Welcome to Intersect’s Development Update #65. This week marks the final opportunity to vote on Intersect’s ₳275 million Budget Info Action, with just 6.5% separating DReps from quorum. SPOs are aligned, community sentiment is clear, and over 2 billion ada is still waiting to be counted. We urge all members to contact their DReps and make this vote count. 

We also highlight updates to the Constitutional Committee election schedule, a revised proposal to sustain GovTool’s critical role in decentralized governance, and the launch of our Enterprise Forum series. Meanwhile, community hubs continue to lead local education and engagement efforts, and the May Open Source Maturity Report offers fresh insights into ecosystem development. Let’s dive in!

Budget Committee: final week to vote on ₳275m Budget Info Action - 39 proposals await decision!

The ₳275 million Budget Info Action (BIA), the most significant collective funding proposal in Cardano’s history, enters its final week of voting. At the time of writing, 91.82% of voting SPOs have signaled YES, indicating strong community alignment. Of the seven Constitutional Committee members, two have marked the proposal as constitutional, with five yet to signal their position.

Among DReps, the vote stands just 6.5% short of the required threshold, which is one lovelace over 50%, with over 2 billion ada still delegated to DReps who have not yet expressed a position. The BIA remains open, and every signal counts. 

Intersect encourages all members to contact their DReps and urge them to participate. This is a pivotal opportunity to help shape the direction of Cardano funding in 2025.

In the list of DReps in GovTool, there is a "View details" button that displays links and identity information. That gives you, as an ADA holder, a way to contact your DRep and influence their vote.

This Budget Info Action consolidates 39 community-backed proposals, each reviewed through Ekklesia, and reflects strategic priorities across protocol development, governance, infrastructure, education, and experimentation.

Highlights include:

Core protocol advancement: includes Hydra, Mithril, Leios, and Peras, alongside SPO incentive reforms, fee mechanism upgrades, developer testing tools, and a refreshed Catalyst stack tied to CIP-1694.

Broader developer access: Blueprints and Acropolis initiatives to support node diversity and onboarding, plus continued contributions from Tweag in Haskell and formal methods.

Governance tooling and coordination: Cardano Builder DAO, Complement Catalyst by Socious, and Beyond Minimum Viable Governance, supported by reusable innovative contract frameworks from Sundae Labs and Xerberus.

Open source and developer infrastructure: MLabs (Plutarch, Hermes, CardanoOps), Pallas (Rust libraries), Blockfrost (API access), and NFTCDN (free global CDN for native assets).

Network resilience: Dolos lightweight node, TxPipe RPC maintenance, and key hardware wallet integrations through Eternl and Ledger rewrites.

Community growth and onboarding: Cardano Summit 2025, global ecosystem pavilions, and a unified event marketing strategy to raise visibility and empower new contributors worldwide.

Advanced experimentation: Research by IOG and MLabs into governance, privacy, scalability, and identity, laying the groundwork for future-proof, secure, and composable DApps.

Help unlock the next phase of Cardano by urging your DRep to vote. Treasury funding follows the community's lead, but time is running out.

Review the full proposal and vote by heading to Gov.Tools.

For an in-depth explanation of how this ₳275m package was assembled, see our blog post “Making Sense of the ₳275m Budget Info Action.”

Members can find answers to common questions in the Budget Info Action FAQ or by contacting the Intersect Core Operations team at procurement@intersectmbo.org. 

Treasury Withdrawals poll now open: Help shape what comes next

Following the submission of the ₳275.3M Budget Info Action, built from over ₳3.8B in DRep signaling, the next step is determining how Treasury Withdrawals should be structured if the budget is approved.

A new advisory poll is now live on Ekklesia, asking DReps to share their preferred structure for releasing funds. Options range from a single omnibus withdrawal to 39 individual proposals, each with trade-offs in delivery speed, governance workload, and assurance for builders.

This poll will not decide everything, but it is a key signal to help Intersect move forward with clarity and alignment.

Before voting, read the full voting pack and cast your preference today! Voting closes Tuesday, June 10 at 23:59 UTC.

Constitutional Committee elections

As part of our commitment to a transparent and inclusive governance process, we’re making a vital adjustment to ensure that every ada holder has the opportunity to participate in the upcoming vote with clarity and confidence.

To provide sufficient time and awareness around the snapshot of ada holdings, which determines voting power, we are updating the timeline for the snapshot and the start of the voting period.

This change ensures a fairer process by giving all participants time to check their wallets and stake if needed. While schedule adjustments can be inconvenient, taking the time to get this right reinforces our shared goal: a governance process that’s open, accessible, and trusted by the community.

We appreciate your continued engagement and will share timely reminders as these new dates approach.

Revised key dates:

The snapshot will now be taken at the Cardano Epoch boundary between epoch 562 and 563, June 8, 2025, at 9:45 pm UTC.

Why is the snapshot important?

Your voting power is based on a snapshot of the ada you have staked. To be eligible to vote, ensure your ada is staked before the snapshot and held in a wallet where you control the private keys.

The voting period will commence on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at 6:00 pm UTC.

GovTool: A vital foundation for Cardano governance

As Cardano enters a new era of decentralized governance under CIP-1694, ensuring equitable access to participate is more important than ever. GovTool, a community-built, open-source, and non-commercial platform, was designed to make governance accessible to everyone. It allows ada holders to register as DReps, delegate, vote, propose, and track outcomes through a single, unified interface.

Despite its vital role, the recent budget proposal to continue developing GovTool did not pass. In response, the governance tools working group has released a revised proposal with reduced costs, a more precise scope, and a reaffirmed commitment to community ownership and transparency.

