Welcome to Intersect development update 48, where we break down all the essential Intersect happenings. This week, we cover updates from the Cardano budget, constitution, committees, and working groups, the Uruguay hub launch, grants, governance tools, and we welcome onboard two new enterprise members. Let’s dive straight into the update! 

Budget update and socialization period

The Cardano Budget is a key element in ensuring the sustainable development of the ecosystem. With full on-chain governance now in place following the Plomin hard fork last week, the components to make the treasury entirely decentralized are in place, allowing the community to allocate funds directly. All that is needed now is community agreed-upon budgets that enable the ecosystem to decide how the treasury funds should be allocated. 

As part of this transformation, Intersect has been working on consolidating budget proposals from committees, community members, and organizations, seeking alignment with Cardano’s strategic priorities. The process includes community input, governance voting, and structured fund disbursement, ensuring transparency and accountability.

At this stage, the process and supporting documentation remain a work in progress. All figures, timelines, and proposals are indicative and subject to change based on community feedback, market conditions, and on-chain approvals. 

Socializing proposals

Early next week, the current work-in-progress will be shared with the community on the Cardano Forum, marking the start of the next consultation phase.

• The consultation period will include at least four weeks of socialization through the Cardano Forum, virtual meetings, X Spaces, and other community-driven platforms. During this time, the draft proposals can be refined collaboratively to improve the budget and expected outcomes.
• After the four-week socialization period, and depending on community feedback, specific proposals will be hosted on GovTool in the Proposal Discussion section. This step allows for proper metadata formatting and enables further feedback through polling tools and a dedicated comments section. This phase will last approximately four weeks before any proposal is submitted on-chain.
• The Net-Change-Limit - which determines how much can be withdrawn from the Treasury in a given period - may be submitted immediately following the four-week socialization period if broad consensus forms around its value and associated metadata.
• In total, off-chain socialization is expected to take at least eight weeks before any budget proposal is submitted on-chain. This timeline may be extended based on community feedback and the need for further refinements.

Situational awareness

We recognize that the process has not been as smooth or inclusive as it should be. While significant effort has gone into shaping these proposals, we acknowledge the concerns raised by community members about transparency, engagement, and clarity. This is a learning process for all involved, and we approach it with humility, knowing that improvements must be made. 

We want to assure the community that we are listening. Based on the feedback received, we have clarified the socialization period to ensure ample time for discussion, review, and refinement before any proposal goes on-chain. Moreover, following recent reports, we want to clarify that all events aimed at socializing the budget process and facilitating deeper discussions will be global, with both in-person and virtual options available. 

This period is an opportunity for open dialogue, deeper collaboration, and meaningful adjustments to ensure the outcome truly reflects the collective wisdom and priorities of the Cardano community. Thank you to all the members who have helped initiate this process, which is highly complex and a first for Cardano.

Further details on the budgets and next steps will be shared very soon, so watch the usual communications channels for more on this in the coming days.

Constitution

Thursday, January 30, marked a significant step in Cardano's governance journey. We saw the governance action to ratify the delegate-endorsed Cardano Constitution submitted on-chain. Since then, DRep activity has been remarkable, and we are rapidly approaching the 75% threshold. This rapid progress speaks volumes about the community's engagement.

There has been some healthy discussion about how different tools tally the votes, leading to some questions about discrepancies. Those interested in the specifics can read a detailed explanation of how government tools calculate their numbers.

As of the time of writing, here are the latest voting numbers:
Total Stake - 6.79bn Ada

Total Yes Vote - 2.12bn Ada (59.14%)

Total No Vote - 159.03m Ada (4.43%)

Total Abstain - 3.2bn Ada

Not yet voted - 1.31bn Ada (36.43%)

Source: Blockfrost.io

To learn more about the constitution and how to participate in the voting process, please refer to the following resources:

• Visit the Constitutional Convention website
• Read the proposed constitution
• Constitution vote - all you need to know

Committees and working groups

This week brings an exciting development shift for Intersect committees and groups. Over the last few months, Intersect staff has worked closely with the Cardano marketing working group (MWG). This working group has been resilient and persistent in its efforts to drive marketing efforts for the whole ecosystem. Towards the end of 2024, multiple proposals were brought to this group from EMURGO, Cardano Foundation, RARE Network, and more!

Citing recent approval from the Intersect Steering Committee (ISC), we are pleased to announce the Growth and Marketing Committee (GMC). This committee is bootstrapped with representation from EMURGO, IO, Cardano Foundation, RARE Network, and the long-standing dedicated members from MWG. During the bootstrap phase, these members will continue to advocate for marketing budget proposals, finalize a strategy draft, and determine criteria for future committee candidates. The committee will participate in the April elections and have a full, community-elected body by the end of 2025. 

