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Aragon Legacy Documentation
Aragon Legacy Documentation
  • 🔷Aragon
    • Aragon Legacy Documentation
    • Aragon Values, Finances, and Legal
      • Legal and technical infrastructure
      • Financial infrastructure
      • Meet your DAO support network
    • Learn about DAOs
      • What is a DAO?
      • Why do we need DAOs?
      • What is decentralized autonomous governance?
      • What is the AN DAO?
      • TAO Voting
      • Why use Aragon to build a DAO?
  • 🌐Products
    • Prerequisites
    • Quickstart
    • Setting up a Metamask Wallet
      • Getting started with Ethereum
      • Getting started with Goerli Testnet
      • Getting started with Polygon
      • Getting started with Mumbai Testnet
      • Getting started with Harmony
      • Getting started with Harmony testnet
      • Getting started with Metis Andromeda
      • Getting started with Stardust Testnet
      • Getting started with BSC Testnet
      • How to sign a transaction?
      • Import your seed wallet to Metamask
      • Gas Tracker
    • Setting up a Frame Wallet
    • Setting up a Gnosis Safe MultiSig Wallet
    • Aragon Client
      • What is Aragon Client
      • How to create a DAO
        • Templates
        • Using the Company Template
        • Using the Membership Template
        • Use the Reputation template
      • How to create a DAO on Polygon
      • How to create a DAO on Harmony
      • How to navigate your DAO
        • Home
        • The Apps
          • Tokens App
          • Voting App
          • Finance App
          • Agent App
            • How to install the Agent App in your DAO
            • Using Agent with Frame
        • System Setting
          • Permissions Setting
          • App Center
          • Organization Setting
      • After you've started a DAO
        • How to change the Quorum of your DAO
          • Change Quorum using Aragon Console
          • Change Quorum using EVMcrispr
        • How to create a Legal Wrapper for your DAO with Otoco
        • How to Operate your DAO from your Mobile Phone
      • How to Brick your DAO 🧱
    • Aragon Govern
      • What is Aragon Govern?
      • How to create a Govern DAO
      • Navigate into your Govern DAO
        • How to mint and assign DAO tokens to others
        • How to deposit funds
        • Challenging a transaction
      • Reasons for the delay period in the transaction
      • Collateral for scheduling or challenging a transaction. Why?
      • Acting as a guardian for an Aragon Govern dispute
      • Using the Client DAO with the Govern DAO
    • Aragon Voice
      • What is Aragon Voice?
      • Creating a voting proposal
      • Creating a voting proposal using your token
      • Voting on a proposal
    • Aragon Vocdoni
      • What is Aragon Vocdoni
      • Creating a Vodconi organization
      • Accessing your Vocdoni organization
      • Navigating your Vocdoni organization
        • Creating a voting proposal
        • Voting on a proposal (anonymous voting disabled)
        • Voting on a proposal (anonymous voting enabled)
    • Aragon Court
      • What is Aragon Court
      • Court Dashboard
      • Dispute lifecycle
      • Acting as guardian for a dispute
      • Glossary
  • 🛠️Developers
    • Legacy Developer Documentation
    • General Tools
      • The Basics
        • Before starting
        • Quick start
        • Tech Stack
        • App permissions
        • Forwarding
        • Upgradeability
        • Package management
        • Templates
        • Aragon client
        • Human readable transactions
      • Guides
        • How to create your first custom DAO using Aragon CLI!
        • How to use the Agent App
          • Installing Aragon Agent from aragonCLI
          • Setting and Checking permissions
          • Interacting with Aragon Agent
        • How to build your first Aragon App!
        • How to publish an Aragon App to aragonPM
        • How to migrate existing Aragon App to Buidler plugin
        • How to change the Quorum of your DAO
          • Change Quorum using Aragon Console
          • Change Quorum using EVMcrispr
        • Deploying Aragon Client in new Chains
          • Deployments information
            • Harmony testnet
            • BSC Tesnet
            • Harmony
            • Metis stardust
            • Metis Andromeda
        • How to Brick your DAO 🧱
        • How to sign with Web3 providers
          • Setting up a Metamask Wallet
            • Import your seed phrase into Metamask
            • Import your private key into Metamask
            • Sign a transaction with Metamask
          • Setting up a Frame Wallet
            • Sign a Transaction with Frame
        • Troubleshooting
      • aragonOS
        • Introduction
        • Motivations
        • Developing with aragonOS
        • Reference documentation
        • Migrating to aragonOS 4 from aragonOS 3
        • Reference (aragonOS 3)
        • Smart Contract References
