Welcome to Intersect’s Development Update #82! This week, attention shifts to the second half of Election Season 2025, with candidate registration now open for the Committee elections. We also share results from the Board elections, preview the launch of the Executive Director recruitment process, and highlight the new CIP-149 Grant Program.

On the open-source side, we’re hiring for key roles, expanding the Community Maintainer program, and deepening our partnership with Chinstrap. Plus, catch up on Token 2049 Singapore highlights, the latest GovTool release, and Episode 8 of the Open Source Cowboy podcast - Let’s dive in!

Intersect Committee Elections 2025 - candidate registration is open!

With the Board elections now complete (see the results in the section below!), attention shifts to the second half of Election Season 2025, the Committee elections. Candidate registration is now open, and this is your chance to step forward. Every committee seat will be filled by an elected member, giving Intersect members a direct role in shaping Cardano’s future.

Committees, supported by working groups, tackle some of the most significant challenges and opportunities facing the ecosystem. They provide technical guidance, scrutinize budgets, strengthen governance practices, support open-source development, grow membership and community, and help steer Cardano’s long-term growth.

By standing as a candidate or supporting those who do, members can make a real impact. Committees ensure decisions are informed, accountable, and community-led,  and your participation is vital.

The election timeline is as follows:

• Applications open: October 1 – October 14
• Voting open: October 16 – October 29
• Results announced: November 3

Suppose you’re passionate about Cardano’s mission to empower the powerless, bank the unbanked, and connect the unconnected, and can commit around 10 hours+ per month. In that case, we encourage you to stand as a candidate. The complete application form is available in advance, allowing members to review the questions and prepare. However, all submissions must be made through the Members Area once registration opens.

For more information on the committees, eligibility rules, and participation details, please refer to our comprehensive blog post.

Intersect announces results of 2025 Board elections

In a landmark election, Intersect is pleased to present the results of the 2025 Board of Directors election, with 269 unique members participating in the vote, representing 22% of all eligible members, four of the seven elected representatives were directly chosen from a pool of 20 initial candidates, a result that exceeded the required threshold of 10% and underscored the strength of member engagement.

Four newly elected members will now take their places on the Board, bringing fresh perspectives and strengthening a member-led, member-backed future for Intersect.

We’re pleased to announce that Adam Rusch, Kavinda Kariyapperuma, Mercy Fordwoo, and Rand McHenry have been elected by their peers. Their election brings meaningful change to the leadership of Intersect, with a majority of Non-Executive Directors chosen directly by our global membership, further strengthening the community’s journey to build decentralized governance at scale.

What happens next?

The Intersect Board now enters a one-month onboarding process, during which current and former Members work closely with those newly elected to ensure continuity in decision-making, problem-solving, and task tracking. At the end of the onboarding process, Board members will join the Intersect team at the Cardano Summit in Berlin, Germany, in November.

Intersect launches open recruitment for Executive Director

Earlier this Summer, the Governing Board proposed an open process to confirm Intersect’s permanent Executive Director - one that is informed and shaped by our members and the broader community. 

We’re pleased to announce that next week we will launch the recruitment process to confirm our permanent Executive Director. In keeping with our principles of transparency and decentralization the process will be open, with members and Delegated Representatives (DReps) invited to also participate in a poll that will help guide the Board’s final decision.

Our Interim Executive Director, Jack Briggs, will continue to serve throughout this process. The Board of Directors, informed by member and DRep input, will make the final appointment.

A leadership opportunity
This is an open opportunity for anyone to apply. We welcome candidates from across the Cardano ecosystem and beyond who share our vision for a decentralized, member-led future.

We also encourage all members and DReps to participate in the upcoming poll to ensure the community’s voice is reflected in the selection of our next Executive Director.

Together, we will take another critical step in building governance structures that are accountable, transparent, and aligned with the values of the Cardano community. You can read the full job description here.

The process

The recruitment process has been designed to ensure openness and community participation. You can review the complete details in the Executive Director Recruitment Process document.

• Applications & nominations open: Monday, October 6 – Friday, October 24, 2025
• Member & DRep polling: Monday, October 27 – Friday, October 31, 2025
• Panel interviews: From Monday, November 3
• Final decision: Made by the Board, informed by polling results and interviews

This approach allows members and DReps to provide a clear sense check, helping the Board to make an informed and representative decision.

