What 1Hive does

1Hive is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) founded in Cape Town, South Africa that builds and coordinates public goods infrastructure through its native community-governed currency, Honey (HNY). It serves public goods contributors (developers, designers, researchers, operators), DAO participants, and aligned projects building open infrastructure, civic technology, decentralized governance, public data, and research initiatives. The platform is built on Gnosis Chain and centers on three core product lines: Gardens (v1 and v2 governance interfaces for proposal submission, conviction voting, and treasury management across multiple pools including the Common Pool, Citizens Registry, Contributor Rewards, Honey Liquidity Tap, and Council Safe), Celeste (a dispute resolution and rule enforcement system), and a suite of DeFi sub-products including Honeyswap (DEX), Honeycomb (liquidity), Agave (lending), Tulip (yield farming), Pollen (distribution), Quests (gamified tasks), and the Honey Faucet (with BrightID sybil protection).

The business model is explicitly non-commercial. 1Hive does not sell products or services, has no pricing tiers, and distributes Honey to contributors and participants rather than selling it. The stated value thesis is that Honey should become a reserve asset for public goods development — more valuable than Bitcoin and more resilient than the Dollar — and the DAO's economic value accrues through Honey's utility and ecosystem adoption rather than through revenue, ARR, or fees. The organization is collectively owned and governed by HNY token holders with no disclosed venture capital, institutional investment, or parent company, and headcount is reported at 1–10. Go-to-market is community-led: anyone globally can join via Discord, participate in governance through the Forum, submit proposals through Gardens, and contribute code via GitHub, with growth dependent on the quality of funded public goods work rather than traditional sales or marketing.

Strategic positioning is anchored by core partnerships with Gnosis Chain (infrastructure), Gitcoin (Grant rounds in 2021), and the Panvala League (2021), plus a sub-product Honeyswap DEX built by 1Hive contributors. Product evolution has progressed through Gardens v1 (2021), Celeste (2021), Gardens v2 (2022), and the Fluid Proposals integration (November 2023). The long-term stated ambition is to fund more public development than any other organization at planetary scale, but there is no disclosed revenue, no funding rounds, no traditional customer roster, and no commercial pricing mechanism.

Name

1Hive

Legal name

1Hive

Website

https://1hive.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

1Hive is a decentralized autonomous organization on Gnosis Chain that uses its Honey (HNY) token and Gardens/Celeste governance infrastructure to coordinate community-governed funding for public goods contributors, DAO participants, and aligned open-source projects.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

DAO Governance Infrastructure

SIC

Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Governance Frameworks & DAO Tooling (modules, templates, standards) (FSAPAHAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

DAO Treasury, Governance & On-Chain Finance Tools (FSADAMAL), Grants, Funding & Budget Allocation Platforms (FSAPAHAE), Coordination & Contributor Management (tasks, bounties, roles) (FSAPAHAD), Legal, Compliance & Entity Wrappers for DAOs (FSAPAHAJ)

Keywords

• Decentralized autonomous organization
• DAO governance infrastructure
• Public goods funding
• Decentralized finance protocols
• Community-governed treasury

Headquarters

HQ city

Cape Town

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Public Goods Funding Coordination: 1Hive does not generate traditional revenue. Instead, it coordinates the allocation of Honey (its native token) toward public goods work. The DAO's value accrues through the growth and utility of Honey as a reserve asset for public development, not through commercial revenue streams.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

1Hive is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that coordinates the funding of public goods through its native community-governed currency, Honey (HNY). The DAO operates governance infrastructure including Gardens (for proposals and conviction voting) and Celeste (for dispute resolution), alongside a suite of DeFi protocols (Honeyswap, Honeycomb, Pollen, Tulip, Agave) built on Gnosis Chain. Anyone globally can join the community, submit proposals for funding, vote on allocations, and contribute to public goods infrastructure.

Product overview

1Hive is a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) focused on funding public goods, built with Honey as its community-governed currency at the center. The ecosystem consists of governance infrastructure (Gardens for proposals and conviction voting), dispute resolution (Celeste), and DeFi products (Honeyswap DEX, Honeycomb liquidity, Honey Faucet for distribution, Pollen for allocations, Tulip for yield farming, and Agave for lending). The core strategy is to make Honey useful as a reserve asset for public development through a feedback loop where funded work increases Honey's value and utility.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Honey: Community-governed currency for funding, rewarding, and coordinating public goods work
• Gardens
• Celeste
• Honeyswap
• Honeyswap

