Welcome to another exciting edition. This week's prolific update covers two annual members’ meetings, the Intersect elections, partnerships, Cardano key players, the constitution, governance and community tooling, delivery assurance—and more! 

Intersect elections 2024 - less than ten days of voting to go!

The 2024 Intersect elections are underway, enabling members to help shape the future of our organization. This is a pivotal moment in our governance structure with seven key committees and two seats on the governing board up for election. With less than ten days left, now is the time to make your voice heard and contribute to Intersect's future. Vote today and help shape the future of our community!

Members can vote for 50% of the seats across seven committees, which impact key areas of Cardano's development. The remaining seats are up for election in April 2025.

Meet the candidates - Review profiles of the committee and board election candidates using the links below:

• Committee election candidates
• Board election candidates

Join the remaining election candidate spaces - and stay engaged with the ongoing X Spaces, where candidates present their platforms.
Upcoming sessions:

• Membership and community committee (hosted by Intersect MCC) - Sunday,  October 13 at 23:00 UTC
• Product and technical steering committee candidates - Monday, October 14 at noon UTC
• Open source committee candidates introduction - Tuesday, October 15 at 15:00 UTC
• Civics and budget committee candidates - Wednesday, October 16 at 14:00 UTC
• Open source committee candidates introduction - Thursday, October 17 at noon UTC

Candidates can also promote themselves on this Discord channel and take questions from the community.

Voting process - voting opened on October 4 and will remain open until October 20. Registered members can cast their votes through the member portal. If you're new to the process, check out this Loom video to see how it works.

Important dates to remember

• October 20: voting closes at 10:00 AM UTC.
• October 23: election results will be announced at the Cardano Summit in Dubai and made available on the member portal.

For more details, visit the Intersect Election 2024 knowledge base, which provides comprehensive information about the election process, candidate details, and more.

There are also four remaining weekly Q&A drop-in sessions, where you can ask any lingering questions:

Tuesday, October 15 at 17:00 UTC

Tuesday, October 22 at 17:00 UTC

Tuesday, October 29 at 17:00 UTC

If you have any membership-related questions or are a candidate looking to engage with the community, check out Intersect's knowledge base and join the conversation on our Discord channel.

Intersect partners with Bitergia to enhance open-source insights

We are excited to announce a strategic partnership with Bitergia, an open-source analytics and software development metrics leader. Now that Bitergia is an enterprise member of Intersect, this collaboration will bolster our efforts to provide transparent and actionable insights into the development and progress of open-source projects within the Intersect ecosystem.

By integrating Bitergia's data analysis and visualization expertise, we will deliver enhanced insights into the activity and contributions across core Cardano and other open source projects building on Cardano. This partnership will empower our community with data-driven insights, fostering more informed decision-making and strengthening the open-source infrastructure that powers our work - particularly across the 40+ core Cardano repos we steward and maintain.

What this means for the Intersect community:

• Enhanced transparency - Users can access detailed metrics about project contributions, community engagement, and development velocity.
• Data-driven decisions - Insights derived from Bitergia's analytics will help the community prioritize and support critical infrastructure projects effectively.
• A stronger ecosystem - The partnership aligns with our commitment to nurturing a sustainable and transparent open-source ecosystem, ensuring long-term success.

Read more here: https://bitergia.com/intersect-partnership

Cardano’s development: key players and impact

Cardano's core development is key pillar for Intersect. Since our inception in 2023, we’ve focussed attention on building resilience through distributed development. Recent Bitergia analysis shows a positive shift with more organizations contributing, ultimately enhancing Cardano’s decentralization. The reports also highlight leadership from groups like Tweag, Well-Typed, and BinarApps, and more, signaling a move toward a more diversified and resilient development model. 

Annual members’ meetings
On Saturday, October 5, Intersect held its annual members’ meeting (AMM) in Lisbon, bringing together active members and those interested in joining the Intersect community. Thanks to the new Europe Hub Manager, Lenna Onto and Clay Nation, for organizing a successful event in a great Web3 venue!

The AMMs' primary focus is to review the past year, gather feedback on areas for improvement, and anticipate what 2025 will bring.

Special town hall - virtual AMM
Also this week, on Tuesday evening, Intersect hosted a special virtual annual members’ meeting (AMM) town hall, providing an opportunity for members around the globe who cannot attend one of the physical events to connect and discuss the organization's progress and future direction. This virtual gathering aimed to extend the conversations from our recent events in Tokyo and Lisbon AMM, offering more accessibility to members who couldn’t attend in person.

The town hall recapped Intersect's 2024 activities, including the ongoing election process, voting procedures, and insights from constitutional workshops in India, Greece, Lisbon, and Norway. It concluded with a community Q&A session and breakout rooms for focused discussions, providing a valuable platform for open dialogue and ensuring all members have a voice in shaping Intersect's future.

