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Governance in Cardano

· 3 min read
Moxie
Moxie
MoxiePool Operator

Decentralized Governance, the evolution of Cardano and my DRep decision

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Decentralized Decision-Making and the Role of DReps​

The Evolution of Cardano: From Byron to Voltaire​

Since its inception, the Cardano roadmap has been divided into five eras: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire. Although these eras are presented sequentially, they are clearly happening in parallel and are deeply interconnected, especially in areas such as Decentralization, Scaling, and Governance.

Eras in Cardano
  • Byron: The foundational era, focusing on establishing the network and creating ADA as currency.
  • Shelley: Decentralization of staking and delegation, allowing ADA holders to participate in securing the network.
  • Goguen: Smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), expanding Cardano's capabilities.
  • Basho: Scalability and performance improvements, introducing sidechains and enhancing network efficiency.
  • Voltaire: Governance, the final piece enabling decentralized decision-making and self-sustainability through the treasury.

Decentralized Decision-Making: A new Era of Governance​

One of the primary challenges faced by permissionless blockchains is how they evolve, how decisions are made and who is empowered to make them.

Governance in Bitcoin

Explore this insightful post on X that discusses the decision-making challenges in Bitcoin and the obstacles to technological evolution: The Consensus Conundrum

Cardano has taken a significant step forward in decentralized governance as envisioned in the Voltaire era of its roadmap. The goal is to establish a robust and structured framework for collective decision-making by the community, rather than relying on a centralized authority.

While the journey toward governance is far from complete, the Voltaire era officially began with CIP-1694, laying the groundwork for a more comprehensive governance mechanism. The primary objective is to empower any Cardano user to submit governance actions and define how consensus is achieved through the introduction of three distinct governance bodies with specific roles:

  1. Constitutional Committee
  2. Stake Pool Operators (SPOs)
  3. Delegated representatives (DReps)

The next steps in this process included multiple workshops held worldwide to further refine the governance framework and specify the roles and responsibilities of the previously mentioned bodies. With this objective in mind, the community, under the leadership of Intersect, designed a Cardano Constitution draft document, which was formalized at the sign-off event recently held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Constitutional Convention

MoxiePool participated as delegate alternate, representing Colombia, as one of the countries in the Cardano Constitutional Convention.

The role of the main bodies in Cardano Governance​

Article III. Section 2 of the Constition states: "Three independent governance bodies shall participate in voting for on-chain governance actions to provide checks and balances for the Cardano Blockchain, consisting of Delegated Representatives (DReps), Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) and the Constitutional Committee (CC)."

  • Constitutional Committee

Article VII of the Constitution defines the role of the Constitutional Committee. Its primary purpose is to ensure that all on-chain governance actions proposed by the community are consistent with the Constitution. This means the committee is responsible for reviewing and validating actions before their implementation on-chain.

  • Stake Pool Operators (SPOS)

Article VI describes the role of SPOs in governance. SPOs provide oversight for critical governance actions, such as hard fork initiation and updates to security-critical parameters. They act as independent validators, voting separately from DReps to ensure a balanced decision-making process.

  • Delegated Representatives (DReps)

Article V outlines the role of DReps, who represent ada holders by voting on their behalf. Ada holders can delegate their voting power to DReps, who then participate directly in governance actions, including voting on constitutional amendments, treasury withdrawals, and parameter changes.

The core principle guiding DReps is to act in the best interest of their delegators.

Join Me in Shaping the Future of Cardano Governance! 🌟​

How to Delegate:​

  1. Navigate to Cardano's governance platform or use your wallet’s delegation feature.
  2. Search for drep1c3e65ewexytnyczk9aftyaktnf7srdzc5sjm9qcgjtdhjk6mwc5 in the DRep registry.
  3. Delegate your voting power!

Let’s build a decentralized future together!