Cardano Governance
Shape the future of Cardano. Participate in governance and have your voice heard on the network's direction, applications, and growth.
Cardano's governance model
Cardano’s decentralized and community-driven governance ensures stakeholders make collective, transparent network decisions.
Cardano’s decentralized and community-driven governance ensures stakeholders make collective, transparent network decisions.
Empowering active participation with immutable, on-chain voting.
Cardano governance enables the community to influence blockchain development through treasury withdrawals, parameter changes, and other governance actions.
Governance actions require approval from at least two of the three governance roles: Delegated Representatives (DReps), Stake Pool Operators (SPOs), and the Constitutional Committee (CC), ensuring fairness and transparency.
Decentralized governance strengthens Cardano’s security and resilience by distributing decision-making power, reducing single points of failure, and ensuring network stability.
As a registered Delegated Representative (DRep), the Cardano Foundation participates in governance following the Ethos and Principles defined in ‘Our Cardano'.
The Cardano Foundation serves on the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC), ensuring governance actions align with the Cardano Constitution while maintaining neutrality and transparency.
Anyone can participate in discussions about Cardano’s constitution, it's budget, the role of delegated representatives, the Parameter Committee, and many other topics.
Understanding governance actions
Understanding governance actions
Cardano’s governance decisions involve seven action types, including Protocol Parameter Changes, Treasury Withdrawals, and Hard Fork Initiations. At least two of the three governance roles (DReps, SPOs, and CC) must approve an action. As an ICC member and DRep, the Cardano Foundation is committed to voting on all governance actions and providing a detailed rationale. Below is an overview of our recent voting activity.
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DRep ID: drep1ydpfkyjxzeqvalf6fgvj7lznrk8kcmfnvy9hyl6gr6ez6wgsjaelx
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CC ID: cc_cold1zwmqzgp5hg98ujhmhuk859pjlzpy4mjjnxjguw8yr22jdps6c64hp
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Governance deliberations: meeting notes
Governance deliberations: meeting notes
The Governance Advisory Team, consisting of subject-matter experts, regularly reviews governance actions and advises on decision-making. To maintain transparency, we publish meeting notes summarizing key discussions and decisions.
05/03/2025
On 05 March 2025, the Governance Advisory Team focused on several key governance topics including the parameter change governance action to reduce the treasury cut, an info action addressing the 2025 vision and roadmap, and DRep delegation strategy. Discussions examined procedural order, constitutional concerns regarding mutable data links, and the balance between increased influence and maintaining accountability, with clear next steps identified.
26/02/2025
On 26 February 2025, the Governance Advisory Team reviewed the Parameter Change governance action to reduce the treasury growth rate from 20% to 10%. The majority raised concerns over the lack of sufficient data, detailed technical analysis, and an absent reversion plan, all of which could jeopardize constitutional safeguards and the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem. Although one member expressed a conditional “Yes” from a DRep perspective, the consensus was to vote “No,” both as a DRep and ICC member and to provide constructive feedback and guidance via the voting rationales for future proposals, with plans to cast the DRep vote early in week 10 of 2025, followed by the ICC vote shortly thereafter.
19/02/2025
During the meeting on 19 February 2025, the team confirmed that the new Cardano Constitution has been ratified meeting the required DRep (75%) and ICC (66%) approval threshold and examined a newly submitted Protocol Parameter Change governance action to reduce the treasury cut from 20% to 10%. Discussions focused on the proposal’s compliance with constitutional guardrails, the sufficiency of supporting data and technical review, the adequacy of a reversion plan, and its potential long-term impact on network economic parameters. The team agreed to further review the proposal from both ICC and DRep perspectives and to incorporate additional analysis before voting on the governance action.
12/02/2025
The meeting focused on the upcoming governance votes for the New Constitution governance action, including the sequencing of ICC and DRep votes and the required legal approvals. Discussions also covered post-vote actions such as GitHub updates and public communications. The team debated the lack of a formal constitutional amendment process beyond the on-chain governance action and the risks of excessive minor changes.
05/02/2025
The meeting focused on the New Constitution governance action, assessing its constitutionality and potential post-implementation concerns. The team reviewed the action against the interim constitution’s articles and guardrails, finding no constitutional violations, despite recognizing flaws in the newly proposed constitution. A prior commitment to vote “yes” with the Cardano Foundation DRep was reaffirmed, and the team discussed concerns regarding potential future violations related to introduced Cardano Tenets. Next steps for the team include providing their individual recommendations and drafting rationales for both ICC and DRep votes, ensuring alignment with the Interim Constitution and previous commitments.
Our Cardano
Our Cardano outlines the Ethos and Principles that guide the Cardano Foundation’s participation in governance, ensuring transparency, accountability, and responsible stewardship in fostering a thriving, decentralized ecosystem.
How we make governance decisions
How we make governance decisions
The Cardano Foundation has established a Governance Advisory Team, consisting of subject-matter experts, to evaluate governance proposals based on constitutional alignment and governance merit. The process follows these steps:
01
Governance action intake
Governance Action details are recorded on the Foundation’s Jira Kanban board, and Advisory Team members are notified.
02
Initial assessment
The Advisory Team assesses clarity, potential impact, and criticality of the action and requests input from relevant subject-matter experts (SMEs).
03
Full review
The Advisory Team conducts an in-depth review, including a constitutional review (as an ICC member) and a governance impact assessment (as a DRep).
04
Advisory team recommendation
The Advisory Team votes on the Governance Action.
05
Rationale drafting
Two voting rationales are drafted—one for the constitutional assessment and another for the DRep decision.
06
Executive committee review
The Executive Committee reviews and finalizes the rationale.
07
On-chain vote submission
The vote is submitted on-chain, with metadata including the rationale behind the decision.