Setting Up a Transparent Treasury Dashboard

A transparent treasury dashboard is a critical tool for any DAO, protocol, or Web3 organization. It provides a real-time, public view of the entity's financial health by aggregating data from multiple blockchains. This transparency builds trust with token holders, informs governance decisions, and helps manage risk by tracking assets like native tokens, stablecoins, and LP positions, alongside liabilities such as vesting schedules and debt positions. Unlike traditional finance, this data is verifiable on-chain.

The core technical challenge is data aggregation. A typical treasury holds assets across Ethereum Mainnet, Layer 2s like Arbitrum and Optimism, and alternative chains like Solana. To build a dashboard, you must query balances from these diverse environments. This involves using multichain RPC providers (e.g., Alchemy, Infura, QuickNode) and interacting with smart contract ABIs for tokens and DeFi protocols. For example, fetching a USDC balance requires calling the balanceOf function on the relevant contract address for each network.

A robust architecture separates data fetching from presentation. A backend service (often a Node.js or Python script) periodically polls blockchain nodes, normalizes the data into a common format, and stores it in a database. The frontend then queries this processed data via an API. For real-time updates, you can use The Graph for indexed historical data or WebSocket subscriptions to new blocks. Open-source frameworks like Dune Analytics or Flipside Crypto can accelerate development by providing pre-built SQL queries for common treasury metrics.

Security and accuracy are paramount. Always verify token contract addresses from official sources like CoinGecko or the project's documentation to avoid spoofed tokens. Use multisignature wallet addresses as your data sources. Implement data validation checks; for instance, cross-reference the sum of wallet balances with the treasury's total supply where possible. Tools like Tenderly or OpenZeppelin Defender can monitor for unexpected outflows, adding a layer of proactive alerting to your dashboard.

Finally, effective dashboards go beyond raw numbers. They contextualize data with historical charts of net asset value, breakdowns by asset type (volatile vs. stable), and upcoming vesting unlocks. Integrating Snapshot or Tally data can show governance proposal history alongside treasury movements. By making this information accessible and understandable, a dashboard transforms on-chain data into actionable intelligence for your community and contributors.

A modern development environment is the first prerequisite. You will need Node.js (v18 or later) and a package manager like npm or yarn. For managing multiple projects, consider using a version manager like nvm. A code editor such as Visual Studio Code with relevant extensions (Solidity, ES7+ snippets) is highly recommended. This setup is standard for full-stack Web3 development, enabling you to write both smart contracts and the frontend application that will display the dashboard data.

The core of your dashboard will interact with blockchain data. You will need a reliable RPC provider to query on-chain state. Services like Alchemy, Infura, or QuickNode offer dedicated endpoints for networks like Ethereum Mainnet, Arbitrum, or Polygon. For reading and decoding complex contract data, you'll use a library like ethers.js (v6) or viem. These libraries handle wallet connections, contract interactions, and event listening, which are fundamental for fetching real-time treasury balances and transaction histories.

To visualize and analyze the data, you will build a frontend application. A framework like Next.js (using the App Router) or Vite with React is ideal for creating dynamic, client-side interfaces. For styling, you can use Tailwind CSS for rapid UI development. The dashboard will need to display charts and graphs; libraries such as Recharts or Chart.js are excellent for creating interactive visualizations of treasury inflows, outflows, and asset allocations over time.

Your dashboard's intelligence depends on efficiently querying blockchain data. While direct RPC calls work for simple state, you will likely need an indexing service for complex historical queries or aggregated data. Tools like The Graph (for building subgraphs) or Covalent or Goldsky (for unified APIs) can provide pre-indexed, structured data on transactions, token holdings, and protocol interactions, saving significant development time and infrastructure cost.

Finally, you need a target to analyze. This means having the contract addresses for the treasury you wish to monitor. For a Gnosis Safe, this is the Safe's proxy address. You will also need the addresses of the assets held (like USDC, WETH, governance tokens) and potentially the ABIs (Application Binary Interfaces) for any custom contracts to decode transaction data. This information is publicly available on block explorers like Etherscan, which will also be a crucial tool for verifying contract details during development.

