Contributor: Intersect

At the base of Cardano’s ever-expanding platform are principles that exist for the purpose of fostering an open and decentralized blockchain network that is built for the people, by the people. Cardano’s journey towards the age of Voltaire and the era of on-chain governance has been as much about addressing the challenges of governance as it is about seeking consensus on what an open, community-led ecosystem means. Through collective actions, such as steering committees, Intersect – Cardano’s member-based organization tasked with preserving the protocol’s continuity and ongoing development – provides opportunities for community members to make decisions about Cardano’s future, together.

Key to Intersect’s core mission is its commitment to preserve and stimulate open-source development on Cardano. The Open Source Committee (OSC) will steward Cardano’s open-source strategy by formulating and deploying a comprehensive roadmap for open-source initiatives happening on the Cardano blockchain, ensuring that transparency and accessibility are always considered. Within Intersect, it serves as an advisory body to the Open Source Program Office, the OSC’s efforts will be guided by tenets aimed at maintaining an open-source culture across Cardano. At a recent meeting, the OSC agreed the following principles and aims:

• (Legitimacy) Maintain the legitimacy of the Cardano Open Source Project (COSP).
• The COSP is not just a collection of GitHub repositories. It is the source code for the binaries that are deployed onto the real Cardano mainnet.
• (Quality) Maintain the security and health of the Cardano mainnet.
• That means COSP must be committed to high quality, both in decision-making and in writing software.
• (Sustainability) Development of the COSP must continue.
• Many open-source projects die: people lose interest, move on, knowledge is lost, etc. If that happens to the COSP, then the Cardano network may become stagnant.
• (Citizenship) Be a good Open Source citizen.
• We want the COSP to be a model in the open-source world. That means taking the time to contribute to the broader ecosystem.

As part of its oversight function, the OSC will oversee and support open-source pilot projects across the network by assessing the feasibility and potential impact of each initiative. Doing so will help foster a culture of learning and improvement, and identify successful tactics that can be scaled for wider community adoption.

Cardano’s trajectory will be shaped by its ability to consistently achieve evolutionary strides. Commitments such as embracing open-source ideas and practices, and empowering community members to collaborate and contribute are just some insights into Cardano’s future. The minutes from the OSC meetings can be found on the Cardano Forum. The committee is open to new participants and contributors to learn more, on how to get involved, please join the Intersect discord #OSC-feedback channel.