Those who could not attend can watch the entire event here.

Where’s next?

Today, we ran the AMM for Accra, Ghana, and a second remote session for the community in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (in French). Although we don’t have any updates from this event yet, we’ll update you in next week's report. Tomorrow, we are in Sri Lanka, where you can still reserve your spot if you’re quick.

If you’d like to attend any events, you can read more and RSVP to an event near you. Also, check out the AMM Q&A session on Intersect’s YouTube channel - don’t forget to like and subscribe!

Chang #2 hard fork progress
The hard fork working group has been actively meeting over the past few weeks to discuss the indicative timeline for the upcoming Chang #2 upgrade. As part of our commitment to keeping the community informed, we have updated the Knowledge Base with initial information about Chang #2. You can find these details in the refreshed ‘Cardano Updates’ space, a central resource for all updates related to this upgrade.

We encourage all members to bookmark this space and check back regularly. We will add new information as soon as the working group confirms it.

Where to find information
Here are the official channels where you can find the latest updates on Chang #2:

• Chang #2 knowledge space - for the most detailed and up-to-date information.
• Intersect Discord #wg-hardfork channel - join the conversation and stay engaged with real-time updates.
• Intersect Twitter (@Intersectmbo) - follow us for critical announcements and highlights.
• Intersect weekly development report - covers progress, timelines, and important milestones.
  
  

Stay tuned for further updates as we approach the Chang #2 upgrade. We appreciate the community's support and engagement throughout this process.

Constitutional workshops 

Constitutional workshop in Oslo
Beatrice Anihiri, an Intersect member and a representative of the Cardano Atlantic council, facilitated the constitutional workshop held on October 4 in Oslo. The event gathered participants from Norway, Italy, England, Germany, and the USA to discuss and refine key aspects of the Cardano constitution.

Key topics covered during the workshop included:

• Alignment of Article I, Section 1 with Cardano ethos - Participants debated whether the principles outlined in this section accurately reflect the core values of the Cardano blockchain.
• DRep eligibility and appointment - Discussions focused on whether participation in on-chain governance should be limited to ada owners or extended to designees they appointed.
• DRep code of conduct - The workshop explored transparency and accountability requirements for DReps, emphasizing the importance of clear conduct guidelines.
• DRep re-selection mechanism - A process requiring periodic re-selection of DReps by ada holders was considered.
• Dual voting concerns - Participants examined potential conflicts arising when individuals vote on the same governance actions as DReps and stake pool operators (SPOs) and possible solutions.

Election results
After voting, Ken-Erik Ølmheim was elected as the Norway delegate, with Daniel Johnsen selected as the traveling alternate. 

Get involved

Join an upcoming workshop - Workshops continue worldwide, offering opportunities for community members to engage directly. Check the full calendar to find a workshop near you and sign up. These sessions are crucial for gathering insights that will shape the constitutional framework.

Meet your elected delegates - Each workshop selects a delegate and an alternate to represent their region at the convention in Buenos Aires. These representatives gather feedback and present regional perspectives. Review the list of elected delegates and alternates from across the globe.

Submit your feedback online -  You can still contribute if you can’t attend a workshop. Submit your feedback online, and rest assured that all input, whether from workshops or individual submissions, will be considered in the finalization of the constitution.

For more details, visit our knowledge base, which includes the complete workshop schedule, resources for hosts and attendees, the draft constitution, and the list of elected delegates for the convention.

Intersect YouTube content
This week, we interviewed Collin Smith, the co-founder of Mav100, who spoke to us about deploying DePIN to educate communities and increase engagement. We also caught up with Thomas Lindseth, Intersect’s Constitution Engagement Manager, who provided insight into the role of DReps and why they are so essential as we progress into the Voltaire governance era.

Community hubs
Last week, our community hubs were busy attending and hosting events. Our Japan and Europe hubs have successfully held their annual members’ meetings. Our Brazil hub manager within our LATAM hub, Otávio Lima, also attended BitSampa in Brazil to discuss all things Intersect. You can view the stand here. Last week’s WADA (Africa) Town Hall recording can also be viewed here (passcode: 2mQk4^6Y).

This week, the following hub activities are taking place:

Japan hub

• X space to be held on October 11. The link to the space can be found here.
• Our Japan hub will host a Cardano meet-up in Fukuoka with the co-host BTBF event on October 12 - the invite for the event is here.

Sri Lanka hub (led by CoinCeylon)

• Our Sri Lanka hub hosted a 4-hour University introductory workshop session on October 8, inviting students to the University of Kelaniya’s brand-new computing and technology faculty in partnership with the University’s Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Students were introduced to the fundamentals of blockchain, Intersect, and building on Cardano. Special thanks to Dr. Rasika Rajapakse, Head of the Centre, for his invaluable support. This event reinforced Intersect’s mission of fostering blockchain education, governance, and innovation within Sri Lanka's tech community. You can watch a recap video of the event here.

