Cardano's Constitution
In the Voltaire phase of Cardano’s development, one of the core pillars of Intersect is to advance and champion Cardano’s on-chain governance, ultimately leading to a community-ratified Constitution. Intersect has facilitated open and transparent elections to the interim Constitutional Committee, the body overseeing the implementation of the interim Constitution during the bootstrapping phase following the Chang upgrade, and supports its day-to-day running.
What is a constitution?
The Voltaire era continues the project to fully decentralize the Cardano network, introducing the ability for the community to present proposals to improve and update the network, to be voted on using the existing staking and delegation process to vote on such proposals.
To enable this, a set of rules, parameters and guardrails must be in place to secure the safety and security of the chain and according to which proposals are reviewed. This set of rules is the Cardano Constitution - consulted on, drafted, updated and ratified for and by the community itself.
Why is a Constitution important?
CIP1694 set out a governance system to bring decision-making for the Cardano network on-chain, advancing previous governance to ensure that every ada holder has a voice and a role in shaping the future of the Cardano network.
The Cardano Constitution provides the basis and fundamental framework through which all stakeholders in the Cardano blockchain ecosystem can come together to govern themselves and form radically new approaches to human interaction and collaboration. The Constitution recognizes the role of and empowers the Constitutional Committee, confirms the right of the Cardano community to participate in collective bodies for collaboration, gives effect to on-chain governance, and empowers delegated representatives (referred to as DReps) to act as the voice of Ada holders for on-chain voting.