Intersect Development Update #55 - March 28

23 min

Welcome to Intersect development update #55! This week, we cover key developments across Cardano governance, including committee elections, budget planning, and community-led events. From new marketing and open source initiatives to tooling and global hub activity updates, there are plenty of ways to get involved and shape the ecosystem’s future. Let’s dive in.

Intersect Committee Elections: Timeline Extended — More Time to Apply!

Given the volume of activity around Cardano’s governance, we’re extending the application window for Intersect’s committee elections! This extension provides even more of you the opportunity to step forward and help shape the future of Cardano governance. Whether you’re a seasoned contributor or a passionate community member ready to get involved, this is your moment.

Updated election timeline:

  • Applications open: March 24 – April 11
  • Voting preparation & quality checks: April 12 – April 15
  • Voting period: April 16 – May 7
  • Results collated & reviewed: May 8 – May 11
  • Election results announced: May 12

We’ve made this extension to ensure that everyone who wants to contribute to the Intersect community has the opportunity to get involved.

Also, check out this table showing the seats available compared to the applications received so far—there’s still room to make your voice heard!

Committee elections: How to get involved

If you are passionate about Cardano’s mission and have expertise in a relevant area, consider running for a committee seat or participating in the voting process.

We encourage you to apply as a candidate if you have the expertise, passion, and availability! Ideal candidates should:

✅ Be committed to Cardano’s vision (empowering the powerless, banking the unbanked, and connecting the unconnected).
✅ Have domain-specific expertise in a relevant committee.
✅ Be available for up to 20 monthly hours (virtual meetings, chats, emails).

Steps to apply

1️⃣ Download the application pack and watch the tutorial video
2️⃣ Log in to the Intersect member area
3️⃣ Navigate to the "Voting" section
4️⃣ Select the committee you wish to apply for
5️⃣ Submit your application before April 11

Committee spotlights and election AMAs
In upcoming spotlight sessions and AMAs, you can interact directly with committee members, ask questions, and learn about their work. You can find a complete list of events by following the link.

Building a Budget Info Action

Since announcing updates to the budget process, we've actively engaged with the Cardano community to gather feedback on roles, responsibilities, and next steps. Key discussions have focused on the involvement of DReps in shaping the budget and the transition of draft proposals into formal Budget Info Actions. The community has also shown strong participation through proposals like the Net-Change-Limit and interest in upcoming committee elections.

The budget process is currently piloting to align with Cardano's roadmap, technical improvements, and ecosystem priorities. A lean start will allow for rapid adaptation and improved community involvement.

Key Milestones:

  • Proposal submission - Proposals supporting the roadmap can be submitted through the intake form until April 24th.
  • Dashboard - A dashboard will be launched by March 31st to display proposals and gather early feedback.
  • Workshops & reconciliation - A two- to three-day virtual workshop is planned for late April/May to reconcile proposals with community support before submitting a consolidated Budget Info Action.
  • On-Chain actions - Treasury Withdrawal Actions can be expected between June and July.

DRep involvement

DReps can play a vital role in shaping budget proposals before they reach on-chain voting, bringing valuable insights to help build a budget with strong community support. While we strongly encourage your participation, it remains optional to ensure no one is overburdened. For those who do engage, your early feedback and signaling will be crucial to enhancing proposal quality and aligning with ecosystem priorities.

Committee contributions & elections

Committees can now submit budget proposals directly through the intake form. The upcoming Intersect committee elections, closing on April 4, 2025, offer the community a chance to influence Cardano’s strategic direction.

How to get involved:

We appreciate the community's collaboration and look forward to refining the budget process together.

For more detailed information, you can check out the recent blog on intersects newspage.

From nations to networks: applying sovereign wealth principles to Cardano's Treasury

Cardano is entering a new chapter in decentralized governance - one where decisions about budget, funding, and long-term sustainability are no longer abstract but active responsibilities. This shift is evident in the work of the Budget Committee and the broader conversation around treasury management.

With Cardano’s treasury standing at 1.7 billion ada, ensuring responsible and strategic long-term spending is essential. Inspired by principles used in sovereign wealth funds, there are two Net Change Limits being considered on-chain that both aim to safeguard financial stability while investing in ecosystem growth.

These proposals aim to introduce caps on annual treasury withdrawals - ranging from fixed limits of 350M or 300M ADA in 2025 and 250M ADA in 2026 to more dynamic percentage-based approaches. These options ensure that spending stays within the bounds of the projected income.

The Cardano community, via its DReps, will decide the final direction, balancing prudence with ambition to support long-term growth across the Cardano ecosystem.