Products and services

• Honey (HNY) Community-governed native currency of 1Hive used for funding public goods, rewarding contributors, and coordinating resources across the DAO ecosystem.
• Gardens v1 Governance interface for 1Hive that handles Common Pool proposals and major Honey governance, allowing community members to submit, discuss, and vote on funding proposals.
• Gardens v2 Modular conviction voting governance interface with focused pools for contributor rewards, liquidity support, citizenship, and council signaling within the 1Hive ecosystem.
• Celeste Dispute resolution and rule enforcement system for 1Hive governance, enabling community members to challenge and adjudicate governance decisions and maintain accountability.
• Honeyswap Decentralized exchange built on Gnosis Chain by 1Hive contributors that enables token swapping and liquidity provision for Honey and other ecosystem tokens.
• Honeycomb Liquidity provision system within the 1Hive ecosystem that supports Honey liquidity and enables users to provide liquidity positions.
• Honey Faucet Distribution faucet that issues small amounts of Honey to verified users, requiring BrightID verification to prevent sybil attacks and ensure fair distribution.
• Pollen Distribution mechanism for allocating Honey to community members based on participation and contribution metrics.
• Tulip Yield farming protocol within the 1Hive ecosystem that offers farming opportunities for liquidity providers.
• Agave Decentralized lending protocol within the 1Hive ecosystem providing lending services on Gnosis Chain.
• Quests Gamified task and contribution system that allows community members to earn rewards through completing specific tasks.
• Fluid Proposals Dynamic governance proposal mechanism integrated into 1Hive that enables more fluid and continuous proposal processes beyond traditional voting.

Quantifiable outcome

• Community ability to fund public development through transparent governance processes
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• GitcoincoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20211Hive Gardens participated in Gitcoin Grant rounds, enabling the community to receive matching funds and expand its public goods funding reach. The partnership facilitated donations to 1Hive through Gitcoin's quadratic funding mechanism.
• PanvalacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20211Hive joined the Panvala League, a decentralized funding mechanism for open-source public goods. This partnership provides additional resources for supporting 1Hive's mission of funding public development.
• HoneyswapcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2021Honeyswap is a decentralized exchange built by 1Hive contributors on Gnosis Chain. It provides liquidity infrastructure for Honey and other tokens in the ecosystem, enabling trading and value exchange within the 1Hive commons.
• Gnosis ChaincoreTechnology or Integration1Hive is built on Gnosis Chain (formerly xDai Chain), utilizing its low-cost, fast transaction infrastructure for governance actions, token transfers, and smart contract interactions. The partnership enables all 1Hive operations including Gardens, Celeste, and Honey transactions.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• DAOstack: DAOstack builds DAO governance infrastructure including the Genesis Alpha and holographic consensus mechanisms. Compares to 1Hive as an early-mover in decentralized governance frameworks for collective decision-making.
• MolochDAO: MolochDAO pioneered the ragequit mechanism and minimal-viable DAO framework for public goods funding. Closely comparable to 1Hive's mission and governance simplicity ethos.
• Gitcoin: Gitcoin runs quadratic funding rounds for public goods, an explicit partner of 1Hive via Gardens in Grant Round 11. Both share the mission of funding public goods through community-coordinated mechanisms.
• Tally: Tally provides on-chain governance dashboards, proposal creation, and voting interfaces for DAOs. Directly comparable to 1Hive's Gardens for governance UX and proposal management.
• Snapshot: Snapshot is the leading off-chain voting platform for DAOs, used by most major protocols. Compares to 1Hive's Gardens as a governance voting primitive, though Snapshot focuses on gasless signaling rather than funding allocation.
• Aragon: Aragon provides DAO creation and governance tooling with modular frameworks for voting, treasury management, and dispute resolution. Most directly comparable to 1Hive's Gardens governance interfaces.
• Panvala: Panvala is a decentralized funding mechanism for open-source public goods through a token-curated league. 1Hive is a league member, and both target sustainable funding for open-source work.

Broad incumbents

• Gnosis: Gnosis is the broader platform whose Gnosis Chain hosts 1Hive's operations. Built Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe) for multisig treasury management, directly used in 1Hive's Council Safe.

Emerging players

• Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe): Safe provides the multisig treasury standard adopted by most DAOs including 1Hive's Council Safe. Comparable as shared infrastructure for DAO asset management.
• Common Stack: Commons Stack develops conviction voting and other mechanisms for commons-oriented DAOs, with significant overlap in methodology and ecosystem contributors with 1Hive's Gardens v2.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/1Hive
• Xx.com/1hiveorg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/1hive

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 1Hive