A treasury dashboard is only as reliable as its data sources. Your strategy must define what data you need and where to get it. Core on-chain data includes token balances across wallets, DeFi positions (e.g., staking, lending, liquidity pools), and transaction history. For a complete picture, you'll also need off-chain data like fiat exchange rates (for valuation), protocol governance proposals, and team wallet labels. Start by cataloging all treasury-controlled addresses across EVM chains (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism), Solana, and other relevant networks.

For on-chain data, you have several sourcing options. Directly querying blockchain nodes via RPC providers like Alchemy or Infura offers maximum control but requires significant engineering. Using indexed data APIs from services like The Graph (for subgraphs), Covalent, or Goldsky is often more efficient for complex queries. For example, to track a Uniswap V3 LP position, you could query the pool's subgraph for mints, burns, and collects events associated with your treasury's address. Always verify the indexing lag and completeness of any third-party service.

Off-chain data requires separate integrations. Fetch real-time token prices from decentralized oracles like Chainlink or Pyth, or aggregated APIs from CoinGecko. Governance data might come from Snapshot's GraphQL API or a DAO's specific backend. A critical best practice is source verification. Implement checks to validate data consistency across multiple sources where possible, and use multi-signature wallet manifests or Safe Transaction Service APIs to authoritatively confirm which addresses belong to the treasury.

Once sources are identified, design a normalized data schema. Structure raw data into common objects: Asset (token, balance, value), Transaction (hash, from, to, value, timestamp), and ContractPosition (protocol, type, deposited amount). This schema becomes the foundation for your data pipeline. Use idempotent ingestion logic to handle re-orgs and ensure data consistency. For instance, when processing transactions, use the block number and log index as a composite key to avoid duplicates.

Finally, plan for resilience and maintenance. Data sources can change—subgraphs deprecate, APIs update. Implement logging, alerting for data staleness, and a versioning system for your data models. Document each data source, its update frequency, and fallback options. This proactive approach ensures your treasury dashboard remains accurate and trustworthy as both your assets and the blockchain ecosystem evolve.

The core of any Dune Analytics dashboard is its SQL queries. For a treasury dashboard, you'll primarily interact with two types of tables: decoded event logs and raw transaction traces. Decoded tables, like ethereum.contracts or specific project tables (e.g., uniswap_v3_ethereum.Pair_evt_Swap), are human-readable and map contract functions to named columns. Raw tables, such as ethereum.transactions and ethereum.logs, contain the foundational, unprocessed blockchain data. Your first task is to identify which contracts hold the treasury assets you want to track.

Start by writing a query to aggregate token holdings. Use the erc20_ethereum.evt_Transfer table to track inflows and outflows for a specific token contract address. A basic query sums all transfers to a treasury address, groups them by day, and calculates a running balance. For example, to track USDC in a Gnosis Safe, you would filter evt_Transfer where "to" equals the Safe's address and contract_address equals the USDC token contract. Remember to also account for outgoing transfers ("from" = treasury address) by subtracting them from the balance.

For more complex analysis, like calculating the USD value of holdings, you'll need to join price data. Dune provides spellbook tables like prices.usd which contain minute-by-minute price feeds for many assets. Join your token balance query to prices.usd on minute and contract_address. Use LEFT JOIN to handle assets that may not have a price feed. The final calculation multiplies the token balance by the price at the time of the snapshot to get a USD-denominated value. This is essential for creating a coherent multi-asset treasury view.

Optimize your queries for performance and clarity. Use CTEs (Common Table Expressions) to break complex logic into named subqueries, making your SQL easier to read and debug. For instance, create one CTE for raw token transfers, another for daily balances, and a final one for joining prices. Always include a WHERE clause to limit the time range (e.g., WHERE block_time > now() - interval '90 days') unless you need the full history. This reduces query execution time and cost. Use SUM(...) OVER (ORDER BY ...) for running totals.

Finally, test your queries incrementally. Run each CTE individually to verify it returns the expected data before combining them. Use Dune's query preview and the Query Results panel to inspect column names and data types. Once your query is finalized, save it with a clear name like treasury_usdc_balance_daily. You will then use this saved query as a data source for the visualizations in the next step. For reference, explore existing community dashboards like Lido's Treasury to see practical implementations.