Read the full blog, From Nations to Networks, for a deeper look at the principles, proposals, and long-term implications.

Electing Cardano’s first Constitutional Committee

The journey toward a decentralized, community-led governance model for Cardano continues to advance. This update introduces the ongoing preparations for the upcoming Constitutional Committee (CC) elections. It highlights how the process has been thoughtfully designed in collaboration with Intersect members and the wider Cardano community.

Work on establishing the CC Election Working Group began in November 2024 with initial ideas and considerations. These ideas were refined through two productive workshops involving the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC), building upon experiences from the ICC elections held in 2024. Key areas identified for improvement included providing sufficient candidate registration and campaigning time, clear communication around voting processes, and opportunities for community members to engage directly with candidates.

The Working Group was formally established in late January, guided by input from the ICC. It comprised representatives from the ICC, Civics Committee, constitutional delegates, and the broader Cardano community, supported by Intersect staff. This approach ensured the Working Group included a diverse set of perspectives.

The Working Group’s plans, approved by the Civics Committee, have finalized and approved the election process and timeline for wider community adoption. Additionally, clear criteria and expectations for CC candidates are being developed so potential candidates fully understand the role. An ongoing communication plan also features regular newsletters, open AMA sessions, and engagement through community forums like X Spaces.

(Exact dates remain to be finalized)

The overall objective is a straightforward, accessible process for any ada holder, whether participating as a candidate or voter. Ultimately, the fully elected Constitutional Committee will be ratified by Delegated Representatives (DReps) and Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) on-chain.

Intersect’s role is supportive, advisory, and oversight-focused, ensuring alignment with the Cardano Constitution and community expectations.

Join an X Space on Thursday, April 3 at 19:00 UTC with members of the ICC and the CC Elections Working Group to dive deeper into how Cardano can elect its first Constitutional Committee. Together, we'll explore the options in Cardano’s permissionless system.


Civics Committee

The Cardano Civics Committee has released its Budget Guidance for 2025. This document outlines key funding priorities essential for the effective operation, development, sustainability, and advancement of Cardano Governance in 2025. It serves as a critical reference for potential proposers to align their initiatives with identified strategic needs. While not an exhaustive list, this guidance supplements the Cardano Roadmap. The ecosystem encourages innovative and well-justified proposals beyond these recommendations, provided they contribute to Cardano's mission of a decentralized, transparent, and resilient governance structure. DReps may also find this guidance useful when evaluating proposals.  Read the full guidance here

Growth and Marketing

The Growth and Marketing Committee are excited to announce the formation of a new Marketing Strategy Working Group that will sit alongside the committee at Intersect.

This group's mission is to collaboratively build a long-term marketing strategy and go-to-market plan for Cardano. While much of this year's efforts will be necessarily tactical, we aim to establish a cohesive strategic approach that utilises the hive mind of the Cardano community and has been appropriately socialized with DReps. This ensures we have a solid, research-based framework to execute against in the months ahead.

Collaboration with other Intersect committees and groups—such as Product, Research & MCC—and broader member contributions will align our efforts toward driving product-market fit and amplifying Cardano’s success. Our ultimate objective? Greater adoption and increased on-chain transactional traffic.

We welcome and encourage member involvement. Next week’s newsletter will include more information on how to get involved, so stay tuned.

Enterprise membership spotlight:  MODUS CREATE

This week, we highlight Modus Create, a global digital consultancy helping enterprises build and scale impactful digital products. With over 500 experts across 50+ countries, they specialize in product development, cloud modernization, and digital operations.

Modus Create is also a strong voice in open source. Following its acquisition of Tweag, known for its Haskell and high-assurance software expertise, it has deepened its alignment with Cardano’s values. It chairs Intersect’s Open Source Committee, which was key in transitioning Cardano’s core repos to community stewardship.

We're proud to have Modus Create as an Enterprise Member helping shape the future of open, decentralized development.

Community hubs

This week, our community hubs are hosting the following events:

Japan hub

  • X Space to be held on March 28 at 12:00 UTC. The link to join is here.

Sri Lanka hub, led by CoinCeylon

Africa hub, led by WADA

  • A WADA hub internal meeting was held on March 27 with 19 attendees. The meeting covered SNET’s AI4Peace initiative, Cardano’s budget cycle, NCL impact, and boosting participation in the upcoming Intersect elections. You can watch the recording here.

Next week, on April 3, at 17:00 UTC, our Africa hub is holding a DRep virtual event. The event will discuss the relevance of African DReps’ participation in Cardano governance and why their voices matter in the ecosystem. If you are interested in becoming a DRep and/or would like to learn more, you can sign up for the event here.

