisig creates governance proposals that veQI token holders can Veto.

The question is: should this Multisig be an Aragon Multisig or a Safe.

Our recommendation is to use an Aragon Multisig for the above governance flow, keeping the existing safe as an emergency multisig.

Our rationale is:

  1. The Benqi governance flow is orchestrated through Aragon's "Staged Proposal Processor", a custom plugin that has first-class support for the Aragon multisig. Using a safe is possible, but the proposal creation process has an extra step.
  2. With an Aragon Multisig and UI, we can build a much more integrated experience for simulations and proposal creation, which will require less work for signers to properly verify transactions.
  3. Using the Safe UI, simulations would no longer simulate the proposal getting executed (i.e. calling Comptroller.setPauseGuardian) but would simulate moving the proposal forward for veQI voting. Signers would need to go to a separate Aragon UI to simulate the full execution, which is another step for them.

With an Aragon multisig we are in full control of the UI and have full out the box support for the Staged Proposal Processor. The experience for signers and proposal creators will be seamless and simulations easy - in our opinion this will make security reviews for the proposal much easier.

Note: we still recommend keeping the existing safe as an "Emergency Multisig" for some time, this can stay as a Safe directly connected to the DAO which does not have the issues above as it does not use the Staged Proposal Processor.

Using a Safe

For completeness, if Benqi wishes to use the Safe in optimistic governance, we recommend the following approach:

  1. Safe signers can create a proposal directly on the Aragon/Benqi UI - we will deploy Aragon's SafeExecuteCondition to faciliate this.
  2. Using walletconnect with the Safe on the Aragon UI will create the TX in the Safe
  3. Signers can vote on the transaction as normal once the Tx is in the Safe
  4. In order to run the simulation for the proposal successfully executing, signers will have to go back to the Aragon UI, the Safe UI will only show the simulation of the proposal moving to the next stage of the governance process.

Demo Video Here

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