Africa hub (led by WADA)

• The WADA Town Hall was held on October 1. You can watch the recording here (the passcode is q0Gu*8=k).
• The annual members’ meeting will be held on October 10 at 16:00 UTC.
• The Central Africa Town Hall (Goma) will be held on October 11 at 11:30 UTC. The link to attend is here.
• West Africa Town Hall (Ghana) will be held on October 11 at 16:00 UTC. The link to attend is here.
• East Africa Town Hall (Kenya) is to be held on October 11 at 15:00 UTC. The link to attend is here.

DReps 

Join the kick-off for the new working group focussing on DReps!

We're excited to announce the launch of the DRep working group, which is dedicated to empowering DReps in the budget approval process. This group will focus on delivering educational content and equipping DReps with the knowledge they need to make well-informed, impactful decisions for the Cardano ecosystem.

Interested in joining? Connect with us on Discord. 

Community grants
A subgroup of the governance tools working group, including members from our core maintainers, is evaluating the Cardano GovTool governance action outcome grant this week. We hope to reveal the results by Friday, October 18.

The DRep campaign platform grant has now been completed by LidoNation, establishing the first version of its kind. Please visit the site via 1694.io/dreps. To see the progress of this grant, step by step, please click here.

The constitutional committee portal grant has also released its close-out report for the project with key takeaways such as ‘Establishing clear communication channels and providing prompt feedback was essential in enabling quick decision-making and effective problem-solving throughout the project. This collaborative approach strengthened relationships and played a pivotal role in successfully reaching the project's milestones.’

For a detailed breakdown, visit the grants page.

Delivery assurance
The latest project updates are shared monthly and quarterly throughout the knowledge base. Next week, you will find the Q3 report covering the last 3 months of work completed across core continuity contracts - milestone completion reports. 

Here are the latest stats from the delivery assurance team:


If you’d like to explore these milestones more deeply, visit our knowledge base.

Governance tooling

Cardano GovTool

This week saw the release of the latest version of GovTool, with key updates detailed in the release notes. GovTool, aligned with CIP-1694, allows ada holders to participate in Cardano governance via an intuitive interface for web wallets and DApps. Its core features include browsing for DReps to delegate to, registering as a DRep (with auto-generated metadata files), and proposing governance actions. DReps are empowered to vote and manage their profiles directly. For more information, refer to the Cardano GovTool documentation, compatible wallets, and known issues.

GovTool on the mainnet is in its bootstrapping phase, with a second hard fork planned in the coming weeks to enable full governance. All teams are working to ensure this transition supports full governance while maintaining system stability. Updates can be followed on SanchoNet and in the core-gov-tool-announcement Discord channel.

You can also check for compatible wallets and known issues.

CC-Portal

The CC-Portal will undergo several enhancements in the coming weeks, primarily focusing on improving navigation and overall user experience. This portal aims to offer easy access to the interim Cardano constitution and provide constitutional committee members with a streamlined interface for creating metadata as part of their on-chain voting rationale. Additionally, it serves as a platform for the Cardano community to understand committee members' voting actions better.

These improvements will make it easier for the Constitutional Committee and the wider Cardano community to engage with governance actions. The updates are expected to elevate both usability and transparency for all users.

Governance tools working group

The governance tools working group held another meeting this week, focusing on upcoming budget needs and featuring a presentation from the WeDeliver team on their progress with the proposal discussion forum as one of the Cardano GovTool core pillars. In the following working group session, we will review the community backlog, which you can track here.

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.

Governance in numbers

As we progress following Chang upgrade #1, follow the progress of governance actions on-chain here every week. Since last Friday, October 4, 2024:

• We've advanced from Epoch 513 to Epoch 514
• Unique delegators increased by 1,059 (8,565 -> 9,624)
• Total number of vote delegations increased by 1,142 (9,448 -> 10,590)
• Total DRep votes increased by 13 (224 -> 237)
• Total number of DRep registrations increased by 17 (537 -> 554)
• DReps who have attached metadata increased by 21 (261 -> 282)

To learn more about how you can 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.

Important member resources

• Intersect knowledge base - frequently updated, our knowledge base provides granular detail on our internal governance structure, committees and working groups, and funding opportunities, among many other items.
• Intersect website - the latest news, roadmap, and more.
• GovTool - take part in testing governance actions on the SanchoNet testnet.
• Discord / Telegram - join our lively community and interact with committees, working groups, and other members.
• Intersect events calendar - keep up-to-date with all events Intersect hosts, such as working group and committee meetings, X spaces, and more.
• Social - we are continually active on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn, so follow us there to stay updated on our latest news and insights!
• Town hall - for those of you who missed August's town hall, the recording covers what was discussed.

 

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.