ENS DAO approves new Security Council for two years

ENS DAO adds an extra layer of security. The decentralised organisation behind the Ethereum Name Service has approved a proposal to activate a new Security Council for the next two years. This body consists of eight members and will have the authority to block harmful governance proposals before they are executed.

How the Security Council works

The new Security Council operates with a 5-of-8 multisig. This means that at least five of the eight members must agree before an action is taken. The council has a specific and limited mandate: it may only intervene during the two-day timelock window that follows after a governance proposal is approved, but before it is actually executed.

During that period, the council can designate a transaction as malicious and cancel it. Outside that situation, the body has no authority. For example, the council may not move funds from the treasury, submit or modify new proposals, or reverse any decisions made by the DAO.

Temporary mandate with automatic expiration

The powers of the Security Council automatically expire after two years, unless the DAO decides to extend the mandate through a new voting process. This ensures that the council does not accumulate permanent power without the approval of the broader community.

This approach is similar to how other blockchain projects experiment with decentralised governance and security bodies. For instance, Cardano recently activated a hard fork via onchain governance, showing that the sector is increasingly relying on structured decision-making. The ENS model deliberately chooses a narrow scope of action, so that the DAO retains control and the council merely serves as a safety net against malicious or compromised proposals.