Welcome to edition 30! This week, read about the Chang mainnet upgrade, Intersect elections, committee activities, and progress on governance tooling. We also cover the new security policy, open-source projects, and community hub events. Stay informed on Cardano’s latest developments!

Cardano Chang update:  mainnet successfully upgraded

As scheduled on Sunday, September 1, 2024, at 21:44:00 UTC, the Cardano blockchain upgraded, bringing on-chain decision-making to the network. Taking another significant decentralization step, becoming an ecosystem governed solely by its community of ada holders.

As expected, the chain continued to run uninterrupted, as it has since inception. There were no emergency calls, and the top-class engineers on standby were not needed.

As we crossed the epoch boundary, an issue surfaced that, under certain circumstances, restarting a node took up to two hours longer than it should because it replayed from Genesis instead of resyncing from where it left off. Through Intersect’s newly established incident response team, engineers from across the ecosystem identified and solved the issue, releasing a new version of the Cardano node, v9.1.1, as a hotfix less than 24 hours after the hard fork. The engineers recommend that all nodes upgrade to v9.1.1.

The v9.1.0 upgrade introduced some improvements to the transaction cost model that DApps must consider. The Cardano ledger documentation provides a detailed explanation, including the rationale for the change. Costs are compared using the ref script calculator.

Watch this space for information on the next step in Cardano’s growth: Chang #2.

Governance tooling

We’re excited to announce Cardano GovTool is now live on the mainnet. This core governance tool, aligned with CIP-1694, enables every ada holder to participate in Cardano's governance through an accessible interface for web wallets and DApps, making the process familiar and easy to use.

Its core features are:

• ada holders able to browse for DReps to delegate to
• ada holders can register as DReps, and GovTool generates a metadata file
• ada holders can register as direct voters (by becoming a DRep)
• ada holders can propose and submit governance actions 
• DReps can vote and manage their profile

The Intersect Governance Tools working group invites all community members to participate in Cardano GovTool. All feedback is welcome (see guide on feedback), and the group triages and implements new feature ideas.

Read more in the Cardano GovTool documentation.

See also compatible wallets and known issues.

Special thanks go to the community builders who have burned the midnight oil to ensure Cardano GovTool’s launch: Byron Networks, DQuadrant, Bloxico, and We Deliver. Please see all contributors via GovTool/Contributors.

Committees and working groups

Intersect elections: the governing board and committees need you!

Intersect is driven by its members, allowing the community to shape Cardano’s future through the governing board, committees, working groups, and everything in between. Now is your chance to get involved. Applications are open from this Monday, September 9, and close on September 27.

Following the application closing, voting opens in early October, and all members have the opportunity to vote for their preferred candidates across our seven committees and to elect two members to the governing board.

Please note: you must be a full member (paid membership) to be eligible to stand and vote.

For details on your membership status or questions, visit Intersect's knowledge base or join the dedicated Discord channel.

Committee reporting

The bi-weekly committee report is ready for you to view. It provides a comprehensive view of committee updates in one place. You can also check out the updates channel for each committee in Discord.  

Security working group

Intersect’s open-source committee (OSC) has drafted and approved a new security policy for decentralized governance, which is now available on the Intersect website.

As part of our facilitation of the Chang upgrade, Intersect has already established an incident response function to enhance system security and resilience. In the coming weeks, a working group consisting of Intersect staff, OSC members, and other contributors will be formed to implement and test processes for a smooth transition from centralized systems.

For contributions, contact oso@intersectmbo.org. Stay tuned for updates!

Constitutional workshops 

We are approaching the halfway point in the global workshops series - 16 have successfully taken place, with an impressive 34 scheduled worldwide this month alone. Community attendees have been voting for their delegates; ten have been elected and confirmed to attend the upcoming Constitutional Convention in December. 

We are also starting to see high-level themes emerging from the workshops, all of which feed into the Cardano Civics Committee’s work on the draft Constitution in readiness for December. In the meantime, this week's workshops include Mauritius, Serbia, Indonesia, South Korea, France, the USA, Taiwan, Venezuela, and Kenya. The schedule is jam-packed, so check the calendar to sign up for a workshop near you.

Open source 

Open source committee - vote now!

Ahead of elections opening in full next week, the open source committee (OSC) is running a pre-election vote to fill four empty voting seats. Three more seats will be open during September and October, so you haven’t missed your chance!

Key info:

• Today, Friday, 6 September, is the last day to obtain your membership and be considered eligible to vote!
• Voting closes on Friday, September 13.
• You can view the candidates here.
• You can view the OSC voting policy here
• Register to vote:  https://oscvote.smmn.app

To participate, click here and register using the email you used when joining Intersect. Note: It’s crucial to register with the correct email address for your votes to be counted. Contact members@intersectmbo.org or create a support ticket on Discord if you need assistance.

For any help and support, please contact OSC at:

• oso@intersectmbo.org
• opensourcecommittee@intersectmbo.org 
• #open-source-committee(Intersect Discord)
• @TEX-OSO (Discord)
• @IntersectOSO (X)

To learn more about the candidates, attend the open interview/intro session on Wednesday, September 11, at 12 p.m. UTC. Voting closes Friday, September 13.

