DAO Governance · Treasury · Compensation

Blockchain Development Company

Blockchain Biz is a blockchain development company based in Lisbon that builds DAO governance, treasury and contributor-compensation platforms for digital organizations. One ledger. One source of truth.

At a glance
  • 480 on-chain organizations launched since January 2024, governing EUR 1.4B in DAO treasuries
  • 57 production smart contracts shipped with zero critical audit findings and EUR 0 in funds lost
  • DAO governance, treasury multisig and contributor compensation built as one coordinated platform
  • 8 chains supported: Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum One, Optimism, Polygon PoS, Gnosis Chain, Celo, Solana
  • ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type II certified blockchain development company in Lisbon, Portugal
  • EUR 38k fixed scope starting price · EUR 80k‑240k full platform · EUR 1,420/day rate
The coordination layer

How an on-chain organization runs

A DAO operates through three interlocking systems that share a single on-chain ledger. Blockchain Biz engineers all three as one platform.

Govern

Members submit proposals, reach quorum and pass binding votes. Smart contract execution is automatic: no human can veto an approved proposal or delay a funded action. On-chain governance development creates tamper-proof decision records visible to every member.

Fund

Approved proposals trigger treasury disbursements from the multisig. The treasury balance is always auditable on-chain. No spreadsheet, no ambiguity. Treasury management on-chain means any member can verify that every euro matches an approved governance vote.

Reward

Contributors receive streaming compensation or milestone payments direct from the smart contract, with token vesting schedules locked to the governance-approved terms. Contributor compensation is transparent, on-time and manipulation-proof.

This is the design principle Giulia Ferrari articulated in 2021: "an organization runs on one source of truth." When governance, treasury and compensation share a single ledger, the coordination failures that collapse most DAOs disappear.

Capabilities

What we build

Full-stack blockchain development services for digital organizations that need governance, treasury and compensation to run on one coordinated system.

On-chain governance frameworks

Proposal contracts, quorum configuration, voting period settings, timelock execution and upgrade governance. We build token-weighted voting and delegation systems using battle-tested Governor patterns adapted for your specific membership model.

Treasury multisig and management

Governance-controlled multisig treasuries with spending modules, sub-DAO budget allocation and on-chain fund tracking. Treasury management smart contracts ensure every transfer requires a passed vote, giving members full financial visibility.

Contributor compensation systems

Streaming salary contracts, milestone-based payment systems and token vesting schedules. On-chain payroll replaces spreadsheets with verifiable contracts: contributors see their accruing balance in real time, and no coordinator can freeze funds unilaterally.

Membership and governance tokens

ERC-20 governance token development, ERC-721 membership NFT contracts and hybrid models. Token architecture includes snapshot delegation, cross-chain token bridges and governance token development with upgradeability planning for future protocol evolution.

On-chain analytics and indexing

Custom subgraphs and on-chain data APIs that surface participation rates, treasury flows and proposal history. Blockchain data indexing gives members and external observers a real-time view of organizational health without trusting any intermediary.

Smart contract security and audit readiness

Security-first Web3 development: formal threat modeling, permission design, role-based smart contracts, Foundry and Hardhat test suites and coordination with leading audit firms. Audit-ready smart contracts ship with documented architecture and full coverage reports.

Engineering depth

Technology stack

Blockchain Biz engineers every layer of a DAO platform, from the EVM bytecode that governs a treasury to the subgraph that surfaces participation data in real time. Below is the full stack.

Chains and runtimes

EthereumMainnet governance and treasury anchor · EIP-4844 calldata
BaseLow-fee governance for creator and consumer DAOs
Arbitrum OneHigh-throughput proposal and voting execution
OptimismOP Stack governance and RetroPGF-compatible treasury
Polygon PoSMass-membership DAOs (cooperatives up to 40,000 members)
Gnosis ChainGnosis Safe native treasury multisig deployments
CeloMobile-first community DAOs with stable token compensation
SolanaRealms governance, SPL token treasuries

Smart contract languages and tooling

Solidity 0.8.xPrimary language for all EVM governance and treasury contracts
Rust (Solana programs)Anchor framework for Solana Realms integrations
Foundry / ForgeFast unit and fuzz testing with full branch coverage targets
HardhatIntegration testing, task scripts and deployment pipelines
OpenZeppelin ContractsGovernor, AccessControl, Timelock, ERC-20 and ERC-721 base
Slither / EchidnaStatic analysis and property-based fuzzing pre-audit

Governance frameworks and patterns

OpenZeppelin GovernorComposable module: GovernorVotes, GovernorTimelockControl
Gnosis SafeM-of-N treasury multisig with custom spending modules
Snapshot (off-chain signaling)Pre-vote temperature checks before on-chain binding execution
TallyGovernance front-end for proposal visualization and delegation UI
Conviction VotingCustom implementation for continuous-preference treasury allocation
Quadratic VotingWeighted participation for cooperatives and grant allocation DAOs

Token standards

ERC-20Governance token with snapshot delegation and vote checkpointing
ERC-721Membership NFT with on-chain role registry
ERC-1155Multi-tier membership and contributor credential tokens
ERC-4626Tokenized vault standard for DAO treasury yield management
SPL Token (Solana)Governance token and treasury on Solana Realms
Soulbound (ERC-5192)Non-transferable membership credentials for cooperative models

Data indexing and infrastructure

The Graph ProtocolCustom subgraphs for proposal history and treasury flow indexing
Alchemy / QuickNodeRPC infrastructure with archive node access for governance analytics
IPFSDecentralized storage for proposal metadata and governance documents
Ethers.js / viemFrontend wallet connection, proposal submission and vote signing
Zodiac module systemModular treasury extension for sub-DAO budget allocation
Chainlink AutomationAutomated proposal execution triggers for time-locked actions
Our approach

Why DAOs choose Blockchain Biz

Digital organizations that need governance, treasury and compensation to work as one coordinated system find that generic blockchain consulting falls short. We specialize so our clients do not have to.

