Budget draft proposals, upcoming elections, and new tool required - Intersect Development Update

17 min

Welcome to Intersect Development Update 49, where we break down all the essential Intersect happenings. This week, we will cover the release of the work-in-progress budgets, the constitution, the bi-annual committee elections, grants, governance tools, and more. Let's dive straight into the update! 



Work-in-progress budget proposals shared!

Exciting news! This week, the Budget Committee released the Intersect-wide committee drafts of proposed Cardano budgets. We’ve also provided a draft ecosystem budget overview document, which outlines how the proposed budget process will work and includes financial breakdowns.

Additionally, the document contains detailed proposals for each budget-assigned category, covering core development, research, governance support, growth & marketing, and innovation. All drafts have been published in their respective threads on the Cardano Forum for community review.

Fiscal responsibility and Cardano’s first Net-Change-Limit

To maintain the sustainability and stability of Cardano’s treasury, a Net-Change-Limit has been suggested, which would, if approved, set the constitutional and democratic mandate for the amount of ada that can be withdrawn from the Treasury over the 2025 period.

The total indicative withdrawal limit spans approximately 73 epochs between January and December 2025 and has been suggested at 350 million ADA. This figure aligns with the projected treasury growth in 2025, which is estimated at approximately 350 million ADA. It positions the budget framework as balanced, funding the ecosystem for 2025 while leaving net Treasury resources unchanged from 2024 levels*

The intent is to ensure that expenditures remain sustainable while enabling strategic investment in ecosystem growth. This figure remains subject to further review and on-chain approval as the ecosystem seeks to balance prudence with a forward-looking approach to treasury allocation.

This approach aims to:

  • Balance ecosystem growth with responsible treasury management
  • Ensure funds remain available for ongoing and future initiatives
  • Provide clarity and predictability for all stakeholders

Feedback time!

The Budget Committee has prepared the draft Net-Change-Limit metadata for community review and feedback, also available on the Cardano Forum. 

* Note: on Thursday February 13, a governance action was raised to change the treasury_growth_rate from 20% to 10%. This is the first community-raised parameter change using the new features available to ada holders following the Plomin Upgrade!  

This will impact projected revenues for the Treasury, warranting further community consideration. The Parameters subcommittee is preparing an analysis of expected and potential impact, both in the immediate and future. It’s now over to the community to decide. You can view the governance action here.

2025 budget proposals

The 2025 budget proposals represent a significant milestone in Cardano’s governance evolution but remain a work in progress. The process ahead is one of open dialogue, iteration, and refinement, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that funding allocations align with the ecosystem’s priorities and long-term sustainability.

Budget proposals are more than just numbers; they underpin the multiple roadmaps and technical advancements that support the Cardano ecosystem's growth, development, and sustainability. 

We sincerely thank the 100+ members who have contributed to this process so far. Your insights, expertise, and commitment to Cardano’s future are invaluable. We invite the broader community to join this conversation, build on ideas, challenge assumptions, and help refine a budget that genuinely serves the ecosystem. Your participation will ensure Cardano’s financial planning remains transparent, inclusive, and forward-thinking.

You can read all of the proposals by following the links below. 

We encourage all ada holders to participate by expanding or refining an idea, providing constructive feedback, challenging assumptions, or proposing improvements. A robust and well-informed debate will lead to more substantial, more effective proposals that better reflect the community's collective wisdom.

Through respectful discourse and shared commitment, we can create a budget that serves the ecosystem's best interests and strengthens Cardano’s future.

Committee elections

Elections?! In February? Yes, we know—it might seem early, but a lot goes into ensuring a smooth and transparent process for gathering community input. We’re excited to share that preparations for the elections of the seven committees—the membership and community committee, the growth and marketing committee, the open source committee, the Cardano budget committee, the technical steering committee, the Cardano civics committee, and the product committee—are underway. 

Last October, we held our first elections, confirming 50% of all committee seats and appointing two members to the governing board. The upcoming election will confirm the other half, resulting in all committee seats being elected positions.

Here are some key dates to keep in mind:

🔹 Early March – We’ll start highlighting the upcoming election cycle.
🔹 Mid-March – Applications will open.
🔹 Mid-April – The voting period will take place.
🔹 April 30, 2025 – Election results will be announced.

Stay tuned for more updates!

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at Committees Intersect.

Cardano Constitution

Since last week's update, we've seen an increase in 'Yes' votes from 2.12bn Ada (59.14%) to 2.55bn Ada (67.92%) and a significant increase in delegation to “auto abstain.” These changes are due to some centralized exchanges and founding entities choosing not to involve their Ada as a deciding factor, leaving the decision with the community. 

As of the time of writing, here are the latest voting numbers:

DRep votes (Source: @blockfrost_io) :
Total Stake - 8.72bn Ada
Total Yes Vote - 2.55bn Ada (67.92%)
Total No Vote - 171.2m Ada (4.57%)
Total Abstain - 4.97bn Ada
Not yet voted - 1.03bn Ada (27.51%)

ICC votes:
Cardano Atlantic Council - Constitutional
Intersect - Not yet voted
Cardano Foundation - Constitutional
Input | Output - Constitutional
Emurgo - Not yet voted
Cardano Japan - Constitutional
Eastern Cardano Council - Not yet voted

How Intersect’s Constitutional Council intends to vote

Since submitting the delegate-endorsed Constitution on-chain, Intersect’s Constitutional Council has deliberated on its rationale and decision regarding the constitutionality of the governance action to update the Constitution.

