Proposal

A proposal is a formal request put before a DAO or protocol's token holders to make a specific change — adjusting a parameter, spending treasury funds, upgrading contracts, or setting policy — which is then decided by a vote. Proposals are the basic unit of on-chain governance: nothing significant is supposed to change in a well-governed protocol without one passing.

The lifecycle usually runs in stages. An idea is first discussed informally on the protocol's forum, often followed by an off-chain 'temperature check' vote on a platform like Snapshot to gauge support cheaply. If sentiment is positive, a formal on-chain proposal is submitted — which typically requires the proposer to hold or be delegated a minimum amount of tokens — followed by a voting period of several days, a quorum requirement, and, if passed, a timelock delay before the encoded actions execute automatically.

A concrete example: an Aave governance proposal might ask to add a new token as accepted collateral with a specified loan-to-value ratio; if AAVE holders approve it and quorum is met, the change executes on-chain after the timelock. A common misconception is that anyone can instantly put anything to a binding vote — submission thresholds, quorums, and timelocks exist precisely to filter spam and give the community time to react to malicious proposals, which have been attempted against protocols with cheap or borrowed voting power.