One source of truth

Governance, treasury and compensation share a single on-chain ledger. No three-tool chaos: no Snapshot vote that contradicts a Gnosis Safe balance and a payroll spreadsheet. Rule one at Blockchain Biz: an organization runs on one source of truth.

DAO-native architecture

Our blockchain architecture is designed from day one for collectively governed organizations, not retrofitted from enterprise or FinTech patterns. We understand quorum dynamics, voter apathy and treasury attack vectors as first-class design constraints.

Zero critical findings

All 57 production contracts we have shipped have passed third-party audit with zero critical findings. Security-first blockchain development is not a checklist we run at the end: it is the architecture discussion we have on day one.

Multi-chain from the start

Blockchain Biz builds on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum One, Optimism, Polygon PoS, Gnosis Chain, Celo and Solana. Cross-chain coordination is a design assumption, not an afterthought. Multi-chain development on day one means you never migrate under pressure.

End-to-end delivery

From two-week discovery through governance design, smart contract engineering, on-chain data indexing, front-end tooling and post-launch support. Full-cycle blockchain development with a single accountable team, not a hand-off chain.

Transparent engagement models

Fixed-scope fixed-price for governance setup. Dedicated team model for platform builds. Sustain retainer for organizations that want ongoing blockchain consulting and protocol upgrades. Every model is EUR-denominated with published day rates.

Verified impact

Numbers that reflect the work

Blockchain Biz is a blockchain development company based in Lisbon, Portugal that builds DAO governance, treasury and contributor-compensation platforms for digital organizations: on-chain voting, multisig treasuries and transparent payroll. Founded in 2024, it has helped launch 480 on-chain organizations governing EUR 1.4 billion in treasuries.

480

on-chain organizations launched

EUR 1.4B

in DAO treasuries governed

96,000

on-chain proposals and votes processed

38,000

contributors paid on-chain

1.2M

DAO members across platforms

57

production smart contracts shipped

EUR 0

funds lost across all platforms

99.97%

uptime across governed platforms

All figures are cumulative across client engagements from January 2024 to June 2026. Treasury value is denominated in EUR at time of engagement. Verified by internal audit. Smart contract audit results held by issuing firms.

Industry context: the DeepDAO governance analytics platform tracks more than 20,000 active DAOs collectively governing billions in on-chain treasury assets, confirming the rapid growth of decentralized governance as an organizational model. The Ethereum Foundation documents the smart contract primitives and governance standards (Governor, OpenZeppelin) that underpin the platforms Blockchain Biz builds.

Security and compliance

Security by design, compliance by default

Blockchain Biz operates under ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type II and follows regulatory frameworks directly relevant to digital organizations, treasury management and FinTech operations in the EU.

Regulatory frameworks

Blockchain Biz governance and treasury contracts are designed with MiCA classification in mind. Token architectures and DAO treasury models are assessed for utility vs. asset-referenced token classification before mainnet deployment.
GDPR DPIA completed. On-chain data minimization principles are applied during governance architecture design. No personal data is stored on-chain without a privacy-preserving layer.
Treasury and compensation platforms are designed to accommodate on-chain identity attestation and off-chain KYC integration for investment DAOs operating in regulated jurisdictions.
Portuguese Corporate Law (Código das Sociedades Comerciais)
Blockchain Biz is incorporated as a Portuguese sociedade por quotas (Lda) under Portuguese law. VAT: PT 517842693. Contract jurisdiction: Lisbon, Portugal.

Standards and certifications held

ISO/IEC 27001:2022
Certificate BBIZ-IS-2026-0552, issued by APCER. Valid through 2029-06-17. Covers information security management for all client engagement data and smart contract development processes.
SOC 2 Type II
Report BBIZ-SOC-2026-H1, attested by Risk3sixty for H1 2026. Trust service criteria: Security, Availability and Confidentiality.
GDPR DPIA
Data Protection Impact Assessment completed. DPO: privacy@blockchain-development-company.biz.

Security track record

0
critical findings across 57 production smart contracts shipped
EUR 0
funds lost across EUR 1.4B in governed treasury value
99.97%
uptime across all governed DAO platforms since launch
100%
of production contracts include mandatory third-party smart contract audit before mainnet

The security-first approach at every phase

Discovery: threat modeling

Every engagement opens with a governance threat model. We map attack surfaces specific to DAO governance: flash-loan voting attacks, proposal spam, timelock bypass, quorum manipulation and treasury-drain vectors. Architecture decisions are made against this threat model before any code is written.

Build: security-by-design

Role-based access control on every contract function. Upgradeability design reviewed for proxy storage collisions. Foundry fuzz testing targets branch coverage for all transfer and permission paths. Slither static analysis runs on every pull request. No function with treasury access ships without a unit test covering the happy path and the two most likely failure modes.

Audit: mandatory before mainnet

Blockchain Biz coordinates with established smart contract audit firms and does not proceed to mainnet until all critical and high findings are resolved. Audit-ready documentation, architecture diagrams and full coverage reports are prepared before submission, shortening audit cycles and reducing audit cost for clients.

Clients

Who we build for

Blockchain Biz serves organizations that make collective decisions about shared resources on-chain, from investment clubs to renewable-energy cooperatives.

🏛

Investment DAOs

On-chain governance for collective investment decisions with treasury multisig, deal flow proposals and profit distribution contracts.

