Glossary
A reference of key terms, acronyms, and concepts used across the GnosisDAO documentation.
A
Accountability phase — The fourth and final phase of the GIP process. After a proposal passes, the team is expected to deliver on commitments and post progress updates at 30, 60, and 90 days. See Governance.
AMM (Automated Market Maker) — A type of decentralised exchange protocol that uses liquidity pools instead of order books. Curve, Balancer, and SushiSwap are AMMs active on Gnosis Chain.
B
Basic voting — The Snapshot voting mechanism used by GnosisDAO: a simple choice between For, Against, and Abstain. Only For votes count toward quorum.
C
CASP (Crypto-Asset Service Provider) — A regulatory classification under MiCA for entities providing crypto services in the EU. Gnosis Pay holds CASP compliance.
Circles — A decentralised web-of-trust universal basic income protocol built natively on Gnosis Chain.
CoW DAO — The independent governance body for CoW Protocol. Spun out of Gnosis via GIP-13 (2022); GnosisDAO retains 10% of COW token supply.
CoW Protocol — A MEV-protected DEX aggregator originally incubated by Gnosis, now operating independently under CoW DAO. Routes MEV back to users.
D
DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) — An organisation governed by token holders through on-chain voting rather than a central authority. GnosisDAO is the DAO at the centre of the Gnosis ecosystem.
DeFi (Decentralised Finance) — Financial services built on blockchain infrastructure, including lending, trading, and yield generation. Gnosis Chain hosts protocols such as Aave, Curve, and Spark.
Delegate — A GNO holder who has received voting power from other token holders. Delegation allows passive holders to have their votes cast by active governance participants without transferring tokens.
DEX (Decentralised Exchange) — A peer-to-peer trading platform operating without a central intermediary. CoW Protocol is the primary DEX in the Gnosis ecosystem.
Discourse — The open-source forum software that powers the GnosisDAO Forum. All GIP discussion, polls, and accountability posts take place on Discourse.
E
EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) — The computation engine used by Ethereum and compatible blockchains. Gnosis Chain is fully EVM-compatible, supporting standard Solidity tooling.
F
FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) — The UK's financial regulator. Relevant to Gnosis Pay's potential UK market expansion.
Force Majeure — Extraordinary circumstances beyond the parties' control (war, regulatory change, security exploits, sanctions risk, court orders). Under Clause 6.3 of the GnosisDAO Participation Agreement, the Signers retain a unilateral right to refuse to execute a passed GIP if executing it would breach Force Majeure conditions — a narrow safety valve, not a routine override.
Formal GIP — Phase 2 of the GIP process, where a proposal is structured using the GIP Template and put to a 5-day forum poll with a "Make no changes" option. See Governance.
Forum — The GnosisDAO Forum hosted on Discourse. The primary venue for proposal discussion, polls, and accountability reporting throughout the GIP lifecycle.
G
GIP (Gnosis Improvement Proposal) — The formal mechanism through which GnosisDAO makes binding decisions. GIPs cover treasury allocations, funding, parameter changes, and ecosystem strategy. See Governance.
GIP lifecycle tags — Status labels applied to forum proposals to indicate their current phase: [DRAFT], [REVIEW], [VOTING], [PASSED], [REJECTED], [STALE], and [FLAGGED].
GIP Spotlight — A Gnosis Ltd amplification channel that gives visibility to active GIPs through newsletters, social media, and community calls.
GIP Template — The official Notion template used to structure proposals, covering abstract, motivation, specification, budget, and risks.
GNO — The governance and staking token of the Gnosis ecosystem. Used for voting in GnosisDAO and for validating the Gnosis Chain network. Total supply has a governance-mandated target of 3,000,000 under GIP-35.
Gnosis 3.0 — The current ecosystem vision set out by Gnosis Ltd in 2024, unifying Gnosis Chain, payments, wallets, and consumer applications under a cohesive strategy.
Gnosis App — A mobile-first consumer application combining Safe, Gnosis Pay, Circles, and CoW Protocol into a single onchain banking experience. Launched as a PWA with native app wrappers planned for H1 2026.
Gnosis Business — A stablecoin-native business finance platform offering batch payments, maker-checker approvals, transaction tagging, and accounting integrations.
Gnosis Chain — An EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain with ~5-second block times, near-zero fees, and 144,000+ validators. Uses xDAI as the native gas token and GNO for staking. Chain ID: 100.
GnosisDAO — The on-chain governance layer of the Gnosis ecosystem. GNO token holders participate in governance decisions covering treasury allocations and high-level ecosystem priorities through GIPs. See What is GnosisDAO.
Gnosis Guild — An independent governance tooling organisation that originated within Gnosis and built the Zodiac module system.
Gnosis Ltd — The product incubation arm of the Gnosis ecosystem, building Gnosis Pay, Gnosis Business, Circles, Gnosis App, Gnosis AI, and Gnosis VPN. Funded by GnosisDAO via GIP-128 at $30M/year.
Gnosis Pay — A self-custodial Visa debit card product live in the UK, Europe, and LATAM. Backed by Safe accounts and integrated with DeFi currency conversion.
