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Transaction Simulation & Verification

When a proposal is submitted on-chain, it’s critical to ensure that what’s being executed is safe, transparent, and does exactly what the proposer intends. That’s where Transaction Simulation & Verification comes in.

This feature simulates the entire proposal execution before it’s ever executed—using the exact context of the governor, timelock, and the caller. The simulation runs via Tenderly, assuming it’s supported by the target chain, and provides deep insight into the behavior of the proposal.

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Why Simulation Matters

Blockchain governance comes with irreversible consequences. Once a proposal passes, there’s no undo button. That’s why simulation and verification are vital:

  • Catch unexpected side effects
  • Verify all contract interactions
  • Ensure calldata decodes as expected
  • Establish a full audit trail of proposal behavior before it’s live

By integrating simulation into the governance process, DAOs increase safety and trust for all voters.

We run the same simulations when a proposal is in draft mode, giving the creator peace of mind before posting to the chain.

Below is a tiny screenshot of the feature.

Draft Mode Simulation

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What We Check

When a simulation runs, we verify a comprehensive set of checks.

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✅ Reports All Events Emitted

We capture and display every single event emitted during proposal execution. This allows reviewers to:

  • Confirm expected events (e.g. token transfers, role assignments)
  • Detect unexpected or hidden contract behavior

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✅ Reports All State Changes

We log all changes to contract storage, including:

  • Updated variables
  • New values for mappings or arrays
  • Any modifications made during execution

This helps confirm that the proposal impacts state exactly as intended—nothing more, nothing less.

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✅ Decodes Target Calldata

All target calldata is:

  • Decoded into human-readable formats
  • Matched against known ABI definitions

This gives voters and reviewers confidence in the intent of each call and makes it easier to spot misconfigured or malicious data.

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✅ Verifies All Targets on Etherscan

Each target address in the proposal is:

  • Checked for verified contract source code on Etherscan
  • Flagged if any address points to an unverified or proxy contract

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✅ Verifies All Touched Contracts on Etherscan

Even if the proposal doesn’t directly target them, we:

  • Track every contract that gets touched
  • Confirm verification status for those as well

Because malicious contracts often use delegatecall or indirect hops to hide behavior—we catch those too.

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✅ Checks for selfdestruct in Targets

We analyze each target contract and verify that:

  • The bytecode does not include the selfdestruct opcode
  • If present, this may indicate dangerous or irreversible behavior

Proposals attempting to execute contracts with selfdestruct will trigger a warning or fail simulation, depending on context.

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✅ Checks for selfdestruct in Touched Contracts

Even contracts indirectly touched during execution are checked for selfdestruct. A warning is raised if any are found.

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✅ Detects ETH Sent With Proposal Execution

We check whether:

  • The proposal attempts to send ETH along with a call
  • If so, it is clearly reported for transparency

This protects against silent ETH transfers or unintentional funding of contracts.

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✅ Reports All ETH Balance Changes

We analyze ETH inflows and outflows for:

  • Target contracts
  • Touched contracts
  • The timelock or DAO itself

This ensures ETH movement is deliberate and easy to audit.

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Warnings

If something passes but raises a concern (e.g. unverifiable contracts or decoded calldata with unknown selectors), we warn but do not block. These warnings are meant to guide further manual review.

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View on Tenderly

Each simulation links to the full Tenderly trace, including:

  • Execution traces
  • Gas usage
  • Storage diffs
  • Event logs

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Under the Hood

  • Simulations run as if the governor’s execute() function is being called by the timelock, simulating the final step in the lifecycle of a proposal.
  • The full context includes the actual proposer, governor, timelock, and the current block timestamp.
  • We simulate against forked mainnet state (where supported), providing real-world fidelity.

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Who Benefits?

  • DAO Voters get peace of mind knowing what they’re voting on
  • Protocol Developers can debug and verify proposals before submission
  • Governance Facilitators can provide richer documentation and transparency to the community