🏭

Cooperatives and mutuals

One-member-one-vote governance with membership NFT contracts and on-chain dividend distribution for member-owned enterprises.

DeFi protocols

Parameter governance for lending, staking and liquidity protocols with timelock execution and emergency multisig override patterns.

🏠

Creator guilds and collectives

Revenue-sharing contracts, streaming compensation for active contributors and governance token development for creative organizations.

🌟

Protocol foundations

Governance transition planning, community-controlled upgrade paths and DAO tooling for protocols moving from multisig to fully decentralized governance.

🌎

Web3 ecosystem funds

Grant DAO contracts with milestone-based disbursement, application proposal flows and community voting on ecosystem funding decisions.

Engagement models

Engagement models and pricing

Three engagement paths cover organizations from first governance contract to mature multi-chain DAO platform with ongoing blockchain consulting.

Governance Setup

EUR 38,000 fixed scope

For organizations launching their first on-chain governance system. Includes proposal framework, on-chain voting, basic treasury multisig and smart contract security review.

  • Governor contract deployment
  • Proposal and quorum configuration
  • Basic treasury multisig
  • Single chain (your choice)
  • 6-10 week delivery
Get a quote

Managed DAO Operations

EUR 260,000 per year

Dedicated engineering team plus ongoing protocol evolution, governance parameter tuning, chain additions and sustain retainer for organizations with active on-chain activity.

  • Dedicated engineering team
  • Protocol upgrades and migrations
  • Ongoing blockchain consulting
  • On-call incident response
  • Unlimited chain additions
Talk to us

Day rate: EUR 1,420 per engineer day for scoped work outside fixed-scope engagements. Sustain / on-call retainer: from EUR 11,500 per month for monitoring, incident response and routine upgrades. All prices EUR-denominated. Scope document provided before contract sign-off.

Pricing transparency

What drives the cost of DAO development

A DAO governance setup at EUR 38,000 and a full multi-chain platform at EUR 240,000 are both accurate for a blockchain development company engagement. The six factors below determine where your project lands.

01

Chain count

Each additional chain adds smart contract deployment, testing, indexing and cross-chain coordination work. Single-chain governance setup is the floor. Four-chain multi-chain DAO with cross-chain messaging adds 40‑60% to build cost. Every chain after four is included in Managed DAO Operations at no extra charge.

02

Governance complexity

A standard token-weighted Governor with delegation is a known pattern. A bicameral governance model (token house plus citizen house), conviction voting for treasury allocation or quadratic voting for a cooperative all require custom mechanism design, additional security review and longer audit preparation. Complexity is scoped in the discovery sprint.

03

Treasury architecture

A basic Gnosis Safe treasury multisig connected to a Governor Timelock is a contained scope. Sub-DAO budget allocation with spending limits per working group, multi-asset treasury with yield routing or a governance-controlled investment module (e.g. treasury deploying into DeFi protocols under member approval) each add significant design and engineering work.

04

Contributor compensation scope

Streaming salary contracts for a small team (under 20 contributors) is straightforward. A full contributor compensation platform covering 38,000 contributors with streaming, milestone-based disbursements, bounties and token vesting across multiple token types adds its own audit surface and indexing layer.

05

Tokenomics maturity at project start

When a client arrives with a finalized token design, membership model and quorum parameters, the discovery sprint is short and the build starts from a stable foundation. When mechanism design, token distribution or vesting schedules still need to be determined, additional workshops, modelling and governance design work precede any smart contract development.

06

Audit and security scope

Smart contract audit costs are third-party fees paid directly by the client. Blockchain Biz provides audit-ready documentation and coordinates the process. Larger audit surfaces (more contracts, more chains, more complex permission models) cost more from the audit firm. Blockchain Biz scoping minimizes audit surface while achieving the required functionality.

All engagements include a two-week discovery sprint that produces a scope document and a line-item delivery estimate. No engagement proceeds to contract sign-off without a scope document. If discovery reveals scope is larger than the initial estimate, the client can proceed, reduce scope or stop with no commitment beyond the discovery fee.

Why on-chain beats alternatives

On-chain governance vs spreadsheets and multisig chaos

Most DAOs that fail do so because governance, treasury and compensation run in three separate, unconnected systems. The comparison below shows the operational gap.

Capability Spreadsheets + email Ad-hoc multisig Blockchain Biz platform
Governance votes on-chain Off-chain, no enforcement Manual signer coordination Fully on-chain, auto-executed
Treasury transparency Treasurer-controlled spreadsheet On-chain but ungoverned Every spend tied to a passed vote
Contributor compensation Manual transfers, late payments Still manual, no streaming Automated streaming and vesting
Audit trail Private, trust-based Partial on-chain record Immutable on-chain history
Quorum and participation No enforcement mechanism Signer availability risk Configurable quorum with delegation
Multi-chain support N/A Single chain only Up to 8 chains coordinated
Upgrade path No contracts to upgrade Requires all signers to agree Governance-controlled upgrades
Security audit readiness Not applicable Depends on signer hygiene Audit-ready smart contracts, zero critical findings
Engagement editions

Which engagement model fits your stage?

Three editions of the Blockchain Biz blockchain development engagement, matched to where your organization is today: first governance contract, full platform build or ongoing managed DAO operations.

