Looking back at the constitutional workshops and forward to the convention

The Cardano community has been hard at work these past months, and it’s important to celebrate and reflect on the journey so far.  

The end of the constitutional workshop series marks a pivotal milestone on the road to the constitutional convention, which will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Wednesday, December 4, 2024, to Friday, December 6. 

Cardano’s constitution

The Voltaire phase of Cardano’s development involves transforming the network into a self-sustaining system, beginning with an interim constitution, as required by CIP-1694. The next step is to engage the community in creating an official constitution. To this end, Intersect has embarked on a series of constitutional workshops to ensure that as many voices as possible are heard.

Running the constitutional workshops

Intersect called for applications from community members willing to host a constitutional workshop and received a great response. 63 applications were accepted, and Intersect awarded grants to successful applicants to run their local workshops. 64 workshops (including a pilot kindly hosted by the Cardano Foundation) took place from the beginning of August to mid-October.

The civics committee has collected a wealth of valuable data and insight from the workshops. This will feed into the final draft, which the delegates at the constitutional convention in Buenos Aires will vote on.

A global effort

The completed workshops covered  51 countries in six of the seven continents. Each workshop focused on three to six questions, each with various topics. With over 1,400 participants, the community engagement level has been nothing short of inspiring. 

Each workshop elected one delegate and one traveling alternate.  Meet the delegates here - Note that the interim constitutional committee has not ratified all the candidates; we will update the information as they are.

Africa

Country	City	Delegate
Burkina Faso	Bobo Dioulasso	Laurentine Djatsa
Cameroon	Douala	Wepngong Maureen
Democratic Republic of Congo	Goma	Boaz Balume
Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	Nebiyu Endubis
Ghana	Accra	Afia Owusu
	Tamale	Mohammed Mustapha Yakubu
Kenya	Nairobi	Darlington Wleh
Liberia	Harper	Malik Kone
Mauritius	Port Louis	Keshav
Nigeria	Lagos	Mubarak Oladimeji
South Africa	Johannesburg	Celiwe Ngwenya
Tanzania	Dar Es Salaam	Evans Kisanga

Asia and the Middle East

Country	City	Delegate
Georgia	Batumi	Andrew Thornhill
India	Bangalore
Indonesia	Bandung	Randy
Japan	Osaka	Seira Yun
	Tokyo
Mongolia	Ulaanbaatar	Temulun Khongorzul
Philippines	Paranaque City, Metro Manila
Singapore	Singapore	Patrick Tobler
South Korea	Seoul
Sri Lanka	Colombo	Kavinda Kariyapperuma
Taiwan	Taipei	Michael Rogero
United Arab Emirates	Dubai	Zain Khan
Vietnam	Ho Chi Minh City	Trần Đăng Quang (Daniel)

Europe

Country	City	Delegate
Austria	Vienna	Gian Luca Scheper
Bulgaria	Varna	Martin Marinov
Estonia	Tallinn	Astra Tikas
France	Saint Julien en Genevois
Germany	Berlin	Andreas Schmitt
Greece	Thessaloniki
Italy	Bologna
Netherlands	Den Haag	Max Van Rossem
Norway	Oslo	Ken Erik Ølmheim
Portugal	Lisbon	Pedrol Lucas
Scotland	Edinburgh	Larisa Mcfarlane
Serbia	Belgrade	Katarina Ciric
Spain	Santander
United Kingdom	London	Mark Hall

North/Central America

Country	City	Delegates
Canada	Vancouver
	Toronto
Mexico	Mexico City	Cristian Rojas
Puerto Rico	Luquillo	Gisela Rosa
USA	Austin	Gabriel S Talamantes
	Chicago	Ken Ladd
	Fort Mayers
	Philadelphia	Nadia Hopkins
	San Diego
	Washington

South America

Country	City	Delegates
Argentina	Buenos Aires	Jose Javier Iadicicco
	Buenos Aires #2
Bolivia	La Paz	Jose Velazquez
Brazil	Rio	Otavio Lima
	São Paulo	Maria Carmo
Chile	Santiago
Colombia	Bogota	Jaime Andres Posada
Ecuador	Quito	David Tacuri
Paraguay	Asuncion	Caleb Montiel
Peru	Lima	Taina Bugs
Venezuela	Caracas

Oceania

Country	City	Delegates
Australia	Perth
	Sydney	Corinne Phillips
Aotearoa, New Zealand	Tauranga	Engie Matene

Each workshop has been a space for honest conversations, collaborative creation, and productive development toward a constitution that embraces the interests and values of the community at large. 

What happens next

With the workshops all wrapped up, the delegates and the Cardano civics committee are working hard to collate all the input and feedback. We look forward to the convention, where delegates will gather to ratify the final version of the constitution before it is enacted on-chain.  

Gratitude and congratulations 

A huge thank you to everyone who made these workshops possible. To the hosts who facilitated the sessions, the participants who shared their invaluable feedback, and everyone who contributed to the draft constitution, as well as the interim constitution committee, which upheld the interim constitution during this vital transitional phase—your efforts have been instrumental in shaping the future of Cardano’s governance. 

Congratulations to the 128 delegates selected to represent the community at the constitutional convention. Your role is crucial in ensuring that the feedback and ideas from the workshops are represented during the convention.

The journey to this point has resulted from community engagement, trust, and a shared vision for a sustainable and inclusive governance framework for Cardano. Excitement is building as we race towards the constitutional convention, and there’s no sign of slowing down. Look out for more information over the coming weeks!