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Hats Protocol is an Ethereum-based programmable role and permission management protocol. It defines each organizational role as a non-transferable token conforming to the ERC-1155 standard (called a "hat"), and organizes roles in a tree structure with a "Top Hat" as the root managing the entire tree. The protocol allows admins to create, grant, revoke, and modify roles, with each role capable of carrying responsibilities, permissions, and incentives, and integrating with on-chain or off-chain systems such as multisigs, governance modules, and automation tools. Users gain permissions by wearing hats, which are programmable, composable, and support custom logic and module extensions. Core mechanisms include programmable eligibility and mutual exclusion conditions, revocability, and automated governance via modules. Hats Protocol aims to provide a standardized, flexible, and transparent on-chain organizational architecture for DAOs, companies, or any collaborative organization.
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About Hats Protocol
Hats Protocol is an on-chain role protocol that lets organizations create and manage programmable roles, called "hats," using ERC-1155 tokens. These hats bundle responsibilities, permissions, and accountability into a hierarchical structure, enabling DAOs and other entities to automate governance and delegation.
Its core narrative centers on solving the "Delegation Trilemma"—the trade-off between effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and hardness (irreversibility). By introducing the Trust Zones Framework, it makes delegation programmable and composable, turning organizational design into infrastructure. This addresses the pain point of traditional DAO governance, where roles are often vague, permissions scattered, and processes hard to audit or automate.
In the past six months (March to September 2026), Hats Protocol has focused on protocolizing the Trust Zones Framework and launched Gardnr, a custom AI agent for designing and implementing trust zones. This aims to reduce the cost of achieving hardness while maintaining reliability, allowing organizations to create hundreds of precisely tuned delegations with minimal overhead.
In the past half year, Hats Protocol delivered two major milestones. First, it introduced the Trust Zones Framework and the companion AI agent, Gardnr. The framework encodes delegation design into smart contracts, combining programmable hardness with AI to address the DAO "delegation trilemma" and enable composable optimization of effectiveness, cost, and hardness. Second, the project announced the closure of its parent company, Haberdasher Labs, transitioning Hats Protocol into a public good. The official statement cited failure to achieve the network effects and revenue needed for commercial sustainability. However, the smart contracts remain unchanged and require no migration; the entire tech stack is now open source, with hosted resources maintained until year-end. Future development centers on community-driven open-source infrastructure, preserving the protocol's non-custodial and non-upgradeable nature, and continuing to explore pathways for turning organizational design into programmable infrastructure.
Hats Protocol was co-founded by Spencer Graham and Nick Naraghi (Nicholas Naraghi).
Spencer currently serves as Protocol Lead; previously he was a core contributor to DAOhaus, a member of Raid Guild, and involved with MetaCartel, groundw3rk, and clr.fund. He holds a BA in Economics and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and previously worked at Optum.
Nick served as Strategy Lead and co-founded EvenGov DAO; he was also a member of Raid Guild, groundw3rk, and DIA, and co-founded an AI startup backed by 500 Startups. According to his LinkedIn, Nick left Hats in June 2026 and is now Head of Platform at Clarinet. Therefore, the current core executive is Spencer Graham.