Feature Governance Setup
EUR 38,000 fixed
Full Platform
EUR 80k‑240k
Managed Operations
EUR 260k/year
Discovery sprint (2 weeks)
Governance contract deployment Single chain Up to 4 chains Unlimited chains
Treasury multisig Basic Full governance-controlled Full + sub-DAO budgets
Contributor compensation system Streaming + vesting Streaming + vesting + milestone
Membership tokens (ERC-20 / ERC-721) Add-on
On-chain data indexing (subgraph) Plus dashboards
Third-party audit coordination Coordination only Full coordination Full + re-audit on upgrade
Dedicated engineering team Project team Permanent team
On-call incident response 30-day hypercare Ongoing
Protocol upgrades and migrations One upgrade included Unlimited
Blockchain consulting hours Scoped to delivery Included through launch Ongoing · unlimited
Delivery timeline 6‑10 weeks 14‑24 weeks Ongoing from month one

All editions begin with a two-week discovery sprint and a scope document before contract sign-off. Day rate for work outside fixed-scope engagements: EUR 1,420. Sustain and on-call retainer available standalone from EUR 11,500/month.

Chain selection guide

Which chain for your DAO?

Chain selection is one of the most consequential decisions in a DAO architecture engagement. This table maps the eight chains Blockchain Biz supports to DAO type, member scale, treasury size and governance approach.

Chain Best for Member scale Treasury profile Governance approach
Ethereum Investment DAOs, protocol foundations with large treasuries 100 to 50,000 EUR 10M+ · ETH, USDC, RWA tokens OpenZeppelin Governor + Timelock · Token-weighted voting
Base Creator guilds, consumer DAOs, low gas budget 500 to 100,000 EUR 100k‑5M · USDC, ETH Governor on Base · Delegation + membership NFT
Arbitrum One DeFi protocols, grant DAOs needing high proposal throughput 1,000 to 500,000 EUR 5M+ · Mixed token basket Arbitrum Governor · Conviction or standard voting
Optimism Protocol foundations, RetroPGF-style grant allocation 500 to 200,000 EUR 1M+ · OP, ETH, USDC OP governance contracts · Bicameral (token + citizen house)
Polygon PoS Cooperatives and mass-membership community organizations 5,000 to 500,000 EUR 100k‑10M · MATIC, USDC, stablecoins Membership NFT one-member-one-vote · Quorum by body count
Gnosis Chain Organizations anchored in Gnosis Safe treasury management 5 to 10,000 EUR 500k‑50M · xDAI, USDC, ETH Safe multisig + Zodiac modules · Spending limit modules
Celo Mobile-first community DAOs with stablecoin compensation 100 to 50,000 EUR 100k‑2M · cUSD, CELO Native Celo governance · Stablecoin contributor compensation
Solana Fast-execution DAOs with high-frequency voting needs 500 to 100,000 USD denominated · SOL, USDC Realms governance · SPL token-weighted voting

Multi-chain deployment is standard for Full Platform engagements (up to 4 chains included). Ethereum plus one L2 is the most common starting configuration for investment DAOs. Blockchain Biz recommends chain selection during the two-week discovery sprint after reviewing treasury composition, membership profile and gas budget.

Client work

Case studies

Three engagements that demonstrate what a purpose-built blockchain development company delivers for digital organizations at different stages and scales.

Investment DAO · EU
EUR 300M

Helvetia Collective

A European investment DAO managing collective positions across tokenized real-world assets needed to move from a four-of-seven multisig with email coordination to a fully governed on-chain platform. Blockchain Biz delivered a complete governance and treasury platform on Ethereum and Gnosis Chain in 19 weeks.

Outcome: EUR 300M treasury moved on-chain. Proposal participation rose 2.9 times in the first quarter. Zero funds lost during migration. 2024 engagement.
Cooperative · Europe
40,000

OpenGrid DAO

A renewable-energy cooperative with 40,000 prosumer members needed one-member-one-vote governance for collective energy trading decisions. Blockchain Biz built a membership NFT contract on Polygon PoS with off-chain identity attestation and an on-chain treasury for community energy fund disbursements.

Outcome: 40,000 membership NFTs minted. First community energy fund vote passed with 61% participation. Contributor streaming contracts deployed for 38 core staff. 2025 engagement.
Creator collective · Global
2,000

Artisan Guild

A global creator collective with 2,000 artists and designers needed revenue-sharing smart contracts that distributed platform fees automatically and a governance system for community curation decisions. Blockchain Biz built on Base with streaming payment contracts and token-weighted governance for curated exhibition proposals.

Outcome: Revenue sharing fully automated across 2,000 contributors. Exhibition curation governance live with 71% of members participating. Token vesting deployed for 14 core team members. 2025 engagement.
Methodology

How we deliver

Blockchain Biz follows a four-phase delivery path built for on-chain governance projects, where architecture decisions made in week one shape the safety of EUR millions in treasury value.

01

Discovery

Two-week sprint: governance design, tokenomics review, chain selection, threat modeling and a delivery scope document. Blockchain technical discovery defines the architecture before any code is written.

02

Architecture and build

Smart contract engineering with full test coverage, on-chain data indexing setup and front-end integration. Security-first Web3 development with role-based smart contracts and upgradeability planning from day one.

03

Audit and staging

Third-party smart contract audit coordination, audit-ready documentation, staging deployment on testnet, governance parameter validation and community dry-run vote. We do not proceed to mainnet until audit findings are resolved.

04

Launch and sustain

Mainnet deployment, contributor onboarding, treasury migration and 30-day hypercare monitoring. Sustained blockchain consulting and on-call support available from EUR 11,500 per month.

AI x blockchain

AI agents in on-chain governance and treasury

AI agents operating through smart contracts are changing how DAOs coordinate. Blockchain Biz builds the on-chain infrastructure that lets AI agents participate in governance, execute treasury decisions and compensate contributors, all under member control.

