Mint Governance Tokens

Creating a Proposal to Mint Governance Tokens

The Mint Governance Tokens proposal type enables DAOs to distribute governance tokens directly to specified addresses via on-chain proposals. This is particularly useful for migrations, bootstrapping membership, or rewarding contributors. Minting is executed through the token contract and can occur even if auctions are paused, as it does not interact with the auction mechanism.

Step-by-step Guide

1. Navigate to the Activity section in your DAO and click Create Proposal.
2. On the Add Transactions step, select Mint Governance Tokens from the transaction type dropdown.
3. Add recipients manually or via CSV upload.
4. Specify the number of tokens per recipient (must be a positive integer).
5. Review the live summary beneath the Recipients label, which displays the total recipient count and total tokens to be distributed, and updates as recipients are added or removed.
6. Click Add Transaction to Queue, then proceed to submit the proposal for voting.
7. Once passed and executed, tokens are minted and transferred in batched transactions.

Manual Entry

For smaller distributions, add recipients directly via the form:

• Enter a valid Ethereum address or ENS name in the Address field.
• Specify the token amount (positive integer) in the Amount field.
• Click Add Recipient to include additional entries.
• Recipients can be edited or removed individually.
• ENS names are resolved per recipient during submission.

Using CSV Upload

For larger distributions, use the CSV upload feature:

• Click Download Template to get a pre-formatted CSV with the required address and amount headers.
• Populate the file with valid Ethereum addresses (or ENS names, resolved on submission) and positive integer amounts.
• Upload via drag-and-drop into the upload area, or click to browse for the file.
• The form parses the CSV, validates entries, and reports errors inline.
• A maximum of 100 recipients per CSV is enforced to avoid gas limits. For larger distributions, add multiple Mint Governance Tokens transactions within the same proposal.

Example CSV structure:

address,amount
0x00000000000C2E074eC69A0dFb2997BA6C7d2e1e,10
0xde0B295669a9FD93d5F28D9Ec85E40f4cb697BAe,25

Validation ensures no more than 100 rows per CSV and enforces the required headers. Errors are displayed inline and submission is disabled until all entries are resolved.

Limitations and Best Practices

Caution

CSV uploads are limited to 100 recipients per transaction due to gas constraints. For larger distributions, queue multiple Mint Governance Tokens transactions within a single proposal — but be aware that a very large number of transactions may exceed the block gas limit, causing execution to fail. Test on testnet before submitting large distributions to mainnet.

Note

Token mints cannot be undone once a proposal is executed. Verify all addresses carefully before submitting.

Final Remarks

• For migrations from existing collections, consider taking a holder snapshot before minting, to accurately capture current membership.
• Minting governance tokens does not unpause auctions. The two mechanisms are independent.
• Newly minted tokens do not affect quorum or threshold calculations until they have been delegated by their recipients.

Tip

Looking to distribute tokens via a Sablier merkle campaign instead? Use the Airdrop Tokens proposal type, available in the same transaction type dropdown.