The open source committee will also participate in Intersect’s committee general elections in October; another three seats will be elected. Stay tuned to our announcements for when nominee applications open. 

Membership and community

Become a key player in Cardano’s future with Intersect

Take an active role in the next generation of Cardano and be part of the community driving real change.

Here’s a new update that emphasizes the membership benefits:

Exclusive benefits for members:

• Committees, groups, and boards: Participate in forming Cardano governance recommendations.
• Voting rights: Influence critical decisions by participating in board elections and governance committees.
• Access to funding: Apply for community grants and funding to drive forward utility projects and ecosystem growth.
• Networking opportunities: Engage with other members at exclusive events and gain early insights on upcoming projects.
• Increased visibility: Showcase your contributions and gain recognition within the ecosystem.
• Co-branding opportunities: Utilise the Intersect brand to support your organization.

Learn more here: Membership tiers and benefits, and Join us here

This week's membership stats are as follows:

Community hubs

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new Clay Nation Community Hub in Europe, primarily in Lisbon, Portugal! Clay Nation and our other four Community Hubs will host an Annual Members Meeting event. The team is very excited to join our journey, and having them on board is excellent. Watch this space for future updates!

Last week, our community hubs were busy with events. Please find the recordings of the virtual meetings below:

LATAM community hub

• Spanish town hall held on August 30.

Japan community hub

• X Space was held on August 30.
• The Constitutional Workshop was held in Tokyo on 31 August with 30 attendees.

CoinCeylon community hub

• August Town hall was held on August 31.

This week, there are lots of activities taking place led by our community hubs:

Japan community hub

• We'll meet in Sapporo on September 7. The event link is here if you'd like to attend.

WADA (Africa) community hub

• WADA town hall on September 5 at 16:00 UTC. The link to join is here.
• Constitutional workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 7 at 7:00 UTC.
• The East Africa town hall (Kenya) for the hub's pre-launch will be held on September 8 at 13:30 UTC. The link to join is here.

Community grants

Governance action outcomes

A grant to build a new feature for Cardano GovTool, governance action outcomes, is now open until September 23! CIP-1694 introduced on-chain governance, allowing ADA holders to submit governance actions directly on Cardano’s mainnet, transforming Cardano’s decision-making. Intersect supports CIP-1694 with tools like Cardano GovTool and the Constitution Committee (CC) portal. This grant funds the creation of a governance action outcomes section in Cardano GovTool. Successful applicants may become core maintainers with a related contract. For more information and to apply, click here.

Grant recent milestones:

• Cardano Curation has launched its first short-snappy video, introducing Cardano and the benefits of joining Intersect. The video is available in English and Spanish.
• Mellod Designs, “Governance Matters” has also released their latest videos on Cardano governance. If you wish to learn more about:
  • The constitutional committee, please click here.
  • Please click here for the role of stake pool operators in Voltaire governance (motions of no confidence, constitutional committee elections, hard fork initiation, security protocol voting).
  • For the draft constitution, ongoing global workshops, and community feedback initiatives, please click here.
  • For the Chang hard fork, please click here.

The governance matters videos have also been published on YouTube and LinkedIn; all the links are in the Milestone Acceptance Form. 

The stats below provide an overview of community grant status. The grants page has more information about the grant projects.

Delivery assurance

Delivery assurance continues to serve the Cardano community in achieving the Cardnao development backlog workstream. This week, we have completed 67 milestones across our Cardano Continuity Suppliers.

We are excited to announce the signing of four key contracts with suppliers who will support the ongoing development and maintenance of Cardano’s governance tooling as part of the Voltaire phase. Here is a summary of the four new contracts recently signed:

WeDeliver

The supplier will focus on two main work streams:

• Establishing the storybook.
• Providing ongoing support and maintenance for the GovTool proposal discussion pillar.

Bloxico

Bloxico will provide ongoing support and maintenance to the Constitutional Committee Portal.

Byron

Byron is responsible for continuing its work on the Cardano GovTool, which supports Cardano's vital governance processes. The contract includes:

• Refactoring the front and back ends of the Delegation and Voting pillars.
• Maintaining and supporting these pillars through testing networks and mainnet phases, emphasizing fixing bugs and gathering feedback.

DQuadrant

DQuadrant will extend its testing frameworks for Cardano GovTool to accommodate new features. The supplier will maintain the Cardano GovTool integrated testing and the Governance action loader.

This week’s reminders

• Don’t forget the committee elections. If you want to apply for a committee seat,  the deadline for upgrading your membership is September 27. For participating in annual meetings and election voting, you have until September 30 to upgrade your membership. You can learn more about the committee elections and watch the recent engagement events on our knowledge base, and you can view and ask questions on the Q&A channel on Discord. 
• Local community hubs will host six annual members’ meetings this year. Check the blog for more information, including the locations and dates.
• If you haven’t already had your say on DReps, this is an essential survey open to both members and associates to do so. Don’t miss your chance!
• Japanese events - Tokyo event: It’s happening on September 11 -  For more details, visit Tokyo Community Event 2024. Osaka Event 2024 will be held on September 13, 2024, led by Tim Harrison, IO Executive Vice President. It will also feature Charles Hoskinson. For more information and to register, visit Osaka Event 2024.

 

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

And finally, we’re interested in hearing 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.