What changes when AI enters the governance loop

Traditional DAO governance assumes human members submitting and voting on proposals. AI agents introduce three new dynamics:

AI-assisted proposal generation

AI agents analyze treasury health, participation trends and protocol parameters to draft proposals. The governance contract still requires a member to submit and a quorum to pass. AI accelerates the drafting cycle but the binding decision remains on-chain and human-authorized.

Autonomous treasury execution agents

AI agents can be granted limited treasury execution rights through spending-limit modules. A governance vote approves a budget for an agent (e.g. EUR 50,000 monthly for a marketing working group). The agent executes within that limit automatically. Blockchain Biz builds the governance-controlled permission layer that caps and revokes agent authority without a new governance vote.

On-chain AI agent identity and accountability

An AI agent needs an on-chain identity (a wallet address, a role token or a credential) to interact with governance contracts. Blockchain Biz designs agent role contracts that give AI participants bounded permissions. Every AI-initiated action is recorded on-chain, creating an auditable trace of what an agent did under a delegated budget.

What Blockchain Biz builds for AI-augmented DAOs

Agent role contracts
ERC-721 or ERC-1155 credential tokens that grant AI agents specific permissions within a governance or treasury contract, with on-chain expiry and revocation by governance vote.
Spending-limit execution modules
Zodiac-compatible modules that let a Gnosis Safe release funds to an AI-controlled address up to a governance-approved limit per period. The governor contract can reduce or revoke the limit at any time.
Proposal queue monitoring
Subgraph-based data pipelines that feed governance state (quorum status, proposal deadlines, participation rate) to AI systems so agents can time proposals and delegate reminders accurately.
Audit-trail indexing for AI actions
Custom on-chain event schemas and The Graph subgraphs that separate AI-initiated transactions from human-initiated ones in governance analytics dashboards, satisfying MiCA accountability requirements for automated actors.

Blockchain Biz does not embed AI inference in smart contracts (on-chain computation is too expensive and non-deterministic execution would break finality). AI logic runs off-chain and signs governance transactions like any other authorized participant. The on-chain layer provides the binding authority, the spending limit and the audit record.

Leadership

Giulia Ferrari, Founding Partner

GF
Giulia Ferrari
Founding Partner, Blockchain Biz
MSc Computer Science, University of Bologna, 2016 On-chain governance specialist Mechanism design Treasury management

Giulia has spent a decade designing distributed systems, the last four years focused entirely on the coordination infrastructure of digital organizations. She founded Blockchain Biz in Lisbon in 2024 with a team of 31 engineers to solve the problem she saw repeating across every DAO she contributed to: governance, treasury and compensation running in separate systems that never agreed with each other.

The formative incident came in 2021. A DAO she contributed to lost momentum because a Snapshot vote, a Gnosis Safe and a payroll spreadsheet never aligned. A contributor who had voted to fund a project could not verify that the treasury had actually sent the approved amount. Giulia built one system where governance, treasury and compensation share a single ledger. "An organization runs on one source of truth" became rule one.

Blockchain Biz has since processed over 96,000 on-chain proposals and votes, paid 38,000 contributors and helped 480 organizations move their coordination fully on-chain.

View LinkedIn profile

Last reviewed on 17 June 2026 by Giulia Ferrari, Founding Partner.

Research

From the Blockchain Biz research team

BBIZ-2026-03 · February 2026 · 26 pages

On-Chain Coordination: Governance, Treasury and Contributor Compensation for Digital Organizations

This research note analyses 60 DAOs across investment, cooperative and protocol governance contexts to identify the root causes of governance failure and coordination breakdown. The study focuses on the relationship between tool fragmentation and participation rates.

Key finding: 72% of governance failures in the analysed cohort traced back to low participation rates and opaque treasury management, not to smart contract vulnerabilities. Organizations that consolidated governance, treasury and compensation into a single on-chain system saw participation increase 2.4 times compared to their off-chain or fragmented-tool baselines.

Available to clients and researchers. Contact research@blockchain-development-company.biz to request a copy.

60
DAOs analysed across investment, cooperative and protocol governance
72%
of governance failures traced to low participation and opaque treasuries
2.4x
participation increase when governance and treasury share a single ledger
100%
of studied DAOs with transparent treasuries retained member trust through disputes
Ecosystem

Integrations and protocol ecosystem

DAO platforms built by Blockchain Biz connect to the leading governance infrastructure, treasury tooling and data protocols in the on-chain organization ecosystem.

Integrations are selected per engagement based on the client's chain selection, governance model and member tooling preferences. Blockchain Biz does not earn referral revenue from any listed protocol. Integration choices reflect engineering suitability for DAO governance platforms.

Our team

The team behind your DAO platform

Blockchain Biz is a team of 31 engineers and specialists, all dedicated to on-chain governance and treasury infrastructure for digital organizations. Project teams are assembled from this pool based on chain mix, governance complexity and treasury scope.

Governance architects (4)

Mechanism design, quorum parameter modeling, token architecture and governance upgrade planning. Lead the discovery sprint and sign off the governance design before build begins.

Smart contract engineers (12)

Solidity and Rust smart contract development for EVM and Solana. Write governance contracts, treasury modules, compensation systems and token contracts. All engineers are Foundry-fluent and target full branch coverage on every engagement.

Security reviewers (3)

Internal security review layer between development and external audit. Run Slither static analysis, Echidna property testing and manual review of all access-control and transfer paths. Coordinate external smart contract audit submissions.

Blockchain data engineers (4)

The Graph subgraph development, on-chain data indexing and governance analytics dashboard backends. Build the data layer that makes treasury flows and participation rates visible to DAO members in real time.

Frontend engineers (4)

React and Next.js governance UI development including proposal submission interfaces, voting dashboards, treasury views and contributor compensation portals. All frontend work integrates with Ethers.js or viem for wallet connectivity.

