Imported DAO

Current state: creating an Imported DAO is currently disabled. Imported DAOs that already exist keep working as described below. This page explains how importing works when it is open.

An imported DAO is the fastest way to give real on-chain governance to a token that already exists — no fundraise required. Instead of running an LGE (where contributors fund a new token’s liquidity and receive its governance token), you take a token you already have and wrap it in its own DAO. Your community then governs with that token: they propose, vote, and — uniquely — can let the DAO take control of your dapps and upgrade them by vote.

What an imported DAO is

An imported DAO turns an existing token into a self-governing community, without any sale. There are two kinds of tokens you can import:

An externally-launched token — any standard token you (or someone else) deployed on the Internet Computer.
A token you minted with OhShii’s standalone minter — if you created a token with OhShii but didn’t run an LGE, you can give it governance later. Only the account that created the token can import it.

In both cases, no LGE happens. There is no fundraising round, no token sale, no liquidity event. The token already exists and stays exactly as it is; you’re simply attaching a DAO to it.

What you get

Importing gives you a complete, self-contained governance system for your token:

Your own DAO — a dedicated on-chain governance canister, owned by your community, not by OhShii.
Governance with your token — holders create proposals and vote with voting power derived from your token.
The power to upgrade your dapps by vote — this is the headline feature. Your DAO can be made a controller of other canisters (your frontend, your services, supporting canisters), so the community can approve and apply upgrades to those dapps through a vote. No single person has to hold the keys.

The DAO runs the same full governance engine as every OhShii community DAO — the identical proposal types and voting model. Nothing is stripped down because you imported instead of running an LGE.

What you need before importing

A few plain requirements have to be met. Most are checked automatically when you verify your ledger in the app:

Identity verification (you, the importer). You must be verified before you can start an import, the same gate used across OhShii. Any accepted method qualifies here, including Google — this step does not require the stronger proof-of-personhood methods. (This is about you, not your token — separate from the ledger checks below.)
An existing token ledger with 8 decimals. Your token’s ledger must use 8 decimals (the standard precision).
Approve/allowance support. The ledger must support the standard “approve and spend on your behalf” capability, so payments and future on-chain actions work smoothly.
A trading pool is optional. If your token already has an ICPSwap pool you can link it at import; if not, you can import first and the DAO can create or link a pool later through its own proposals.
Canisters not already used on OhShii. The ledger, the index and the pool you give must not be one of OhShii’s own platform canisters, must not be the ledger, index or governance canister of another OhShii campaign, and must not be a pool already linked to another imported DAO or registered on OhShii. Each one plays a single role: the same canister cannot be both the ledger and the index, for example. The index you give must be the index of your token’s ledger, and the pool you give must trade your token; if OhShii cannot read which ledger the index serves or which tokens the pool trades, the import is refused. Both fields are optional: if your index is not a standard ICRC index (one that reports which ledger it indexes), or your pool cannot be read, you can leave that field empty and start the import again without it. If it is a standard index or pool, check that it is running and try again in a few minutes. A token OhShii has never seen before can be imported.
Checked before you pay. These checks run when you request the quote and again just before your payment is taken; a refusal at either point takes no payment. If another import that uses any of the same canisters is in progress, your import is refused at these same two points, also without taking a payment; you can try again once the other one has finished. The checks run once more after the payment is taken and before any of it is converted into network cycles; a refusal there refunds your payment, less one ledger transfer fee.
An approved ledger build (compatibility check). OhShii only imports tokens whose ledger is running one of the approved, trusted token-ledger builds. Every approved build has a unique fingerprint (a code hash), and OhShii checks your ledger’s fingerprint against the short allowlist. Today the allowlist covers exactly the two supported origins: a standard external token ledger and the OhShii standalone-minter ledger. This is a safety gate — it blocks malicious or non-standard look-alike ledgers from ever being wrapped in a DAO. If your token came from a normal external deployment or from OhShii’s minter, it already passes.

Your token’s name and symbol are read directly from the ledger itself — you don’t type them in, and whatever you might enter is ignored in favor of the on-chain truth.

What it costs

Importing a DAO costs:

A 20 ICP platform fee, plus
The network cycles to run one governance canister — the on-chain “fuel” that keeps your single DAO canister alive. This part is priced dynamically at the current network rate and shown to you before you pay.

The app always displays the full, up-to-date total before you confirm. There is no token sale and no other hidden fee.

How it works, step by step

The flow is two simple phases and takes a couple of minutes:

Verify your ledger. Paste your token’s ledger and click Verify. The app reads your token’s details and confirms it’s compatible (8 decimals, the right standards, an approved build).
Review and pay. You’ll see the exact cost (20 ICP + network cycles). You approve the payment in your wallet, and OhShii pulls it.
Your DAO is deployed. OhShii creates your dedicated governance canister, wires it to your token (and to your pool, if you gave one), and hands control to your community.
It becomes autonomous. As the final step, OhShii removes itself as a controller of your DAO. From that point on, the DAO answers only to its community and its emergency guardian — OhShii does not stay in control of it, your token, your pool, or your dapps.

If anything goes wrong mid-deploy, the process safely halts rather than leaving things half-finished.

How governing works afterwards

Once your DAO is live, this is day-to-day life for your community:

Proposals and voting. Members submit proposals and vote on them. Important, high-impact proposals (like upgrading a canister) require a longer voting window and stronger support to pass.
Voting power from locking your token. Members gain voting power by locking your token in the DAO’s own governance canister — from the OhShii Launcher or the OhShii Locker app; either way the lock lives in your DAO. Voting power grows with the amount and the duration of the lock. (See Where Can I Lock My Token? for the lock rules, and the voting guide below.)
An optional treasury. Your DAO’s governance canister has its own treasury account. It starts empty and holds only what someone sends to it; the community spends it through proposals.
A guardian for emergencies. Every imported DAO has a guardian — an emergency authority that can veto a dangerous proposal. You choose who the guardian is when you import (it defaults to you, the importer), and the community can change it later by vote.
Upgrading your dapps by vote. This is the differentiator. Once your DAO is a controller of a dapp canister, the community can propose and vote to upgrade that dapp — even multiple canisters in one ordered batch. Before any upgrade runs, the system verifies the DAO actually controls every target; if it doesn’t control even one of them, the whole upgrade is refused. It’s all-or-nothing, so a vote can never half-apply.

Imported DAO vs running an LGE

Both give your token a DAO. The difference is whether you raise funds:

	Imported DAO	Running an LGE
Token	Already exists (external or OhShii-minted)	Created and sold during the launch
Fundraising	None — no sale, no liquidity event	Yes — a public sale that bootstraps liquidity
Best for	A token that’s already out there and just needs governance	A brand-new token that needs a community and a market from scratch
Result	The same full DAO, attached to your existing token	The same full DAO, plus a fresh token, holders, and pool

If your token already exists and already has a market, importing is the direct path. If you’re starting from zero and want to raise and distribute at the same time, an LGE is the better fit.

Technical details: /docs/for-developers/imported-dao/ — the full engineering reference for how importing works under the hood.
Voting: /docs/for-users/voting/ — how proposals, voting power, and locking your token work.
Liquid democracy: /docs/for-users/liquid-democracy/ — how to delegate your voting power to someone you trust.

You can also browse the imported DAOs already live on OhShii directly in the app, under Browse DAOs → Imported DAOs.