With your subgraph deployed, you can now query it using GraphQL. The Graph provides a hosted query endpoint for each subgraph. For a subgraph deployed to The Graph's hosted service, the endpoint follows the pattern: https://api.thegraph.com/subgraphs/name/<your-github-username>/<your-subgraph-name>. For decentralized networks like Arbitrum One, you would use a decentralized network endpoint like https://gateway-arbitrum.network.thegraph.com/api/<api-key>/subgraphs/id/<subgraph-id>. You will need to authenticate with an API key for production queries.

The power of your subgraph lies in its defined schema. To query all treasury deposits, you would use a query like the one below. This fetches the transaction hash, amount, token symbol, and the block timestamp for each Deposit entity, ordered from most recent to oldest.

graphqlCopy
query TreasuryDeposits {
  deposits(orderBy: timestamp, orderDirection: desc) {
    id
    amount
    tokenSymbol
    from
    timestamp
  }
}

You can run this query directly in the GraphQL playground provided by The Graph Explorer or integrate it into a frontend application using a client like Apollo or urql.

For dashboard analytics, you'll need aggregate queries. The Graph's GraphQL API supports aggregating data using the _meta field and entity counts. A crucial query for a treasury dashboard is fetching the total value held across all tracked tokens. This requires summing the amount for each unique token. You can also query the _meta field to check the subgraph's indexing status and latest block synced, ensuring your dashboard data is current.

graphqlCopy
query TreasuryOverview {
  depositTokens {
    id
    symbol
    totalAmount
  }
  _meta {
    block {
      number
    }
    deployment
  }
}

To display a transaction history feed, you can query a paginated list of all TreasuryAction entities, which include both deposits and withdrawals. Using the skip and first parameters is essential for pagination in a production dashboard to avoid overwhelming the client with data.

graphqlCopy
query RecentActions($skip: Int!) {
  treasuryActions(
    first: 10,
    skip: $skip,
    orderBy: timestamp,
    orderDirection: desc
  ) {
    id
    type
    amount
    tokenSymbol
    transactionHash
    timestamp
  }
}

This structure allows you to build a dynamic interface where users can load more transactions on demand.

Integrate these queries into a frontend framework like React or Vue. Use a state management library to cache query results and update the UI reactively. For real-time updates, you can subscribe to new data using GraphQL subscriptions if your subgraph and client support them, though polling at regular intervals (e.g., every 10 seconds) is a common and simpler alternative for dashboard data. Always handle loading and error states gracefully in your application.

Finally, consider query optimization for user experience. Cache frequent queries like the treasury total on the client-side. For complex historical analysis (e.g., "TVL over the last 30 days"), you may need to create additional aggregated entities in your subgraph schema to make those queries efficient. The key is to structure your GraphQL queries to request only the data your dashboard components need, minimizing load times and improving responsiveness.

A static dashboard is a snapshot; an automated one is a live feed. The core of a transparent treasury is its connection to real-time, on-chain data. This is achieved by integrating with Chainscore's REST API and WebSocket streams. The API allows you to programmatically fetch portfolio balances, transaction histories, and protocol positions. For example, a cron job can call GET /v1/portfolios/{id}/summary nightly to update a database, while a WebSocket connection to wss://api.chainscore.com/v1/ws can push instant notifications for large withdrawals or deposits, enabling proactive governance alerts.

Automation transforms data into actionable reports. Using the API, you can build scripts to generate daily or weekly treasury reports. A common workflow involves: 1) Fetching token balances and their USD values via the Portfolio Endpoint, 2) Calculating changes from the previous period, and 3) Formatting the data into a Markdown or PDF report posted automatically to a Discord channel or Snapshot forum. Tools like GitHub Actions, n8n, or Make.com can orchestrate this without maintaining dedicated server infrastructure. This ensures stakeholders receive consistent, timely updates without manual intervention.

For advanced use cases, consider direct smart contract integration. While the API abstracts away RPC calls, your automation scripts might need to interact with protocols directly—for instance, to claim staking rewards or rebalance a liquidity position. Use the Ethers.js or Viem libraries in conjunction with Chainscore's data. First, query the API for the current state and relevant contract addresses. Then, use that data to construct and broadcast transactions via a secured signer. Always simulate transactions using eth_call or viem.simulateContract before live execution to prevent costly errors.