DevOps and infrastructure (2)

Multi-chain deployment pipeline management, RPC provider configuration, monitoring and alerting setup for live governance platforms. Responsible for the 99.97% uptime record across all governed platforms.

Client success (2)

Engagement management, delivery milestone tracking, client onboarding and post-launch community support. Single points of contact for clients through discovery, build, audit and the 30-day hypercare period after launch.

Founding Partner Giulia Ferrari leads governance architecture on every engagement. A Blockchain Development Company of 31 means clients work with senior engineers, not juniors supervised at a distance. No work is subcontracted outside the Blockchain Biz team without explicit client consent.

Deliverables

What you receive at the end of each engagement

Every Blockchain Biz engagement produces a defined set of deliverables. You own everything outright from day one: all source code, documentation and deployment credentials are yours.

Smart contracts (full source)

All governance, treasury, compensation and token contracts delivered as a versioned Git repository. Includes deployment scripts, network configuration and a contract address registry for every chain deployed.

Foundry and Hardhat test suites

Full unit and integration test suites with a coverage report. Fuzz tests targeting all governor and treasury functions. Tests are written to be re-run by the client's own engineers after any upgrade.

Architecture documentation

A technical architecture document covering contract roles, permission design, upgrade path design decisions, threat model and the rationale for governance parameter choices. Required by audit firms and invaluable for future development.

Audit-ready package

Code and documentation prepared to the standard required by leading smart contract audit firms. Includes NatSpec comments on every public function, access-control matrix and known-issues list. Blockchain Biz coordinates the audit submission process end-to-end.

On-chain data subgraph

A custom The Graph Protocol subgraph indexing proposal history, vote tallies, treasury inflows and outflows and contributor compensation events. Delivered with a query API that the governance dashboard frontend consumes.

Governance operations handbook

A plain-language guide for non-technical DAO members covering how to submit proposals, how quorum and voting periods work, how to read treasury health dashboards and how to initiate contributor compensation via governance vote.

Client commitments

Guarantees and risk reversal

Blockchain Biz makes six commitments that protect clients from the most common risks in a blockchain development company engagement.

Free scoping and discovery

The two-week discovery sprint produces a full scope document, architecture recommendation and fixed-price estimate before any contract is signed. If the scope exceeds the client's budget, the discovery ends with no financial commitment beyond the discovery fee.

Fixed-price discovery sprint

Discovery is sold as a fixed-price sprint, not open-ended consulting. The client knows the exact cost of scoping before agreeing to it. Discovery deliverables are owned by the client whether or not the build engagement proceeds.

Client owns all IP and source code

All smart contract source code, documentation, test suites and deployment scripts are assigned to the client on delivery. Blockchain Biz retains no license or backdoor access. Clients are free to extend, modify or migrate their contracts using any team after delivery.

No mainnet deployment without a clear audit

Blockchain Biz does not deploy governance or treasury contracts to mainnet until all critical and high findings from the third-party smart contract audit are resolved. This is a hard stop, not a recommendation. The zero critical findings record across 57 production contracts is the result of this commitment.

No vendor lock-in

Blockchain Biz does not use proprietary SDKs, closed-source tooling or custom deployment infrastructure that would make clients dependent on Blockchain Biz to operate their platform. All contracts use open-source standards (OpenZeppelin, Gnosis Safe, The Graph). Any Solidity or Rust engineer can maintain the codebase after handover.

Exit and handover package

At the end of any engagement, Blockchain Biz delivers a complete handover package: contract registry with ABI exports, deployment history, architecture document, admin key transfer instructions and a 30-day knowledge-transfer period. Clients can bring the platform in-house or hand it to any other team without starting from scratch.

Reviews

What clients say

Blockchain Biz holds 45 verified reviews across Clutch (4.9/5, 26 reviews) and G2 (4.8/5, 19 reviews). Five representative voices below.

★★★★★
"We had tried two other teams before Blockchain Biz. The difference was that Giulia's engineers understood governance design, not just Solidity. Our proposal participation tripled in the first quarter after launch."
Elena Fontana Steward, Helvetia Collective
★★★★★
"Moving 40,000 cooperative members to on-chain governance felt impossible before we spoke to Blockchain Biz. The membership NFT system they built is elegant and our energy fund now disburses automatically without any coordinator in the middle."
Dawid Kowalski Coordinator, OpenGrid DAO
★★★★★
"The streaming compensation contracts Blockchain Biz built changed how our guild retains talent. Contributors can see their accruing balance on-chain every second. We have had zero late-payment complaints since go-live."
Yara Haddad Guild Lead, Artisan Guild
★★★★★
"The on-chain analytics dashboard Blockchain Biz shipped alongside the governance contracts gave our community visibility into treasury flows for the first time. Transparency alone doubled member engagement with governance proposals."
Tomas Eriksson Head of Governance, Beacon Collective
★★★★★
"We evaluated five blockchain development companies. Blockchain Biz was the only team that started the engagement by auditing our governance design before touching code. That saved us from an architectural mistake that would have cost EUR 200,000 to fix post-launch."
Priya Sharma VP Engineering, Quorum Labs
Certifications and recognition

Independently verified and awarded

Blockchain Biz holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, SOC 2 Type II attestation and independent platform ratings from Clutch and G2.

