Nick Johnson, co-founder and lead developer of ENS, voted against the binding on-chain proposal to renew the DAO's Security Council, causing it to fail. The vote closed June 29, 2026, on Tally, less than four weeks before the council's July 25 mandate expiry.
The final tally was 3.36 million tokens Against and 778,550 For, out of 4.14 million participating. The proposal failed.
Johnson had abstained from the earlier off-chain Snapshot vote, which passed. He then voted Against on the executable on-chain proposal, sending 3.36 million tokens, roughly 81% of the votes cast, against renewal.
Lefteris Karapetsas, a longtime Ethereum community figure and current council member, accused Johnson of having "delegated ~50% of the entire voting supply to yourself," referring to his share of all delegated ENS. Delegates immediately labeled the move a governance attack.
What the ENS Security Council controls
The Security Council is a 4-of-8 multisig with sole authority to cancel governance proposals that are malicious, violate the ENS Constitution, or threaten DAO sustainability. It cannot initiate proposals or amend votes. Its role is defensive.
Starting July 25, 2026, any address may call a smart contract function to permanently remove that cancel authority, two years after the council's July 25, 2024 deployment.
Karapetsas called the DAO "dead," arguing Johnson's voting weight shields roughly $500 million in treasury assets from outside oversight. Delegate AvsA offered a narrower calculation: without a renewed council, the protocol becomes "a $130 million treasury safeguarded by at best $20 million worth of tokens," exposing it to governance-raid scenarios.
Replacement proposal adds stricter council rules
Hours after the vote closed, delegate katherine.eth posted a replacement draft on the governance forum. It keeps the council at eight members, raises the action threshold to a 5-of-8 supermajority from 4-of-8, and adds a binding public charter, legal appointment agreements for each member, and a removal mechanism.
Nominations closed July 3, 2026.
The dispute goes beyond one council vote
The Security Council fight is the immediate flashpoint in a broader governance dispute. A separate proposal, "Next Era of ENS DAO: Empowering the ENS Foundation," would transfer treasury control and day-to-day operations from the DAO to the ENS Foundation.
Delegates opposing both moves argue the combined effect would concentrate voting power and treasury management under Johnson's effective control. Johnson has countered that the Foundation structure is necessary because the DAO has become more focused on spending the treasury than building the protocol.