Security is paramount in automation. Never hardcode private keys or sensitive API keys in your scripts. Use environment variables managed by your CI/CD platform or a secrets manager. For on-chain transactions, employ a multisig wallet or a safe transaction service like Safe{Wallet}'s API to require multiple confirmations. Chainscore API keys should be scoped to specific endpoints and have rate limits appropriate for your use case. Regularly audit your automation scripts and the permissions granted to associated service accounts to maintain the integrity of your treasury operations.

Finally, monitor your integrations. Set up alerts for API health status, failed cron jobs, or unexpected data patterns (e.g., a token balance dropping to zero). Chainscore provides webhook endpoints to notify you of issues with your data pipelines. Combining this with logging services like Datadog or Sentry gives you full visibility into your treasury's operational backbone. This proactive monitoring ensures your dashboard's transparency is backed by reliable, uninterrupted data flows, building lasting trust with your community.

The foundation of a secure treasury dashboard is on-chain data integrity. Instead of relying on centralized databases, your dashboard should source data directly from the blockchain via a node provider like Alchemy or Infura, or use a decentralized indexing service like The Graph. This ensures the displayed information—token balances, transaction history, and contract states—is immutable and verifiable. For multi-chain treasuries, you must aggregate data from all relevant networks (e.g., Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon) using their respective RPC endpoints. Always verify contract addresses against official sources like Etherscan to prevent spoofing.

Smart contract interactions require a robust security model. If your dashboard allows for governance actions like creating proposals or executing transactions, implement a multi-signature (multisig) wallet interface such as Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe). Never store private keys in the frontend. Use wallet connection libraries like Wagmi or Web3Modal to facilitate secure, user-initiated signing. For read-only functions, use the view and pure modifiers in your contract calls to avoid unnecessary gas expenditure and potential security risks. Consider implementing transaction simulation tools like Tenderly to preview outcomes before execution.

Effective data display is critical for user comprehension. Structure your dashboard with clear sections: Total Portfolio Value (in USD and ETH), Asset Allocation per token, Recent Transactions, and Governance Proposals. Use price oracles like Chainlink to fetch accurate, tamper-resistant asset valuations. For visual clarity, employ charts from libraries like D3.js or Recharts to show historical balance trends. Always timestamp data and display the block number of the last update, allowing users to independently verify the information on a block explorer.

To enhance transparency, implement human-readable transaction labeling. Instead of showing only hash and amount, decode contract interactions using the ABI to display actions like "Transfer 100 USDC to Grant Pool" or "Execute Proposal #42." You can use services like OpenZeppelin Defender for transaction monitoring and alerting. Furthermore, provide direct links from every transaction and token holding to their respective block explorer pages (Etherscan, Arbiscan). This allows any community member to perform their own audit, which is the ultimate test of a dashboard's credibility.

Finally, ensure your frontend application is secure and reliable. Host the dashboard on decentralized infrastructure like IPFS or Arweave via services like Fleek or Pinata to guarantee uptime and resistance to censorship. Use a custom domain with HTTPS. Regularly update dependencies and conduct security audits on both your smart contracts and frontend code. By combining verifiable on-chain data, secure interaction patterns, and clear presentation, you create a dashboard that truly serves as a pillar of trust for your community.

Your dashboard now provides a foundational view of treasury health, tracking assets across multiple chains, monitoring transaction flows, and calculating key metrics like Total Value Locked (TVL) and runway. This transparency is a critical trust signal for your community and stakeholders. The next phase involves enhancing this foundation with more sophisticated features and deeper analysis.

To improve your dashboard, consider implementing the following advanced features: multi-signature wallet monitoring for governance actions, yield tracking for staked or lent assets, and gas fee analytics to understand operational costs. Tools like Dune Analytics for custom query templates or Covalent's Unified API for expanded historical data can accelerate this development. Automating alerts for large transactions or threshold breaches is another powerful upgrade.

Finally, treat your dashboard as a living project. Regularly update the smart contract addresses and oracle price feeds it queries. As your treasury strategy evolves—perhaps into DeFi yield strategies or cross-chain allocations—ensure your dashboard's logic and data sources are updated accordingly. Share your public dashboard URL and consider open-sourcing the code to further community trust and collaboration.