Tally (Tally.xyz) is the leading on-chain governance interface for Ethereum-based DAOs — providing a web frontend that aggregates proposal data, voting interfaces, delegate discovery, and governance analytics from hundreds of protocols using the OpenZeppelin Governor / Compound Governor Bravo standard. Rather than requiring users to interact directly with governance smart contracts (which requires knowing ABI encoding, proposal IDs, and voting function signatures), Tally presents governance in an accessible interface where anyone can read proposals, understand what they do, cast votes with a single click, research delegates, and switch delegation in a few steps. Tally is distinguished from Snapshot-based governance platforms (which are off-chain) by focusing exclusively on binding on-chain governance where votes directly trigger smart contract execution. As of 2024, Tally supports governance for major protocols including Uniswap, Compound, ENS, Gitcoin, Arbitrum, Nouns DAO, and 100+ others. The platform also provides Tally API — allowing protocols to embed governance analytics into their own UIs — and Tally Governor — a managed governor deployment service for new DAOs.
Core Features
Proposal Browser
- List all active and historical proposals by protocol
- Display proposal calldata in human-readable format (decoded ABI)
- Show vote tallies (For/Against/Abstain) and participation rate
- Timeline visualization of proposal lifecycle
Voting Interface
- Cast vote directly from Tally UI (wallet connect + sign tx)
- Vote with delegated power or from hardware wallet
- Multi-wallet voting (separate delegations from different addresses)
- Vote reason input (forwarded to Governor Bravo’s reason string)
Delegate Discovery
- Browse all delegates for a protocol
- View delegate voting history (% participation, how they voted)
- Read delegate statements/profiles
- Delegate tokens in one click (no gas with signature delegation)
Analytics Dashboard
- Voting power distribution charts
- Historical participation rate trends
- Voter whale concentration metrics
- Treasury balance tracking
Tally vs. Snapshot
| Feature | Tally | Snapshot |
|---|---|---|
| Binding execution | Yes (on-chain) | No (signaling only) |
| Gas cost | Required | Free (off-chain sig) |
| Access control | Token balance | Flexible strategies |
| Calldata execution | Yes | No |
| L2 support | Growing | Broad |
| Use case | Final on-chain vote | Temperature check |
Most protocols use both: Snapshot for temperature checks → Tally for final binding votes.
Supported Protocol Types
- Governor Bravo (Compound, Uniswap, ENS): Native support
- OpenZeppelin Governor: Full support
- Custom governors: Via Tally API integration
- Flexible voting (Scopelift): Fractionalized voting for token lending protocols
Related Terms
Sources
- “Tally: Building the Interface Layer for On-Chain Governance” — Tally / Scopelift (2022). Product analysis and technical documentation of Tally’s architecture — explaining how the platform indexes on-chain governance data, decodes proposal calldata, manages wallet connections for voting, and provides the analytics infrastructure that makes on-chain governance accessible.”; wallet voting: Tally uses wagmi/viem + multiple wallet adapters (MetaMask, Walletconnect, Ledger Connect, Coinbase Wallet); vote transaction: calls castVote(proposalId, support) or castVoteWithReason(proposalId, support, reason) directly on Governor contract; no Tally contract intermediary → Tally cannot block votes; delegation: calls Governor.delegate(delegatee) or delegateBySig(); can relay gas-free signatures; fee: Tally sometimes covers gas for delegation relay (subsidized by team); analytics architecture: all charts/statistics derived from indexed on-chain data; Tally Health Score: proprietary metric combining participation rate, vote diversity, active delegates, proposal frequency; API: REST API provides governance data used by protocols to embed analytics in their own UIs; supported protocols: 150+ as of 2024; chain support: Ethereum mainnet + Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain; conclusion: Tally’s value is purely UX and data aggregation — the governance execution itself remains fully permissionless on-chain; Tally cannot manipulate votes, only display and assist in casting them.]
- “Delegate Health Scores and Governance Accountability Tools” — Tally / Boardroom (2023). Analysis of the delegate accountability metrics developed by Tally and Boardroom — measuring delegate voting participation rates, consistency of stated values vs. actual votes, cross-protocol activity, and proposal quality assessments.
- “On-Chain Governance UX: Barriers to Participation and Design Solutions” — Ethereum Foundation / ConsenSys Research (2022). User research study examining the UX barriers preventing token holders from participating in on-chain governance — gas costs, complexity, decision fatigue, and interface limitations — with design recommendations for improving participation.
- “Tally Governor: DAO Deployment Service and Standard” — Tally (2023). Documentation for Tally Governor — a managed governance deployment service that allows new protocols to deploy a Governor contract, configure parameters, and launch governance without custom development.
- “Governance Analytics: Measuring DAO Health with On-Chain Data” — Dune Analytics / BanklessDAO Research (2023). Comprehensive analysis of on-chain governance health metrics across 50 major DAOs — measuring participation rates, voting power distribution, proposal success rates, voter retention, and identifying the characteristics of “healthy” vs. “dysfunctional” DAO governance.