          • ACL
            • ACL
            • ACLSyntaxSugar
            • ACLHelpers
            • IACL
            • IACLOracle
          • APM
            • APMNamehash
            • APMRegistry
            • APMInternalAppNames
            • Repo
          • APPS
            • AppProxyBase
            • AppProxyPinned
            • AppProxyUpgradeable
            • AppStorage
            • AragonApp
            • UnsafeAragonApp
          • COMMON
            • Autopetrified
            • ConversionHelpers
            • DelegateProxy
            • DepositableDelegateProxy
            • DepositableStorage
            • EtherTokenConstant
            • IForwarder
            • IForwarderFee
            • IVaultRecoverable
            • Initializable
            • IsContract
            • Petrifiable
            • ReentrancyGuard
            • SafeERC20
            • TimeHelpers
            • Uint256Helpers
            • UnstructuredStorage
            • VaultRecoverable
          • ENS
            • ENSConstants
            • ENSSubdomainRegistrar
          • EVMSCRIPT
            • EVMScriptRegistry
            • EVMScriptRunner
            • IEVMScriptExecutor
            • IEVMScriptRegistry
            • EVMScriptRegistryConstants
            • ScriptHelpers
          • EVMSCRIPT/EXECUTORS
            • BaseEVMScriptExecutor
            • CallsScript
          • FACTORY
            • APMRegistryFactory
            • AppProxyFactory
            • DAOFactory
            • ENSFactory
            • EVMScriptRegistryFactory
          • KERNEL
            • IKernel
            • IKernelEvents
            • Kernel
            • KernelAppIds
            • KernelNamespaceConstants
            • KernelProxy
            • KernelStorage
      • aragonCLI
        • Introduction
        • Main commands
        • DAO commands
        • APM commands
        • IPFS commands
        • Global configuration
      • aragonPM
        • Introduction
        • Architecture
        • Reference documentation
      • aragonAPI
        • Introduction
        • Javascript
          • Quick Start
          • App API
          • React API
          • Wrapper
          • Providers
          • Architecture of apps
          • Background Scripts
      • aragonUI
        • Getting started
        • How to upgrade
        • BASE
          • Spacing
          • Colors
          • Text styles
          • Icons
          • Main
        • ACTIONS
          • Button
          • ContextMenu
        • NAVIGATION
          • Tabs
          • Pagination
          • BackButton
          • Link
          • Header
        • STRUCTURE
          • Bar
          • Box
          • Card
          • Split
          • DataView
          • Table
          • EmptyStateCard
          • IdentityBadge
          • TransactionBadge
          • Tag
          • Accordion
          • Timer
          • TokenAmount
          • EthIdenticon
          • TransactionProgress
        • DATA ENTRY
          • AutoComplete
          • DateRangePicker
          • DropDown
          • Switch
          • Radio
          • CheckBox
          • Slider
          • TextInput
          • SearchInput
          • AddressField
          • RadioGroup
          • RadioList
          • TextCopy
          • Field
        • VISUALIZATION
          • CircleGraph
          • LineChart
          • Distribution
        • FEEDBACK
          • Info
          • ProgressBar
          • LoadingRing
          • Toast
          • SyncIndicator
          • FloatIndicator
        • OVERLAYS
          • Help
          • Popover
          • Modal
          • SidePanel
        • ADVANCES
          • ButtonBase
          • FocusVisible
          • PublicUrl
          • Redraw
          • RedrawFromDate
          • Root
          • RootPortal
          • Viewport
      • aragonDS
        • Guidelines
          • Layout
          • Color
          • Iconography
          • Typography
          • Illustrations
        • Components
          • Overview
      • Aragon Connect
        • Guides
          • Aragon Basics
          • Getting started
          • Usage with React
        • Advanced
          • Custom Subgraph queries
          • Writing an App Subgraph
          • Writing an App Connector
        • Connectors
          • Organizations
          • Tokens app
          • Voting app
          • Finance app
        • API reference
          • connect()
          • App
          • Connectors
          • Organization
          • Permission
          • Repo
          • Role
          • TransactionIntent
          • TransactionPath
          • TransactionRequest
          • Types
          • Errors
      • App Center
        • App Center
        • Preparing Assets
        • Submitting Your App to the App Center
    • Product Tools
      • Aragon Govern
        • README
        • Introduction
          • Concepts and background
            • Govern Core concepts
            • ERC3000
          • Developers
            • Getting started
