Cardano’s blockchain has reached a pivotal moment with Chang’s hard fork, a transformative upgrade that marks the beginning of the era of decentralized governance known as Voltaire. Cardano’s Chang upgrade is a major step toward empowering the holders of the ADA token to directly intervene in the future of the blockchain, through a new governance and voting structure.
The Chang hard fork introduces a new governance framework CIP-1694, which spells out the roles of three major user-led bodies: the Constitutional Committee, Delegate Representatives (dReps), and Stake Pool Operators (SPOs).
The governing system is now completely different from the previous one, where Cardano was governed by the founding entities, Cardano Foundation, Input Output Global, and Emurgo, who were in charge of controlling the chain upgrades. The new governance bodies will take over these functions and this denotes a shift to a more decentralized decision-making process.
This update indicates a general tendency in the cryptocurrency sphere, where lately, projects are more inclined towards decentralized established structures that suit the ideology of the industry and may serve as a possible shield against regulatory scrutiny.
Although DeFiLlama puts Cardano at the 28th position, its development is still under the spotlight due to the prominent role of Hoskinson in the hell of the crypto community. After his stint with Ethereum, Hoskinson refocused his sights on building Cardano as a competitor in the blockchain space.
Cardano’s Phased Upgrade Implementation
The Chang upgrade is being rolled out in two phases. The first phase, now operational, sets up an Interim Constitutional Committee to oversee governance while the full framework is established.
This phase ensures a cautious approach, limiting the committee’s authority to modify the blockchain code until the governance model is fully operational. The second phase, scheduled to commence in about 90 days, will activate the new bodies’ full governance capabilities, allowing for active community participation.
The Chang upgrade introduces Conway, a new ledger era named after mathematician John Horton Conway. Conway will enhance Cardano’s governance by implementing liquid democracy, which allows ADA holders to vote on issues directly or delegate their voting power to trusted representatives.
The goal of this method is to promote transparency and inclusivity across the ecosystem. Similarly, the enhanced capabilities provide PlutusV3 where more complex voting mechanisms and decentralized applications can be supported as there are new cryptographic primitives and smart contract functionalities integrated into them.
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