Governance Incentives · Review
ActiveGardens Review 2026: Conviction Voting for Communities
Gardens is a community governance platform that uses conviction voting pools to decide how shared funds are spent. It is a niche tool with small on-chain value and no listed audits, so treat it as early-stage.
By the DappsAtlas editorial team · Updated
DappsAtlas score
6.0/10
Mixed
Our verdict on Gardens
6.0/10Gardens suits DAOs, ecosystems and community groups that want to distribute funds through sustained support rather than one-off votes. Its main strength is the conviction voting design, paired with a Covenant that sets community rules, and support across seven networks. The main caveat is maturity: TVL is small, no audits are listed and fees are not published. Treat it as an early-stage governance tool, verify its security independently and start with limited funds.
Score breakdown
How Gardens scores
- Security
- 4.5/10
- Ease of use
- 6.0/10
- Fees
- n/a
- Features
- 6.5/10
Scores run from 0 to 10 and are based only on facts we could verify. Where information was missing we mark the score n/a rather than guess.
What is Gardens?
Gardens is a community governance platform built for bottom-up decision-making. Its homepage describes it as a way to create, govern and fund communities together. DefiLlama files it under Governance Incentives and has tracked it since September 2025.
The platform combines an enforceable Covenant with modular conviction voting pools. The stated aim is to source decisions from a community and allocate resources to it. Documentation references funding, signaling and streaming proposals, and a Karma page lists grants tied to the Gardens community.
On-chain value is modest. DefiLlama shows about $71,000 in TVL, down 4.8% over seven days, across Gnosis, Celo, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon and Ethereum. There is no token and no audits are listed.
How Gardens works
Gardens lets a community create a Garden: a shared space with a pool of funds and a set of rules called a Covenant. Members submit proposals asking for funding, and other members signal support for them.
Support is counted through conviction voting. Instead of a single vote deadline, a member's backing builds up the longer it stays on a proposal. When accumulated conviction crosses a threshold tied to the size of the request, the proposal can pass and funds are released. This favors sustained support over last-minute swings.
Public sources say the voting pools are modular and linked to the Covenant. Documentation also mentions signaling and streaming proposals alongside funding proposals. Exact thresholds and parameters are not given publicly.
6 features
Key features
01
Conviction voting pools
Pools use conviction voting, where support for a proposal accumulates over time instead of being decided in one short vote.
02
Enforceable Covenant
An enforceable Covenant is tied to the voting pools, meant to set the rules a community agrees to follow.
03
Multiple proposal types
Documentation references funding, signaling and streaming proposals, covering one-off grants, non-binding polls and ongoing payouts.
04
Multi-chain deployment
DefiLlama lists Gnosis, Celo, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon and Ethereum as supported networks.
05
Community creation
The homepage describes creating, governing and funding communities together, so groups can set up their own Garden.
06
Grant tracking visibility
A Karma page lists grants and funded projects from the Gardens community, with milestone tracking.
Pros and cons
What we like
- Conviction voting rewards sustained support rather than short-term vote swings.
- Runs on seven networks, including low-cost ones such as Gnosis, Base and Optimism.
- Supports funding, signaling and streaming proposal types.
- No token is required, so there is no speculative asset tied to participation.
- Public grant tracking on Karma makes funded projects easier to follow.
Watch out for
- Total value locked is small, about $71,000, which suggests limited adoption so far.
- DefiLlama lists no audits, and the project does not confirm any security review.
- No token, fee schedule or team details appear.
- Conviction voting is unfamiliar to many users and can be slow to produce decisions.
- Deployed across seven chains, which adds smart-contract and bridging surface area for communities.
Gardens fees
Fees are not published. DefiLlama shows no token for Gardens, and no protocol fee schedule is listed.
Users should expect to pay normal network gas on whichever chain their Garden runs on. Any community-level costs or fees would be visible in the app or documentation before a transaction is confirmed.
Is Gardens safe?
DefiLlama lists no audits for Gardens, and the project does not mention a security review, bug bounty or past incidents. Governance contracts can hold community funds, so the absence of listed audits is a real consideration.
Gardens is a non-custodial style tool in which funds sit in community pools governed by votes, so risk depends on the contracts and on each community's Covenant and participants. Smart-contract bugs, governance capture and low participation are all possible. Review the documentation and test with small amounts first.
6 steps
How to get started with Gardens
- 1
Open the Gardens app and read the documentation on conviction voting and the Covenant.
- 2
Browse existing communities and check which chain each one uses.
- 3
Review a community's Covenant and funding pool rules before joining.
- 4
Connect a wallet funded for gas on the relevant network.
- 5
Start by reading or signaling on proposals before committing funds.
- 6
If creating a Garden, begin with a small pool and test the proposal flow.
Who Gardens is for
Gardens is for community organizers, DAO contributors and ecosystem funders who want a structured way to run grants and decisions on-chain. It is less suited to users who want audited, high-liquidity infrastructure or a simple token-based product.
Gardens FAQs
What is Gardens?
Gardens is a community governance platform built for bottom-up decision-making. Communities create pools where members propose and vote on how to allocate resources, using conviction voting tied to an enforceable Covenant.
What is conviction voting on Gardens?
Conviction voting lets members stake support on proposals, and that support builds up over time. A proposal passes once enough conviction accumulates, rather than at the close of a fixed vote. Public sources describe modular conviction voting pools but do not give the exact parameters.
Which blockchains does Gardens support?
DefiLlama lists Gnosis, Celo, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon and Ethereum. Each community should check which network its Garden is deployed on before sending funds.
Does Gardens have a token or fees?
DefiLlama shows no token for Gardens and no audits listed. Fees are not stated. Check the app and documentation for current details.
Is Gardens safe to use?
No audits are listed on DefiLlama, and the project does not mention a security review. Communities should read the documentation, start with small amounts and confirm audit status independently before committing larger treasuries.
What kinds of proposals can be made?
Gardens V2 documentation mentions funding proposals, signaling proposals and streaming proposals. A public grants listing for the Gardens community also appears on Karma, which tracks funded projects and milestones.
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How we checked
Sources
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