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 have delegated a total of 360 million ada to 18 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.
15/04/2026
The meeting addressed the successful ratification and enactment of the Dingo and Cardano DeFi Liquidity treasury withdrawals. Significant deliberations focused on the Pebble and Gerolamo proposal, with the team identifying technical risks regarding personnel allocations and the efficacy of bundled infrastructure. A strategic debate was held concerning the Cardano Summit/Token2049 treasury withdrawal.
08/04/2026
The meeting addressed the start of the new Intersect budget cycle preparation and the successful ratification of the Cardano Draper Orion Fund, which will see an initial outflow of 50 million ada. The team reviewed the status of several expiring governance actions, noting that the Dingo and DeFi Liquidity Budget proposals are currently below the required approval thresholds. Significant community support was observed for the Project Catalyst transition, with nearly 75% DRep approval. Finally, a technical evaluation was initiated for the Pebble and Gerolamo infrastructure proposal, focusing on the practical utility of the light-client and a TypeScript-based smart contract language relative to its 8 million ada cost.
25/03/2026
The meeting focused on the ratification of the Amaru Treasury withdrawal and the commencement of the Intersect budget process, which has officially met its approval threshold. The team conducted a strategic review of several active governance actions, including the Dingo Node implementation and the Draper Dragon Orion Fund, balancing technical redundancy needs against fiscal and performance concerns.
18/03/2026
The meeting focused on the finalization of the Amaru Treasury withdrawal, which has exceeded the 67% approval threshold and is scheduled for enactment on March 25th. The team established a strategic voting position for the Draper Dragon Orion Fund and the Project Catalyst Managing Entity proposal. Additionally, the team addressed the current status of the Net Change Limit (NCL) and the Intersect Budget Process Framework.
11/03/2026
Key updates of the meeting included the state of the 300 million ada Net Change Limit (NCL) and the status of the Amaru Treasury withdrawal, which requires Constitutional Committee support. The team reviewed Intersect’s new 5-stage budget process, expressing technical concerns over the framing of the Cardano 2030 vision. Discussion also covered Dingo, a node implementation written in Go (Golang) and the resubmission of the DeFi Liquidity Stablecoin proposal.
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