Nick Johnson's ~80% vote share sinks ENS Security Council renewal, and the DAO panics

ENS co-founder Nick Johnson used a token stake estimated at 3.26 million ENS to drive an on-chain Security Council renewal to 82% "no," reigniting a fight over voting-power concentration in the DAO.

The ENS DAO's vote to renew its Security Council for another two-year term — ahead of the current council's authority expiring on July 24, 2026 — has stalled at the on-chain stage, and co-founder Nick Johnson is the reason, according to reporting by The Block.

The renewal ran in two stages: an off-chain Snapshot vote, which passed, followed by an on-chain executable proposal, which currently sits at 82% "no." Johnson told The Block he abstained on the Snapshot vote with a message saying he backed renewal but not "with the current slate of members," then voted against the executable version because "nothing was done to address those concerns." He said his participation "followed standard process and reflected substantive concerns rather than manipulation." The executable vote closes July 5 at 8:59 PM.

Johnson's leverage is the story. The Block estimates he holds around 3.26 million ENS, roughly 80% of the ENS cast so far and about 50% of all ENS currently delegated to any delegate. In a comment on the voting platform, Johnson wrote that current council members "have made it clear that they intend to use their veto power to stop proposals they personally disagree with," and that the council "must exist as a backstop against compromise… not as political officers."

A separate, competing proposal is already live. On Tuesday, ENS Labs COO Katherine Wu filed a temp check for an eight-member successor council that would raise the reversal threshold to 5/8 (from the current 4/8), arguing the existing setup granted "extraordinary power." Johnson said he agreed with "the new security council mandate and charter." That proposal takes feedback until July 3, 11:59 PM UTC.

Key facts

• On-chain renewal vote at 82% "no," closing July 5, 8:59 PM; Snapshot version passed. (The Block)
• Johnson estimated at ~3.26M ENS, ~80% of votes cast, ~50% of all delegated ENS. (The Block)
• Current council authority expires July 24, 2026. (The Block)
• Wu's rival proposal: 8 seats, 5/8 reversal threshold; feedback until July 3. (The Block)
• Separately, Wu filed a temp check to move treasury/endowment/grant duties to the ENS Foundation, whose five-seat board includes Johnson. (The Block)

The real-world read

The mechanism worked as designed — Johnson voted his tokens — but that's exactly the alarm. One person swinging an on-chain vote to 82% is governance decentralization only on paper. Note who's talking: critics Brantly Millegan (fired from ENS Labs years ago) and Lefteris Karapetsas (whose lefteris.eth would be rotated off the council for inactivity under the very proposal he's attacking) both have skin in the fight, so "ENS DAO is dead" reads as heated, not neutral. Unsaid but relevant: the same week, an allied proposal would shift treasury control toward a Foundation board Johnson sits on — concentration in votes and in operations, at once. All of this traces to a single secondary source (The Block); the raw vote tallies and proposals are on-chain and public, but we haven't independently confirmed the 3.26M figure.

Opinion, and whose

Millegan called the situation "a catastrophe for Ethereum"; Karapetsas declared "ENS DAO is dead"; commentator colludingnode said "ENS is done." All are critics on X, not neutral parties. Johnson's own view — process, not manipulation — is quoted above. No forecast here is fact.

Sources

• The Block (Daniel Kuhn, 2026-06-30) — sole source; vote tallies, Johnson's quotes and holdings estimate, community reaction, rival proposals. Reputable secondary outlet; discloses Foresight Ventures as majority investor. Not sponsored.

Not financial advice.