This upcoming process represents a crucial step in strengthening Intersect’s member-led governance, and we encourage all members and DReps to participate.

Civics Committee update - launch of the CIP-149 Grant Program

This week, the Civics Committee announced the launch of the CIP-149 Grant Program, a small-grant initiative designed to accelerate the ecosystem's adoption of CIP-149: Optional DRep Compensation.

This initiative provides small grants to wallet providers, governance tools, and SDKs to implement CIP-149 (Optional DRep Compensation). This simple, opt-in feature allows ADA holders to donate a portion of their staking rewards to their chosen Delegated Representative (DRep).

A total of 100,000 ada has been allocated with a target completion of Q4 2025. Applicants who meet requirements and integrate the new features, with open documentation and code, will receive payment once milestones are confirmed. Funding is limited and awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

Projects interested can learn more about the grant and how to apply here.

For questions, please contact civics-committee@intersectmbo.org. You can also follow us on X (@intersectCIVICS) to stay up to date.

Note: The Civics Committee did not hold its regular weekly meeting this week, as many members were engaged with other commitments.

As Project Catalyst and budget season are in full swing, we encourage anyone considering open-sourcing their projects to take advantage of our partnership with the Chinstrap Community.

Open sourcing can improve funding prospects, but selecting the proper license is crucial for striking a balance between openness and business incentives. Chinstrap specializes in helping open-source builders scale responsibly, and their workshops have already been praised by Intersect members Christian Taylor and Juan Sierra.

• Book a free consult (Legal or Business Strategy)
• Explore Chinstrap resources
• Watch the partnership video

And now onto some exciting news from the Open Source Office!

We’re hiring!
Here at the open source office, we’re always pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and now we need your help to make even more! We’re expanding and looking for the following individuals to join us in our mission to broaden open-source opportunities on Cardano.

Security Incident Officer - The Open Source Office is currently hiring a Security Incident Officer to help lead security operations at Intersect. This role will strengthen our ability to monitor, assess, and respond to incidents across Cardano’s open-source ecosystem. Check out the role details and then apply here.

Community Maintainer - Developers can also apply to become a Community Maintainer. This program provides sustainable, year-long funding for maintainers of Cardano’s most critical open-source projects, helping to reduce burnout, build stronger collaboration, and keep core codebases healthy.

As a Community Maintainer, you will:

1. Receive structured financial support
2. Work directly with core teams and contributors
3. Help ensure Cardano’s projects remain resilient and well-maintained

There are currently 17 projects open for maintainers to support - Watch the explainer video  and apply here

Nurturing innovation 

How does Intersect’s Project Incubation Process strengthen Cardano’s open-source ecosystem?

Intersect recently published a blog spotlighting how we support projects through mentorship, technical validation, governance, and more, as well as what we explicitly don’t promise to avoid misaligned expectations. You can check it out here: bit.ly/IntNurIn.

In the accompanying announcement on X, we invited members and ecosystem participants to engage more deeply with Intersect’s support structures, reinforcing that this isn’t passive support. it’s co-creation and collaboration.

This underscores our ongoing commitment:

• To be transparent about our role and boundaries.
• To enable members and projects to grow with clarity about what support is feasible.
• To encourage accountability on both sides — we invest, but projects also maintain ownership and responsibility.

We’ll continue to track engagement metrics (clicks, shares, replies) from this announcement and use them to calibrate how we frame project support content as we progress.


Finally, Open Source Cowboy Podcast Episode 8 is now live. This episode features Hart Montgomery, CTO at Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust (formerly Hyperledger), in a wide-ranging conversation about what “decentralized trust” really means for builders, enterprises, and open-source communities - Listen here!

Token 2049 Singapore: A Milestone for Cardano’s Unified Global Events Strategy

Token 2049 Singapore marked the very first event under Cardano’s Unified Global Events Marketing Strategy, a direction voted on and supported by the community. A heartfelt thank you goes out to the Cardano Community for making our presence at such a global stage possible.

