Cardano’s Pioneering Governance Model: Empowering the Community and Shaping the Future

Cardano Spot, a community-driven social media network for Cardano, recently shared a Twitter thread discussing an exciting new proposal that has the potential to revolutionize the way decisions are made within the Cardano ecosystem.

Cardano is laying the groundwork for full decentralization as it plans to enter the Voltaire era later this year. The Voltaire era aims to develop a self-sustaining system by introducing voting and treasury systems, allowing network participants to use their stake and voting rights to influence the network’s future development.

The Cardano network currently relies on distributed infrastructure introduced during the Shelley era. However, to achieve true decentralization, the platform requires a capacity for maintenance and improvement in a decentralized manner. Once implemented, the Voltaire era will enable network participants to present Cardano improvement proposals that stakeholders can vote on, leveraging the existing staking and delegation process.

To fund future development, the Voltaire era will introduce a treasury system, pooling a fraction of all transaction fees to support development activities following the voting process. With both the voting and treasury systems in place, Cardano will no longer be under IOG’s management. Instead, the community will control Cardano’s future with the necessary tools to grow and evolve the platform from a secure, decentralized foundation established by IOG.

On March 24, IOG, the company responsible for Cardano’s research and development, provided an update on Cardano’s Age of Voltaire. The update highlighted CIP-1694, a Cardano Improvement Proposal named after the birth year of the French enlightenment thinker Voltaire, as a key component of Cardano’s next-generation governance. The proposal is currently being designed and co-created with the community to deliver on-chain mechanisms that enhance democratic decision-making across the ecosystem.

Around six weeks ago, IOG, the Cardano Foundation, and EMURGO co-hosted the CIP-1694 Workshop (named after the year of Voltaire’s birth) in Colorado to gather input and leverage the Cardano community’s collective intelligence.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BWm0S_H_Qyw%3Ffeature%3Doembed

IOG says that this event marked the beginning of a series of community events in 2023 aimed at advancing the CIP toward community validation and implementation. IOG is looking forward to further workshops and discussions in the coming months as the platform prepares to enter the Voltaire era and usher in a new age of governance.

According to Cardano Spot’s thread, CIP-1694 marks the first step toward implementing on-chain governance and treasury management in the final phase of Cardano’s roadmap.

Cardano Spot explains that CIP-1694 focuses on transitioning power and bootstrapping governance. Under this proposal, the community will be responsible for deciding the direction of protocol development and can potentially change aspects like protocol parameters, ledger rules, or consensus rules.

Cardano Spot states that, currently, governance involves Genesis entities working on protocol development and initiating changes, with Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) needing to accept these changes for a proposal to pass. CIP-1694 introduces two new groups: DReps and the Constitutional Committee. It describes DReps as active representatives to whom $ADA holders can delegate their voting power, ensuring community representation. $ADA holders can delegate to multiple DReps or abstain permanently.

According to Cardano Spot, DRep voting power will be proportional to the $ADA delegated to them, with 1 Lovelace equating to 1 vote. DReps can vote yes, no, or abstain on proposals, and they can even remove or replace the Constitutional Committee through a vote of no-confidence.

Cardano Spot adds that the Constitutional Committee, consisting of members selected through off-chain consensus, will monitor the new power dynamics and facilitate a smooth transition to rule-based mature governance. Committee members will have limited terms and can be removed if necessary.

Finally, the thread highlights that Cardano is among the few blockchain projects working on such a comprehensive governance framework. The CIP is expected to undergo further discussions and changes before it is finalized.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=obFeC2JS_IQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed
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