Earlier today, the Council unanimously agreed to vote YES on the delegate-endorsed Constitution and will be submitting the vote on-chain early next week.

To learn more about the delegate-endorsed Constitution and how to participate in the voting process, please refer to the following resources:

Community hubs

Two weeks ago, our LATAM community hub launched its Uruguay hub. They have created an exciting video capturing moments from the event, which you can watch here.

This week, our community hubs are hosting and participating in the following events:

Japan hub

  • X Space will be held on February 14 at 12 UTC; the link to join is here.

Europe hub, led by Clay Nation

  • Our Europe hub attended an event held by BGA in Paris, France, on February 13, alongside the Paris Cardano Community. The event brought together people in the Web3 gaming world; you can find out more here.

Clay Nation has also created its very first Intersect Clay Mate!

Open source

Another month, another project spotlight! Tune in and learn more about Konma Labs/Konma Org and their HaskLedger project – A special shoutout to Suganya Raju (Developer Advocate) for bringing this to the top. Project Spotlight, Project Demo, Follow Intersect OSO on Youtube!

ICYMI - Calling all Cardano developers!

Intersect’s Cardano Developer Experience survey is now open, and your input is crucial! Your experience matters – it just takes 5 minutes to complete. The survey, which runs from January 24 to February 28, helps identify challenges, opportunities, and areas for improvement in our tools, resources, and support systems. 

Don't miss this chance to make your voice heard and help build a stronger, more innovative Cardano ecosystem!

Take the survey now: Developer Experience Survey 

Grants

Lucas Macchiavelli has completed his educational grant to extend and deepen the understanding of Cardano governance through a comprehensive suite of multimedia resources, including infographics, articles, social media threads, and tutorials in English and Spanish. Content has covered key topics like CIP 1694, DReps, SPOs, and the constitutional committee. The outputs for Milestones 5 & 6 are visible below:

Delivery assurance

This week, we have been working on refreshing our community-facing communications to ensure updates on the entire procurement lifecycle processes are available for everyone to read. Over on Intersect Operational Services Overview | Intersect - Knowledge Base you will find all necessary information relating to the procurement process and how we will facilitate the management of contracts on behalf of the community. This covers:

Governance tooling

Cardano GovTool

The core issue recently raised by community members revolves around the lack of governance action (GA) support in the proposal submission area of GovTool following the implementation of the Plomin Upgrade. This is a valid criticism, and we acknowledge that the plan and roadmap needed to be communicated more effectively. This would have allowed for broader feedback to help adjust the direction and made it easier to identify ways to contribute, thereby better aligning with the broader community needs.

We are happy to share that a GovTool version has been in preview since yesterday. This version supports updates to the constitution type for an off-chain discussion and submission of on-chain voting. As a genuinely open-source tool, it promotes collaboration. Therefore, it's essential to give feedback, as you are at the forefront of the tool that helps shape the future of Cardano.

We have also adjusted the vote counts and logic to resemble those used by other community tools. Our updated logic is available in our docs.

Based on a grant Lido Nation won last year, governance action outcomes have also been released for preview, and more adjustments are expected.

Governance actions of other types (motion of no-confidence, hard-fork initiation, protocol parameter changes, update committee and/or threshold and/or terms) can be raised using the CLI. However, recognize that the lack of features in the GovTool interface is a barrier for non-technical users. These capabilities will be added in the next few days and weeks.

Governance in numbers

As we press ahead following Plomin, follow the progress of governance actions on-chain here every week. Since Friday, February 7, 2025: 

  • We've advanced from epoch 538 to epoch 540
  • Unique delegators increased by 5979 (116,115 -> 122,094)
  • The total number of vote delegations increased by 7168 (124,472 -> 131,640)
  • Total DRep votes increased by 136 (959 -> 1095)
  • The total number of DRep registrations increased by 48 (1021 -> 1069)
  • DReps who have attached metadata increased by 31 (627 -> 658)

To learn how to start using Cardano GovTool, explore GovTool documentation. Here, you'll find everything from step-by-step guides to detailed explanations of its features.

On the Intersect Discord server, you can connect to the core maintainers of governance tools via the new request and new help & support channels under Core Governance Tools in Discord. 

Governance tools working group

GovTool is fully open source and maintained by Intersect members. The working group continues to invite community members to participate in discussions and feature development for the Cardano GovTool. All feedback is welcome (see guide on feedback), and ongoing conversations are held in the wg-governance-tools Discord channel, where new feature ideas are regularly triaged and implemented.

Important member resources

  • Do you want to catch up with the latest happenings with the Cardano budget, constitution, and hard forks? This page is for you!
  • Intersect knowledge base - Our knowledge base, which is frequently updated, provides granular detail on our internal governance structure, committees and working groups, funding opportunities, and other topics.
  • Intersect website - the latest news, roadmap, and more.
  • GovTool - take part in testing governance actions on the SanchoNet testnet.
  • Intersect events calendar - keep up-to-date with all events Intersect hosts, such as working group and committee meetings, X spaces, and more.
  • Support - Please always use your membership email address and contact Intersect for support with any application errors, login issues, or questions without answers.
  • Social: Join our lively community and interact with committees, working groups, and other members on Discord. We are also continually active on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn, so follow us there to stay updated on our latest news and insights.
  • Are you interested in joining the team? We’re looking for a Finance Lead and Social Media and Content manager. Read more and apply today!

Well, that’s it for this week's update. Thanks for reading!

Finally, we’d like to hear more from you about subjects important to you, such as Cardano’s governance. Your ideas and suggestions are crucial to us. If you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions, please get in touch via email, X, or LinkedIn.