Membership and community

We’re thrilled to welcome our newest enterprise members warmly: Hello Labs and The Cardano Blockchain Infrastructure Alliance! We look forward to a strong and successful collaboration with each of you.

As our membership continues to expand, here’s a look at our latest numbers:

Community hubs

Last week, our LATAM hub hosted its Uruguay hub launch. Our Hub Manager, Mauro Andreoli, had the following to say about the event:

“On January 31, 2025, during the peak of the summer season in Punta del Este, Uruguay, an event titled “Cardano Builders: A Holistic Introduction to the Cardano Ecosystem” occurred. The event covered the founding entities of Cardano’s governance, emphasizing the opportunities available within Intersect. Following these discussions, an idea workshop was conducted, and a training session with prizes was held for those interested in applying to Project Catalyst. This dynamic format combined interactive talks and teamwork, enhanced by monetary rewards, ensuring active engagement and a satisfying experience for all attendees. After the winners were announced, the event concluded with a Sunset Party featuring a DJ and stunning views of Punta del Este’s beaches. Thanks to a collaboration with Aperol Spritz and a prior hands-on session with the Vesper Wallet and Hosky Airdrops, attendees had the unique opportunity to purchase their drinks directly using the Cardano mainnet. Undoubtedly, it was a remarkable and unforgettable event.”

This week, we have the following activities taking place:

Japan hub

• X Space is to be held on February 7 at noon UTC. The link to join is here.

Africa hub, led by WADA

• The WADA Town Hall, held on February 6, had 12 attendees. The recording can be viewed here (passcode: G?=0zf#s).

North America hub, led by AWEN

• On February 5, 42 attendees attended a town hall meeting. The session covered content from GM2025 in Fort Myers, FL, and discussed recent happenings in Cardano. You can listen to the recording here.

Finally, this week's community hub stats are as follows:

Grants

Cardano Curation has released its fourth educational video, “CIP 1694 Explained” as part of its grant to produce short, educational, entertaining videos. The video explains how the Voltaire era will be fully launched with the Plomin hard fork.

If you’d like to learn more about the status of grants and read up on those that have been fulfilled, please click here.

Note: All updates on grants relate to the completion of contracts issued in 2024. With the budget process for 2025, we are moving to a tender approach, where Committees initiate tenders based on any approved budget items. 

Governance tooling

Intersect stake-based voting tool

Intersect requires a robust and versatile voting tool to facilitate yearly stake-based voting events, including Constitutional Committee elections. Next week, Intersect will open a tender requiring community members to submit applications to build this tool using any existing open-source voting tool (of keeping the outcome open-source as well). The application process will last two weeks, followed by two weeks of evaluation. 

Cardano GovTool

Earlier this week, we provided the update on GovTool development, which is available on the Intersect website.

The core issue 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 critique, 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 wider community needs.

GovTool was designed to evolve alongside Cardano’s governance capabilities, but we underestimated the urgency and complexity of supporting all GA types after the Plomin upgrade took effect. 

Governance actions can be raised using the CLI, but recognize that the lack of features in the GovTool interface is a barrier for non-technical users. This planning misstep has caused frustration, and we sincerely apologize for it. We will also seek to address this capability in the coming days and weeks.

Short-Term GovTool priorities (this week and next)

• Vote counts: Appreciating the community feedback and considering that the repos are open source, we’ve made our vote counts logic public and easier to follow, available in our docs. We will update the docs and release a new one to better align with other community tools.
• Constitutional updates: The team is finalizing the approach for handling discussions and submissions for the “Update to Constitution” governance action (GA). An early version of this feature will be available on preview.gov.tools for community feedback.
• Governance Action outcomes developed through the grant won by Lido Nation are just around the corner. They will soon be released for preview.
• Community input: The Governance Tools Working Group will gather feedback on the updated Q1 plan, prioritizing the “Update to Constitution” GA. Community members are encouraged to join the weekly meetings or share their thoughts via the feedback button on GovTool and the CC Portal.
• Moderation features: Work is underway to add moderation functionality for proposal discussions, ensuring a constructive and organized environment.

Governance in numbers

As we press ahead following Plomin, follow the progress of governance actions on-chain here every week. Since Friday, January 31, 2025: 

• We've advanced from epoch 537 to epoch 538
• Unique delegators increased by 6369 (109,746 -> 116,115)
• The total number of vote delegations increased by 7472 (117,000 -> 124,472)
• Total DRep votes increased by 275 (684 -> 959)
• The total number of DRep registrations increased by 64 (957 -> 1021)
• DReps who have attached metadata increased by 48 (579 -> 627)

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.

This week's meeting was open and transparent. After implementing the Plomin Upgrade, it focused on the lack of Governance Action (GA) support in the proposal submission area of GovTool. We have aligned on a short-, medium-, and long-term roadmap, also available in the update published on the Intersect website.

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.