ISO/IEC 27001:2022
BBIZ-IS-2026-0552
Issued by APCER
Valid to 2029-06-17
SOC 2 Type II
BBIZ-SOC-2026-H1
Attested by Risk3sixty
Period: H1 2026
GDPR DPIA
Data Protection Impact Assessment completed.
DPO: privacy@blockchain-development-company.biz
Clutch Top Blockchain Developers 2026
4.9/5
26 verified client reviews
G2 High Performer Winter 2026
4.8/5
19 verified reviews
Lisbon Web3 Award 2025
Best DAO Infrastructure
Lisbon Tech Week jury
European DAO Innovation
Finalist 2025
EU Blockchain Observatory
45 verified reviews
4.9
Combined Clutch + G2 average rating
Media coverage

Where our engineers publish and speak

Blockchain Biz engineers contribute research and commentary on DAO governance, treasury design and contributor compensation to specialist publications covering the on-chain organization space.

DAO Weekly
"Blockchain Biz's governance patterns reduce voter apathy"
The Governance Ledger
"Why on-chain treasury should be a governance primitive"
Treasury On-Chain
"Interview: Giulia Ferrari on multisig risk and DAO resilience"
Coordination Review
"The contributor compensation gap in decentralized organizations"
On-Chain Org Digest
"Case study: OpenGrid DAO's one-member-one-vote energy governance"
Buyer guide

How to choose a blockchain development company for DAO governance

Choosing the right blockchain development company for a DAO governance and treasury engagement is a high-stakes decision. Six criteria and questions separate firms with real DAO engineering depth from generalist Web3 shops that adapt their portfolio pitch.

01

Does the firm understand governance design, not just Solidity?

Governance failure is rarely a smart contract bug. It is a quorum that is too high, a voting period that is too short or a token distribution that concentrates power. Ask whether the firm will produce a governance design document before writing any code. A firm that jumps straight to contracts without mechanism design will deliver a technically functional but organizationally broken system.

02

What is their security track record across treasury-managing contracts?

Ask for the number of production contracts shipped and the audit results. A blockchain development company that manages DAO treasury value should be able to show zero critical findings across its production deployments. Blockchain Biz has shipped 57 production contracts with zero critical findings and EUR 0 in funds lost across EUR 1.4 billion governed.

03

Do they require a mandatory third-party audit before mainnet?

An audit is not optional for governance contracts that control DAO treasury funds. Any blockchain development company that ships to mainnet without a third-party smart contract audit is taking a risk with your members' assets. Ask whether audit is included, whether findings must be resolved before deployment and which audit firms they work with.

04

Does the scope include governance, treasury and compensation as one system?

Blockchain Biz research shows that 72% of DAO governance failures trace back to fragmented tooling: a Snapshot vote that is not connected to the treasury that should execute it. Ask whether the proposed platform will govern treasury disbursements on-chain, and whether contributor compensation runs through the same governance approval flow. Fragmented tooling is the number one cause of DAO coordination failure.

05

Who will own the code and what happens after delivery?

Confirm that all smart contract source code is assigned to your organization on delivery and that the firm does not use proprietary SDKs or closed-source infrastructure that would lock you in. Request a handover package specification and ask whether any standard Solidity engineer can maintain the codebase after the engagement ends.

06

Can they show case studies with named clients and hard metrics from DAO engagements specifically?

Generic blockchain development case studies ("we built a DeFi protocol") are not evidence of DAO governance and treasury engineering competence. Ask for named clients, the treasury value governed, the member count and the specific governance outcomes (participation rate improvement, treasury migration success, zero funds lost). Blockchain Biz provides named case studies for Helvetia Collective, OpenGrid DAO and Artisan Guild above.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about working with a blockchain development company focused on DAO governance and treasury platforms.

A blockchain development company designs, builds and deploys software that runs on public or private blockchains. Services typically include smart contract development, decentralized application development, on-chain governance systems, token architecture and blockchain consulting. Blockchain Biz is a blockchain development company specialising specifically in DAO governance and treasury platforms for digital organizations.

At Blockchain Biz, a DAO governance setup starts from EUR 38,000 for a fixed-scope engagement. A full governance and treasury platform typically costs EUR 80,000 to EUR 240,000 depending on scope and chain coverage. Managed DAO operations start from EUR 260,000 per year. Individual engineer days are EUR 1,420. Sustain and on-call retainers start from EUR 11,500 per month. All engagements include a two-week discovery sprint with a scope document before contract sign-off.

A DAO governance setup typically takes 6 to 10 weeks. A full governance and treasury platform with contributor compensation takes 14 to 24 weeks. Timelines depend on chain scope, integration complexity and the maturity of the client's tokenomics design. Blockchain Biz provides a fixed delivery path: discovery, architecture and build, audit and staging, then launch and sustain. We do not proceed to mainnet until a third-party smart contract audit is resolved.

DAO governance development is the process of designing and implementing on-chain decision-making systems for decentralized organizations. It covers proposal contracts, quorum settings, voting mechanisms (token-weighted voting, delegation, conviction voting), timelock execution and integration with treasury multisigs. Blockchain Biz has processed over 96,000 on-chain proposals and votes across 480 organizations since 2024.

Blockchain Biz builds treasury systems using audited multisig contracts (Gnosis Safe and custom variants), governance-controlled spending modules and on-chain transparency dashboards. Every treasury disbursement requires a passed governance proposal, creating a tamper-proof audit trail. Our treasury platforms collectively manage EUR 1.4 billion in DAO assets with a 99.97% uptime record and EUR 0 in funds lost.

Blockchain Biz supports Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum One, Optimism, Polygon PoS, Gnosis Chain, Celo and Solana. Multi-chain deployment is standard for larger engagements and our blockchain architecture is designed for cross-chain coordination from day one. Chain additions are included in the Managed DAO Operations model at no extra cost.