            • Govern.js API
            • Historical deployments
            • GraphQL API
            • Smart contracts breakdown
        • Deployments
          • Mainnet
          • Rinkeby
        • Packages
          • ERC 3k
          • Govern Console
          • Govern contract utils
          • Types
          • govern-create
          • Govern Server
          • govern-subgraph
          • govern-token
          • govern.js
      • Aragon Vocdoni
    • Aragon Client Glossary
  • THE ANT TOKEN
    • Aragon Network Token
      • About ANT
      • Historical token sale
    • ANTv1
      • Non-standard behaviours and gotchas
      • About the MiniMe token
      • The initial token sale flow
    • ANTv2
      • Upgrade portal
        • Troubleshooting
      • Contract interaction
      • Migrating on-chain liquidity
    • Developers
      • Quick start
      • Integrating ANT
      • Historical deployments
      • Security policy
  • ‼️FAQ
    • Products
      • Aragon Client
        • Where is my DAO?
        • DAO creation taking a long time to confirm
        • DAO is taking a long time to load
        • Failed DAO creation transaction
        • Why do I see a Blue Screen?
        • An unexpected error has occurred
        • App does not appear in Firefox
        • Receiving funds directly to the Agent or Vault address
        • How to Recover Funds accidentally sent to an Aragon App address
        • Depositing EURS in the Finance app
        • Which templates are available on the Ethereum Network?
        • Which templates are available on the Polygon Network?
        • Which templates are available on the Harmony Network?
        • Which templates are available on the Metis Andromeda Network?
        • How to delete a DAO
      • Aragon Govern
        • Which was the wallet address used to create the Aragon Govern DAO?
        • Where are my DAO tokens?
        • How to delete a DAO
        • How can I transfer funds to the Aragon Govern DAO?
      • Aragon Vocdoni
        • Is Vocdoni easy to use?
        • Is Vocdoni anonymous?
        • Is Vocdoni free?
        • Is my data safe with Vocdoni?
        • As an Organization, what can I do with Vocdoni?
      • Aragon Court
        • What is the current duration of the different stages of a dispute?
        • Dispute - Which fees need to be paid to create a dispute?
        • Dispute - Do I need to put collateral to create a dispute?
        • Appeals - How much money is needed to appeal a dispute? And to confirm the appeal? What is it for?
        • Appeals - If I have tokens staked or activated, can I lose them if I appeal a dispute?
        • Appeals - What happens to the collateral put up
        • Voting - Is a majority needed to win a vote?
        • Voting - What happens if there is a tie?
        • Voting - What does "Refuse to vote" mean? What happens if it's the most voted option?
        • Voting - Another guardian tried to collude. Can I punish this guardian?
        • Voting - What's the penalty for leaked votes?
        • Governance - Which parameters of Court can be changed? How?
        • Governance - Do parameter changes affect ongoing disputes?
        • Technical - Where is the Court "hosted"?
        • Technical - Where can I find the source code and technical documentation for Aragon Court?
        • ANJ conversion - What date will the lock-up period end?
        • ANJ conversion - If I have not staked my $ANJ, do I still get the lockup period price?
        • ANJ conversion - Will I get the 0.044 conversion if I convert after September 5th 2021?
        • ANJ conversion - How much will it cost to be a Guardian in Aragon Court with $ANT?
        • I can't see my tokens in the Dashboard
        • I activated my tokens but I can't see my probability of being drafted
    • Miscellaneous
      • Metamask wallet transaction alert
      • Is Aragon open source?
      • Where can I browse through the DAOs created on Aragon?
      • How to migrate from "old" DAI to "new" DAI
      • Security notice for organizations created before Aragon 0.8
      • General troubleshooting tips
    • ANT Token
      • What can I do with ANT?
      • Who holds ANT?
      • Who are the biggest ANT holders?
      • Long-term holding ANT - What benefits?
      • Can I delegate my network votes to somebody else?
      • Can I do flash loans with ANT?
      • Is there an ANT options market?
      • Are you planning to launch new network tokens?
      • My wallet isn't available on the Upgrade Portal
      • How can connect my Ledger to the Upgrade Portal?
      • I accidentally sent my "old" ANT to an exchange
      • ANJ conversion - What is the minimum number of $ANJ I need to participate in the 0.044 conversion?
      • ANJ conversion - What is the conversion rate ANJ to ANT v2?
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On this page
  • What is Web3?
  • IPFS (InternetPlanetary File System)
  • What is a Web3 provider?
  • Metamask
  • Further resources