Intersect proudly onboarded over 300 new members, expanding our network and reinforcing our mission. The highlight of the event was Jack Brigg’s outstanding speech at the Cardano booth, which captivated attendees and reaffirmed Intersect’s vision for governance and community-driven growth. Our enterprise members were fully represented, demonstrating the depth and strength of the Cardano ecosystem.

We also hosted multiple projects on our stage, including Masumi, LACE Wallet, Iagon, and others. Their participation underlined the diversity, innovation, and synergy within the Cardano ecosystem.

A special session brought together distinguished leaders from the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO to chart the path forward for Cardano, highlighting its pivotal role in accelerating blockchain adoption as digital infrastructure. The panel included:

• Frederik Gregaard, CEO, Cardano Foundation
• Phillip Pon, CEO, EMURGO
• Hosted by Giorgio Zinetti, CTO, Cardano Foundation

Check out the recording here

Another highlight that drew tremendous attention was the Cardano Card. Phillip Pon (CEO, EMURGO) presented the Cardano Card Founders Edition Card 001 to Charles Hoskinson, marking a symbolic moment of recognition and excitement for the future of Cardano.

To add to the celebrations, another Founders Edition Card was handed over at Token 2049 — this one to Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation. A nod to his leadership and the crucial role he plays in driving Cardano forward.

And of course, Snek added their flair to the entire Cardano booth, making it one of the most vibrant and talked-about spaces at the event.

Overall, Token 2049 Singapore was an outstanding success, showcasing Cardano’s strength, unity, and innovation on the global stage. We look forward to building on this momentum and making an even greater impact at Token 2049 next year.

If you missed it, you can catch the full livestream here: Token 2049 Cardano Pplaylist


Enterprise Spotlight: Unbox Universe

Unbox Universe is reimagining how value is governed by embedding intelligence directly into assets and systems. With over 50 real-world use cases, ranging from digital transaction ecosystems in Burundi to sustainability-driven Deposit Return Schemes and initiatives with UNRWA, as well as efforts to combat opioid misuse in the U.S., Unbox demonstrates how blockchain can deliver measurable social and economic impact. 

Their mission to create transparent, self-governing value systems aligns closely with Cardano’s vision for accountable and inclusive infrastructure. As an enterprise member, Unbox brings both innovation and a proven track record of global deployment, making it a key partner in showcasing Cardano’s potential to power real-world change.



The latest GovTool release v2.0.36, introduced a vital fix to ensure that SQL correctly counts the number of active Constitutional Committee members from the current constitutional committee, along with a set of minor but proper responsive adjustments to improve the overall user experience across devices.

Treasury Withdrawal Governance Action is now live on-chain for DReps to review and vote on. Approval of this action will unlock funds to:

• Continue active development of Cardano GovTool, the only fully open-source and community-owned governance tool
• Incentivize individual contributors
• Support additional open-source governance tools with dedicated funding

Questions or feedback? The GovTool Consortium can be reached on X via @cardano_govtool, through DMs, or in the weekly Governance Working Group sessions. Discussion is also open on the GovTool forum.

Governance Tools Working Group

This week’s Governance Tools Working Group focused on how votes are calculated and how closely current tools align with the ledger’s interpretation of stake and vote weight. The discussion highlighted differences between existing approaches, the importance of consistency when displaying results, and the impact of snapshots taken at epoch boundaries.

Participants stressed that vote calculations must balance accuracy with usability,  for example, when showing ratios such as yes stake over active stake while excluding inactive or retired DReps.

The group also examined the risks of misalignment between tools and ledger logic, as well as the challenge of helping users understand the nuances of vote weighting. Suggested options included:

• Defining a CIP for standardized calculation
• Displaying both live and epoch-boundary distributions
• Ensuring results remain clear and accessible for ada holders while technically sound.

The takeaway was clear: with governance adoption growing, it is urgent to establish alignment and transparent standards so that all ada holders can rely on consistent reporting of voting power and outcomes.

That’s it for this week’s update. Thank you for reading. To learn more about Intersect’s work, explore our Knowledge Base, which provides detailed information on governance structures, committees, and funding. Additionally, visit the Intersect website for the latest news, updates, and roadmap information.

Join the conversation on Discord, and follow us on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn to engage with fellow members, working groups, and the broader community.

Your voice helps shape the future of Cardano governance.