Contributor compensation in Blockchain Biz platforms runs fully on-chain: streaming salary contracts, milestone-based disbursements approved by governance vote and token vesting schedules that unlock on a defined cadence. Contributors can view their accruing balances in real time. Blockchain Biz has paid over 38,000 contributors through these systems, with EUR 0 in funds lost. The approach replaces payroll spreadsheets with verifiable, manipulation-proof smart contracts.

On-chain transparency means every inflow, outflow and approved spend is recorded on a public blockchain and verifiable by any member without needing to trust a treasurer or administrator. Blockchain Biz builds treasury contracts where all transfers require a passed governance proposal, creating an immutable audit trail. This replaces opaque spreadsheets and centralized bank accounts with verifiable on-chain state. Members can inspect treasury balances and transaction history at any time through public blockchain explorers or the custom analytics dashboard Blockchain Biz delivers.

Token-weighted voting gives each voter power proportional to their token balance. Delegation allows token holders who cannot or choose not to vote directly to assign their voting power to a trusted delegate who votes on their behalf. Blockchain Biz implements both models, along with hybrid approaches such as quadratic voting and conviction voting, depending on the governance design the client needs. Delegation is particularly important for investment DAOs where passive members want to participate in governance without monitoring every proposal.

Security is built into every engagement at Blockchain Biz. We follow a security-first blockchain development approach: formal threat modeling at design, role-based access controls in smart contracts, upgradeability planning for governor contracts, comprehensive Foundry and Hardhat test suites targeting full branch coverage, and mandatory third-party smart contract audits before mainnet deployment. We have shipped 57 production contracts with zero critical findings and EUR 0 in funds lost across EUR 1.4 billion of governed treasury value.

When selecting a blockchain development company for DAO governance, prioritize firms that demonstrate governance mechanism design expertise (not just Solidity skills), a track record of zero critical audit findings on treasury-managing contracts, mandatory third-party audits before mainnet deployment and case studies showing named DAO clients with hard treasury metrics. Ask whether governance, treasury and compensation are built as one integrated system or three separate tools. Blockchain Biz publishes its full security track record: 57 production contracts, zero critical findings, EUR 0 in funds lost.

Yes. Blockchain Biz builds the on-chain infrastructure that allows AI agents to participate in governance with bounded permissions. This includes agent role contracts (credential tokens with on-chain expiry), spending-limit execution modules for governance-approved AI budgets, and audit-trail indexing that separates AI-initiated from human-initiated transactions in governance dashboards. AI inference runs off-chain; only signed transactions reach the governance contracts. Every AI agent action is recorded on-chain and is revocable by governance vote.

Clients own all smart contract source code, deployment scripts, test suites, architecture documentation and the governance operations handbook from day one. Blockchain Biz does not retain any license rights or proprietary access. Clients receive a full handover package including a contract registry with ABI exports, admin key transfer instructions and a 30-day knowledge-transfer period. Any competent Solidity or Rust engineer can maintain the codebase after handover without depending on Blockchain Biz.

Reference

DAO Governance Glossary

Key terms in on-chain governance, treasury management and contributor compensation for digital organizations.

Show all 10 terms
DAO
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization is an entity governed by on-chain rules encoded in smart contracts, where members vote on proposals using tokens or membership NFTs rather than relying on a central authority.
On-chain governance
A governance model where proposals, votes and execution are recorded on a public blockchain, making every decision auditable and enforceable by smart contract without requiring trust in any single party.
Proposal
A formal on-chain request submitted by an eligible member that, if it meets quorum and passes a vote threshold, triggers an automatic smart contract action such as a treasury transfer or parameter change.
Quorum
The minimum participation threshold a governance vote must reach before it can be considered valid. Low quorum is one of the leading causes of governance failure in decentralized organizations.
Delegation
The on-chain mechanism that allows token holders to assign their voting power to another address who votes on their behalf, increasing effective participation without requiring every member to vote directly.
Treasury multisig
A multi-signature smart contract wallet that requires a threshold of approved signers before any treasury transaction executes. Used by DAOs to secure funds while maintaining collective control.
Contributor compensation
On-chain systems for paying contributors to a DAO including streaming payments, milestone-based disbursements and token vesting schedules, replacing spreadsheets and centralized payroll with transparent smart contracts.
Vesting
A token distribution mechanism where tokens unlock gradually over a defined schedule, aligning contributor or investor incentives with the long-term health of the protocol.
Token-weighted voting
A governance model where each member's voting power is proportional to the number of governance tokens they hold or have been delegated, used in the majority of on-chain governance frameworks.
Membership NFT
A non-fungible token that confers membership rights within a DAO, such as one-member-one-vote governance or eligibility for compensation. Used by cooperatives and guilds where equal voting power matters more than token balance.
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Contact details, policies and legal information

Contact

Headquarters

Rua da Prata 80, 1100-420 Lisbon, Portugal

Satellite office

Slovenska cesta 54, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Legal

Blockchain Biz, Lda. Registered in Portugal.
NIPC: 517842693 · VAT: PT 517842693

Privacy policy

Blockchain Biz collects only the information necessary to respond to project enquiries: name, email address and the description of your project submitted via email. No data is sold to third parties. Data is retained for the duration of the client relationship plus two years. To exercise rights under GDPR (access, deletion, portability), contact privacy@blockchain-development-company.biz.

Editorial policy

Research notes and public commentary published by Blockchain Biz reflect the independent analysis of our engineering team. Client data is anonymized or used only with written consent. Corrections to published material: editorial@blockchain-development-company.biz.

Security disclosure

To report a vulnerability in a Blockchain Biz product or in a client platform we operate, contact security@blockchain-development-company.biz with a description and reproduction steps. We acknowledge within 24 hours and respond with a remediation timeline within 72 hours.