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  1. Developers
  2. General Tools
  3. The Basics

Before starting

PreviousThe BasicsNextQuick start

Last updated 2 years ago

Was this helpful?

Before starting to go into depth into the command-line-interface, creating Aragon apps, etc., first some important basics:

What is Web3?

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few years, you've probably come across the term Web3 😋.

But what does it mean exactly? And why do we care about it in the context of Aragon?

Web3 is the vision of a fully decentralized web. One of the craziest things to wrap your head around is that in web3, apps don't need a central server to fetch data from!

How is this possible?

In a nutshell: thanks to something called peer-to-peer data architectures. The key point is that in a P2P architecture, instead of requesting data from a central server, you request it from multiple computers (peers) around you.

While this is nothing new in itself -- P2P architectures have existed since the 1990’s (where they rose to fame with file sharing programs like BitTorrent and Napster) -- what's new is the addition of cryptography and economic incentives to these architectures.

The fusion of these seemingly disparate disciplines was the big innovation behind Bitcoin, and has since led to the emergence of a new field of research devoted to their intersection (what we now call cryptoeconomics).

While we won't get into the details here, the key takeaway:

Cryptoeconomics is the big unlock that has allowed us to start moving from centralized data structures (web2) to more decentralized or fully distributed data architectures (web3).

Note that there’s a spectrum from fully centralized (left) to fully decentralized (right).

IPFS (InternetPlanetary File System)

While blockchains -- like Bitcoin and Ethereum -- are key to this Web3 vision, it's important to note that there are other essential parts of the Web3 stack that are not covered by them.

IPFS is a distributed system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications, and data.

What is a Web3 provider?

Definition: a Web3 provider an abstraction of a connection to the Ethereum Network, providing a concise, consistent interface to standard Ethereum node functionality.

In poor words, a Web3 provider is "something" that can actually sign and send transactions to the Ethereum blockchain.

If you're new to the decentralized web you might be wondering why we have to use a separate provider to interact with the blockchain.

Why don't decentralized apps (like Aragon's) just do it themselves?

In short, while it's possible for dapps (decentralized apps) to interact directly with the blockchain, using a Web3 provider allows users to interact with dapps without trusting every one of them with their private keys (the keys to their funds).

Without a Web3 provider, users have to have total trust in every dapp they use. With a Web3 provider, they just need to trust that provider.

Metamask

Metamask is a browser plugin that allows users to make Ethereum transactions through regular websites. It does this by injecting a javascript library called Web3.js into the namespace of each page your browser loads.

Web3.js is written by the Ethereum core team and has functions that regular web pages can use to make read and write requests to the blockchain. Eventually, we'll have browsers with this sort of functionality built-in (Brave and Opera are working on this). But for now, we need plugins like Metamask to help us bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3.

Further resources

For example, since blockchains are relatively expensive to store data on, it turns out that they don't make great file systems. That's why there's also a need for decentralized file systems like the **** which Aragon also makes use of.

Examples of web3 providers are and .

For instructions on how to use Metamask as your Web3 provider, please follow our

🛠️
IPFS (InterPlanetary File System)
Metamask
Frame
Metamask guide.
DAOs and the Web3 vision
Why The Internet Needs IPFS Before It’s Too Late
A hands-on introduction to IPFS
Blockchain infrastructure landscape: a first principles framing
The case for decentralization
What comes after open source?
Fat protocols
Centralized vs Decentralized