Gnosis VC — The investment arm of the Gnosis ecosystem, deploying capital into aligned external projects. Funded following GIP-102. Investment decisions are not subject to GIP votes.
Gnosis VPN — A private network for the Gnosis ecosystem built on the HOPR protocol, established via GIP-129.
H
Hard fork — A non-backwards-compatible blockchain upgrade. Gnosis Chain validators executed a hard fork in December 2025 to recover $9.4M after the Balancer V2 exploit.
Hashi — An EVM Hash Oracle Aggregator providing cross-chain bridge security for Gnosis Chain. Now sunset.
HQ.xyz — An onchain business banking platform acquired by GnosisDAO via GIP-120, funded with GNO, SAFE tokens, and working capital. Now known as Gnosis Business.
I
Ideation — Phase 1 of the GIP process. Authors post their idea on the forum, gather feedback, and build community support over a minimum of 7 days. See Governance.
K
karpatkey (KPK) — A decentralised treasury management organisation originally incubated by Gnosis and spun out via GIP-92 (2024).
KYC/AML (Know Your Customer / Anti-Money Laundering) — Identity verification and financial compliance requirements.
L
L1 (Layer 1) — A base-layer blockchain with its own consensus mechanism. Gnosis Chain is an L1, distinct from Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions.
L2 (Layer 2) — A blockchain built on top of a Layer 1 to improve scalability. Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, and zkSync are Ethereum L2s.
M
MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) — Value extracted from users by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions. CoW Protocol routes MEV back to users rather than allowing extraction.
MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) — The EU's comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto-asset services. Main CASP provisions applied from December 2024, with transitional periods extending to July 2026.
N
NAV (Net Asset Value) — The total value of DAO treasury assets, often expressed per GNO. Tracked via treasury dashboards. See Treasury.
Noca (Noctua) — The current GnosisDAO treasury manager, appointed via GIP-148 following a competitive RFP process. Replaced karpatkey in February 2026.
P
Permissionless execution — The principle that once a GIP passes its Snapshot vote, execution does not require approval from a central party.
Proof-of-Stake (PoS) — The consensus mechanism used by Gnosis Chain. Validators stake GNO to secure the network, with a minimum requirement of 1 GNO per validator.
PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) — EU regulation governing payment services. Gnosis Pay is PSD2-ready.
PWA (Progressive Web App) — A web application that delivers a native app-like experience. The Gnosis App launched initially as a PWA.
Q
Quorum — The minimum number of For votes required for a Snapshot vote to be valid. GnosisDAO's quorum threshold is 75,000 GNO. Historically, quorum failure is the most common reason proposals do not pass. See GIP FAQ.
R
RFP (Request for Proposals) — A competitive bidding process used by GnosisDAO for selecting service providers. The treasury manager transition from karpatkey to Noca was conducted via an RFP process.
RPC (Remote Procedure Call) — A protocol for interacting with blockchain nodes. Gnosis Chain's primary RPC endpoint is https://rpc.gnosischain.com.
RWA (Real-World Assets) — Tokenised representations of physical assets such as securities, real estate, or commodities on a blockchain. A strategic focus area for the Gnosis ecosystem.
S
Safe — The industry-standard smart account and multisig infrastructure, originally built by Gnosis and spun out via GIP-29 (2022). GnosisDAO's treasury is held in Safe wallets. GnosisDAO retains 15% of SAFE token supply.
Service Provider — Under the GnosisDAO Participation Agreement (Clauses 2.2 and 3), a party that the DAO engages to perform services in exchange for treasury funding. Most grant- and funding-style GIPs implicitly create a Service Provider relationship between the proposing team and GnosisDAO: the team becomes accountable for delivering the work specified in the proposal under the Agreement's framework.
Snapshot — A gasless, off-chain voting platform used by GnosisDAO for binding governance votes. The GnosisDAO space is gnosis.eth.
Snapshot block — The block number at which GNO balances are recorded to determine voting power for a specific Snapshot vote.
Stablecoins — Tokens pegged to a stable asset, typically the US dollar. On Gnosis Chain, these include xDAI (native), USDC, USDT, DAI, and FRAX.
T
Temperature check — An informal poll or sentiment gauge conducted on the forum before formalising a proposal into a GIP. Recommended but not mandatory.
Treasury manager — The entity mandated by GnosisDAO to manage treasury positions in support of long-term ecosystem funding, and to maintain reporting. As of February 2026, this role is held by NOCA (GIP-148). See Treasury for more information.
TVL (Total Value Locked) — The total value of assets deposited in DeFi protocols on a given chain. Gnosis Chain TVL is $140M+ as of December 2025.
V
Validators — Network participants who stake GNO to secure Gnosis Chain via Proof-of-Stake consensus.
X
xDAI — The native gas token of Gnosis Chain, pegged to the US dollar. Transaction fees on Gnosis Chain are paid in xDAI, typically costing $0.001–$0.01.
Z
Zodiac — A governance tooling module system built by Gnosis Guild, enabling composable on-chain governance infrastructure.
Last updated: April 2026