Cardano's governance journey: a timeline for decentralized democracy

The Cardano community has achieved something truly remarkable in the blockchain industry. Over the past three years, ada holders have helped build the most ambitious decentralized governance program in crypto - complete with its own Constitution, elected representatives, and fully autonomous decision-making systems. This timeline traces the key milestones in this extraordinary journey from concept to reality.

The foundational years (2022-2023)

November 2022: the journey begins

ScotFest in Edinburgh marked the dawn of the Voltaire era, celebrating Cardano’s transition toward decentralized governance. That same month, an early version of CIP-1694 was published, outlining minimum viable governance principles that would transform how blockchain decisions are made.

February to July 2023: global community engagement

The Colorado CIP-1694 workshop kicked off an unprecedented series of community consultations. The response was overwhelming:

• nearly 100 applications from around the world for the global workshop grant program
• over 80% of applications came from North America, Latin America, and Africa
• 50 community-led events took place across the globe
• more than 1,000 attendees participated in governance discussions
• three major workshops in Zug, Tokyo, and Edinburgh concluded the series

July 2023: infrastructure takes shape

Two critical pieces of governance infrastructure launched:

• SanchoNet: the testnet where governance features could be safely tested and refined.
• Intersect: a member-based organization (MBO) that would steward Cardano’s development. At launch, the MBO offered a governance tooling initiatives grant program – awarding up to 1.68 million ada.

August-September 2023: ecosystem building

The community began establishing the organizational structures needed for governance:

• RareEvo in Denver saw Input Output Global (IOG), EMURGO, and the Cardano Foundation celebrate governance advancement with CIP-1694, SanchoNet, and Intersect
• the Open Source Committee launched as one of Intersect’s first committees, establishing standards for repository management
• SanchoNet documentation was published, providing ada holders with detailed guidance for governance testing
• the Membership and Community Committee was bootstrapped to ensure Intersect works effectively for its members

Building the governance engine (2023-2024)

Q4 2023: testing and validation

The community participated in temperature check polls that showed 'near unanimous agreement’ on continuing the Voltaire phase. Key developments included:

• wallets integrating CIP-95 for governance functionality
• the GovTool beta launch, giving ada holders their first taste of governance participation
• core Cardano repositories migrating to Intersect for community stewardship

Q1-Q2 2024: Constitution development

The consultation period for Cardano’s Constitution began, led by the Cardano Civics Committee. Major milestones included:

• the Interim Cardano Constitution published in June.
• the Global Constitution workshop series announcement for community input
• grant winners selection for DRep Campaign Platform and Constitutional Committee Portal

May-June 2024: representatives emerge

The community began selecting its governance representatives:

• The DRep Pioneer Program launched to train and support future delegate representatives
• Interim Constitutional Committee elections – where the community chose three representatives to sit alongside the founding entities and Intersect – saw nearly 456m ada staked across 1,947 unique votes

Governance goes live

August-October 2024: workshops around the world

Sixty-three community-led workshops took place across 52 countries, involving nearly 1400 community members – giving each individual the chance to voice their opinions on what should be included in the draft constitution.

Workshop participants elected a Constitutional Delegate and Travelling Alternate to represent their communities at the Constitutional Convention later that year, and discuss the draft Constitution. These elected individuals then worked intensely through regular online meetings and 2-day workshops in Costa Rica and Kenya, leading up to the big event.

September 2024: the Chang upgrade

The journey towards decentralized governance culminated in the Chang hard fork, officially moving the Cardano blockchain into the age of Voltaire. This milestone delivered:

• full deployment of governance features to mainnet, though only a subset of the seven governance actions were enabled as part of the bootstrap strategy
• DRep registration
• GovTool launch enabling real governance participation

December 2024: Constitutional Convention

Constitutional Delegates and Travelling Alternates from across the globe gathered simultaneously for the Constitutional Convention in Buenos Aires and Nairobi. The results were decisive:

• 95% approval from delegates to proceed to on-chain ratification of the constitution
• global representation from community workshops
• a Constitution ready for on-chain ratification

2025: decentralized governance achieved

2025 has been transformative for Cardano governance, with the community taking full control of the blockchain’s future.

January 2025: The Plomin milestone

The Plomin hard fork (overseen by the Intersect Hard Fork Working Group) enabled fully decentralized governance implementation:

• complete activation of the governance features first integrated with the Chang hard fork
• Constitution submitted for DRep voting on January 30, 2025

February 2025: Constitutional success

The Cardano Constitution is an on-chain document that serves as the blockchain’s highest-level governance contract, establishing the core values, decision-making processes, parameter guardrails, and rights of ada owners within Cardano’s Voltaire governance framework.

This fundamental document functions as both the foundational rulebook for the entire ecosystem and the document that the Constitutional Committee ensures all governance actions conform to. Because of its importance, it can only be adopted or amended through a super-majority vote of at least 75% of participating ada, making it a truly community-driven document that requires broad consensus to exist, change, or be replaced.

On February 23, 2025, the Constitution achieved overwhelming community support:

• reached the 75% DRep approval threshold
• received unanimous backing from the Interim Constitutional Committee
• successfully enacted on-chain
• created the world’s first blockchain with a ratified digital Constitution

March-May 2025: democratic elections

The community approved the 2025 Proposed Cardano Roadmap with 63.81% of DReps voting in favor of the proposal.

Additionally, Intersect’s committee elections established community governance for the MBO:

• elections ran from March 24, 2025 to May 12, 2025
• ada holders participated in democratic committee selection
• seven standing committees now operate under community oversight

June-July 2025: treasury evolution

Treasury management achieved new levels of transparency and community control:

• voting for a new Constitutional Committee concluded with preliminary results announced and an independent audit report confirming those results.
• Intersect working groups, such as the Cardano Civics Committee, supported the democratic process
• Input | Output Engineering (IOE) presented development proposals to the community
• Input Output Research’s (IOR) vision was submitted for community feedback through the Intersect Product Committee
• a smart contract framework was introduced for automated treasury operations
• Within Intersect’s role as an Administrator, an external Oversight Committee was established with five independent organizations:
• Sundae Labs
• Xerberus
• NMKR
• Dquadrant
• The Cardano Foundation

Following extensive community discussions, polling and on-chain mechanisms, 39 proposals were put forward for treasury funding.

A new paradigm

What Cardano has achieved extends far beyond technical innovation. The community has created a working model of digital democracy that other blockchain ecosystems are now studying.

From the early workshops that gathered community input to the Constitutional Convention that ratified a digital constitution, every step was guided by genuine participatory governance.

Current status

• Cardano operates as a self-sustaining system
• With the first successful treasury withdrawal, Cardano has proven that a digital community and open-source development can be self-funded
• ada holders directly influence protocol parameters, treasury allocations, and development priorities
• the DRep system balances distributed governance power with decision-making efficiency
• the Constitutional Committee provides constitutional oversight through elected representatives
• essential governance tools are community-maintained

The bigger picture

The journey from CIP-1694’s publication in November 2022 to a fully operational constitutional democracy in 2025 demonstrates that decentralized communities can govern themselves effectively at scale.

Cardano has proven that blockchain technology can fulfill its promise of democratizing power and creating systems that serve their users rather than centralized authorities.

Cardano’s community has already built tomorrow’s solution. The most ambitious decentralized governance program in blockchain is now a living, breathing democracy that continues to evolve with each vote, proposal, and community decision.