The governance disputes across the protocol raise questions about the DAO mechanism

Recently, the cross-chain bridge protocol Across has fallen into governance controversy, sparking widespread discussion in the industry about the DAO mechanism. An industry insider publicly accused the Across team of manipulating votes and misappropriating up to 23 million dollars in funds. This incident has not only attracted community attention but also highlighted the potential issues of transparency and security in DAO governance mechanisms.

Across is a protocol focused on achieving seamless cross-chain asset transfers. The project has received multiple rounds of funding support, with investors including well-known institutions and individuals. Its founding team has an impressive background and is closely connected with the synthetic asset protocol UMA.

However, recently there have been severe criticisms regarding the governance model of Across. The accusations mainly focus on the following points:

1. Voting Manipulation: It is claimed that the Across team uses a large amount of governance tokens to centralize voting through multiple associated wallets, influencing the outcome of DAO proposals.

2. Fund Transfer: The prosecution stated that the team manipulated the proposals to transfer 23 million dollars of DAO funds to accounts not supervised by the community, and did not provide a clear explanation of the intended use.

3. Insufficient transparency: Critics believe that the Across team lacks adequate information disclosure during the governance process, making it difficult for the community to verify the legitimacy of decisions.

Specifically, the prosecution detailed two suspicious fund transfer proposals. The first occurred in October 2023, involving 100 million ACX tokens; the second, less than a year later, requested an additional 50 million ACX in "retrospective funding." Allegedly, these proposals were heavily supported by team members through multiple wallets.

This event has raised concerns in the community about the current state of DAO governance. Although DAOs are intended to achieve decentralized decision-making, they often face numerous challenges in practice:

• Centralized power: Uneven token distribution may lead to a small number of large holders controlling the voting results.
• Lack of transparency: The voting processes of many DAOs are difficult to fully trace and verify.
• Financial Risk: The DAO treasury often holds a large amount of assets, making it an easy target for attacks.
• Legal ambiguity: The legal status of a DAO is unclear, which may expose members to unexpected liabilities.

In response to these issues, industry insiders are calling for improvements in DAO governance from multiple levels, including technology, mechanisms, and culture. Suggested measures include adopting more secure smart contracts and voting protocols, optimizing token distribution and voting weight design, and strengthening independent audits.

The Across event once again highlights the challenges faced by blockchain governance. As a practical embodiment of the decentralized concept, DAOs carry the community's expectations for fairness and transparency. However, to truly achieve this goal, continuous efforts from all parties in the industry are needed to improve governance mechanisms.