Open source - developer advocate experiences

Developer Advocates at Intersect focus on attending events, facilitating events, connecting with the developer community, and code development. As we continue to round out Q1 2025 this week, it would only be appropriate to share some key highlights for the developer advocates regarding event attendance and community engagement.

Participation in Richfield South Africa Open Day – February 28, 2025

Bernard Sibanda: On February 28, 2025, I responded to an invitation to attend the Richfield South Africa Open Day. I was accompanied by two young Cardano developers and one Intersect Alternate Delegate. We were honored with the opportunity to be among the main speakers promoting Cardano-related activities. Another key reason for attending was to recruit new students to become Haskell Plutus developers.

Student interest and enrollments: The event successfully generated interest; 78 students signed up for the Cardano training program.

A follow-up live session occurred on March 22, 2025, where approximately 25 students attended the online orientation. Over 15 of them have since officially started their Haskell training under the guidance of three facilitators.

Developer activities and events in March 2025

Throughout March, I facilitated over six live online events focused on Cardano developer activities. These included:

  • A live Haskell Plutus coding session with over 17 young developers from the DRC (March 3, 2025).

  • A live developer experience session using the KuberIDE online service for Plutus token minting (March 20, 2025).

Translation of Plutus Pioneer programming material

Another significant development was the translation of 19 chapters of the IOG Plutus Pioneer Programming course from English to French, aimed at supporting the French-speaking community:
https://github.com/besiwims/haskell-course/tree/main/lessons-french

Key lessons and takeaways from these events and activities include:

  • Spreading awareness of Cardano and strengthening its brand as a vital service.
  • Growing the developer base through training and active engagement.
  • Promoting the growth of Cardano/Intersect/Catalyst within communities across four African countries—adding real value to people's lives.
  •  Improving Cardano developer content.
  •  Attending and contributing to Cardano community initiatives.

Thus, in March 2025, I enjoyed actively promoting Cardano and Intersect activities among existing developers, young talents, and students. Through meetings, live sessions, and events, I contributed to adopting Haskell Plutus. These efforts have supported the growth of Cardano and Intersect initiatives, demonstrating my ongoing commitment to my roles and responsibilities.

Udai Solanki: We are developing a developers-focused flagship event in India called the “Cardano India Developer Summit” on Saturday, 29th March 2025, in Kolkata. I am very excited to be part of the Cardano India host team.  Most of my effort this month is spent on this event planning. We expect about 80-100 attendees and 5-6 speakers from the Cardano community and the Blockchain ecosystem. It is a full-day event from 11 AM to 5 PM, and we are organizing different inspiring and knowledge sessions for Developers by industry influencers and experts. 

Excited to share that Abhik Nag, Intersect’s Community Manager, will attend the Cardano India Developer Summit 2025. Abhik will be representing Intersect to:

  • Connect with local developer communities
    • Share Intersect’s work on governance and open-source support
    • Highlight opportunities for builders to get involved in the Cardano ecosystem through Intersect programs

We look forward to engaging with the vibrant India-based Cardano community and continuing to grow our global developer network.

Operational services

The budget proposal form is live! Click here to submit your proposal. Supportive information and instructions on completing the form are now available on the Knowledge Base. We'll keep this information up-to-date as we move forward and welcome your feedback and questions. Please email operational-services@intersectmbo.org.

Governance tooling

GovTool - While there were no new GovTool releases this week, development continues with a strong focus on preparing the budget discussion section and the final governance action outcomes feature for production. The upcoming release will introduce an improved details page design, allowing users to trace governance actions to their original off-chain discussions where applicable. Additional refinements are expected post-release as the Lido Nation team continues to iterate based on community feedback and governance needs.

Governance in numbers

As we press ahead following Plomin, follow the progress of governance actions on-chain here every week. Since Friday, March 21, 2025: 

  • We've advanced from epoch 547 to epoch 548
  • Unique delegators increased by 3708 (142,704 -> 146,412)
  • The total number of vote delegations increased by 4979 (159,344 -> 164,323)
  • Total DRep votes increased by 158 (1756 -> 1914)
  • The total number of DRep registrations increased by 7 (1190 -> 1197)
  • DReps who have attached metadata increased by 24 (713 -> 737)

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

This week’s working group call focused on standardizing governance polling across tools like GovTool, Tempo, and Catalyst. A short-term centralized solution will support the 2025 budget cycle, while a long-term, decentralized standard is planned for later. A CIP will be drafted to define vote metadata and validation, and open APIs will enable cross-platform data access. The team also discussed upcoming Catalyst improvements, GovTool UI updates, and ways to enhance community feedback and collaboration.

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.

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.

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.