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 served on the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) from September 2024 to September 2025, ensuring governance actions aligned 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.
The Cardano Foundation actively distributes voting power by delegating more than 300 million ada to over 15 community Delegated Representatives (DReps) across Builder, Adoption, and Operation categories.
Empowering Community DReps: Our Strategy
Empowering Community DReps: Our Strategy
As part of the Cardano Foundation’s commitment to a resilient and decentralized governance system, we are delegating a total of 260 million ada to 13 community DReps (approximately 20 million ada each). These delegations come without any specific expectations regarding voting outcomes. We looked at the DReps track records and cast our trust in their proofs of independent, sound decision-making.
By empowering diverse voices, we aim to ensure that the people driving Cardano forward have sufficient standing to participate actively in the network and shape its future.
The Three Delegation Categories
To ensure robust and diverse representation, we use a DRep Selection Matrix that carefully assesses and selects DReps across three critical pillars:
Builder DReps
Empowers the developers, open-source teams, and technical contributors who spend their days building on and advancing the Cardano blockchain.
Adoption DReps
Represents the voices driving utility, establishing real-world use cases, and onboarding new users and enterprises into the ecosystem.
Accountability & Reallocation
To prevent ecosystem stagnation and promote healthy delegation rotation, these delegations are continuously evaluated. We monitor key metrics, including voting participation rates, the consistent provision of public voting rationales, power impact ratios, and strategic alignment with broader ecosystem priorities.
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. 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.
- DRep ID: drep1ydpfkyjxzeqvalf6fgvj7lznrk8kcmfnvy9hyl6gr6ez6wgsjaelx
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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.
03/06/2026
The weekly meeting focused on 12 active governance actions, with detailed reviews conducted for 6 pending items. The team finalized recommendations regarding the TWEAG proposal and the OriLife agricultural traceability initiative, highlighting the necessity for narrower, restructured scopes. The Plutus Cost Model parameter change was designated for a supportive recommendation. Strategic analyses were conducted for 5 a.m. Earth proposal and the Open-Source Program Office (OSPO) proposal. Additionally, the team evaluated the wallet business transition proposal for Eternl.
27/05/2026
The meeting addressed 9 active governance actions, prioritizing strategic alignment and technical evaluations of several high-budget proposals. The team discussed recommendations regarding the TWEAG protocol proposal and the OriLife x TonFarm agricultural traceability initiative, highlighting technical feasibility and structural concerns which require clarification. The Plutus Cost Model parameter change was assessed for expedited processing to address on-chain bugs, and the Eternl withdrawal was evaluated as a good example for treasury-supported sustainability. Discussions also focused on the Cardano Vision 2026 proposal and the preservation of public voting records.
20/05/2026
The meeting focused on a technical and fiscal review of several high-cost treasury proposals. The team aligned on a recommendation for the Blockfrost proposal, expressing concerns over commercial subsidies and lack of data transparency. Technical reservations were raised regarding the risk profile of the Pogun proposal, while a broader debate on protocol architecture concluded that complex upgrades should be directed toward Layer 2 solutions rather than the core ledger. Consequently, the team formalized the vote for the Cardano Upgrades proposal and formulated a dual-option voting strategy for the Cardano Maintenance Initiative.
19/05/2026
This meeting focused on a detailed technical and financial evaluation of three high-value proposals submitted by IOG. The team reviewed the IOG and Midgard Labs L2 Scalability initiative, identifying a significant budget imbalance and a lack of clear deliverables for the Hydra component. Technical review of the Cardano High Assurance proposal highlighted the critical value of formal verification tools like Blaster, but raised concerns regarding personnel costs and redundant containerized setup environments. Finally, the team evaluated the Vacuum Labs Plutus Usability upgrades, concluding that the proposal lacks clear integration funding for downstream tool maintainers and replicates workstreams already covered by core maintenance budgets.
13/05/2026
The meeting centered on a comprehensive technical review of four major treasury withdrawal proposals submitted by IO, focusing heavily on budget transparency, cost-effectiveness, and strategic leverage. The team expressed concerns regarding the Developer Experience Initiative due to its short-term nature and lack of strategic planning. While the Cardano Upgrades proposal was generally supported, the Consensus Initiatives governance action raised concerns over budget opacity and overall readiness. Finally, the Cardano Maintenance Initiative was met with strong opposition due to historical complexities, high costs, and potential conflicts of interest within its proposed technical oversight structure.
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 governance impact assessment (as a DRep).
04
Advisory team recommendation
The Advisory Team votes on the Governance Action.
05
Rationale drafting
A voting rationale is drafted, considering the Cardano Foundation strategy and Our Cardano.
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.
Our role in Cardano governance
Our role in Cardano governance