We encourage all community members to read the latest blog post, explore the updated proposals, and share your support:

• Updated budget proposal (short): Read here (Start here)
• Full proposal – feedback welcome: Read here
• Cost breakdown: Read here
• Open analytics: Read here
• Original budget proposal (for comparison): Read here

Intersect has committed to maintaining GovTool through the end of 2025 to ensure continuity, but the long-term future of this essential platform depends on community support. If you believe in open governance, now is the time to get involved. Reach out to your DReps, share the proposals, and make your voice heard.

 Remember, in the list of DReps in GovTool, there is a View details button that shows links and identity. That gives you, as an ada holder, a way to contact your DRep and influence their vote.

Governance tools working group

The working group discussed recent changes to the revised GovTool proposal, including its clean-slate submission strategy and alignment with the upcoming Intersect-hosted X Space. A key focus was on coordinating communication strategy and FAQs to address common questions regarding cost, hosting, and prioritization. The team also welcomed governance tool Pairwise, exploring potential integrations with GovTool for off-chain community voting, bounty prioritization, and decentralized compensation of maintainers. Multiple suggestions were made for pilot experiments, Catalyst funding opportunities, and onboarding improvements to strengthen participation and reliability in Cardano’s governance infrastructure.

Membership and Community

We’re excited to launch a new monthly initiative exclusively for our enterprise members:

Intersect enterprise forum: Web3 in focus

This series will highlight the outstanding work our enterprise members are doing while fostering an open dialogue on key Web3 topics.

What to expect:

• A rotating panel of up to 4 enterprise members each month
• Opportunity to share updates, insights, and challenges
• Discussions on Web3 topics chosen by the panelists
• A platform to connect with peers and boost project visibility.

The lineup will change monthly to ensure diverse voices and perspectives are heard. Stay tuned for the announcement of the first session soon!

As our membership continues to grow, here are our latest numbers:

Enterprise membership spotlight: Wolfram Blockchain Labs

Wolfram Blockchain Labs (WBL), a subsidiary of Wolfram Research, specializes in integrating computational intelligence with blockchain technologies. Their mission is to empower decentralized applications by providing robust tools and services across four key areas:

• Smart contract computation: Enhancing blockchain-based smart contracts with advanced computational capabilities.
• Blockchain integration: Facilitating direct access to blockchain data through seamless integrations.
• Educational initiatives: Offering programs to educate and support the blockchain community.
• Crypto asset analytics: Developing analytical tools for comprehensive crypto asset analysis.

WBL has been instrumental in projects like integrating the Bloxberg blockchain into the Wolfram Language, enabling researchers to certify and analyze data within their computational environment. 

Their contributions to the Cardano ecosystem, including the development of oracles and governance tools, highlight their commitment to advancing blockchain technology through computational intelligence.

Community hubs

Last week, our Africa hub, led by WADA, held its hub meeting with 9 attendees. The meeting featured a presentation on the Budget Info Action proposed by Intersect, updates on the status of Net Change Limits, and a community discussion on Treasury Withdrawal options. You can watch the recording here.

Our Sri Lanka hub, led by CoinCeylon, also hosted its Town Hall event on May 30 with 90 attendees. The session featured important ecosystem updates, community highlights, and special guest presentations by Daniel Friedman, Founder & CEO of zenGate Global, and Sebastien Guillemot, Co-founder of Paima Studios, dcSpark, who shared insights on real-world blockchain adoption and Cardano’s expanding use cases. The event also included multilingual engagement in English, Sinhala, and Tamil, reinforcing the hub’s commitment to accessibility and inclusivity. Attendees participated in a Q&A session and contributed valuable feedback on ongoing initiatives and upcoming community activities. The strong turnout and active participation continue to reflect the hub’s growing role in education, governance, and ecosystem-building within the region. You can watch the recording here.

This week, our hubs are hosting the following events:

Japan hub: X Space will be held on June 6 at 12:00 UTC. The link to join is available here.

North America hub, led by AWEN: Our North America hub held its monthly Town Hall on June 6 with five attendees. The meeting included a discussion with KenErik, a Civics Committee member and CC Consortium candidate, about the current conversations in the civics working group and the hot topics of debate.

Sri Lanka hub, led by CoinCeylon: Our Sri Lanka hub held its second workshop at the University of Ruhuna, titled ‘Mastering Blockchain Technology and Building on Cardano: From Fundamentals to Real-World Applications’. This session, attended by over 150 students, focused on introducing key blockchain technical concepts, including UTXO versus account-based models, public and private key encryption, wallet infrastructure, and basic smart contract concepts. Students also participated in a hands-on wallet demo using Lace, providing a practical entry point into the Cardano ecosystem. The session was well-received and marks another step toward expanding foundational blockchain literacy in regional Sri Lankan universities.

Open Source  monthly maturity insights

Each month, Intersect publishes a detailed Open Source Maturity Report to track ecosystem growth, developer activity, and project health across Cardano’s codebase. The May 2025 edition highlights continued progress in decentralization, onboarding of new contributors, and strong engagement across core infrastructure projects.

Key takeaways this month:

• Contributor participation remained steady across 24 repositories
• Core repos like cardano-ledger, ouroboros-consensus, and cardano-node led engineering output
• Geographic participation remained globally distributed, reinforcing Cardano’s decentralized development footprint.

 View the full May Maturity Report, and all other previous reports can be found here.

Tex and Georg at CHAOSScon 2025!

We’re excited to share that Tex (Terence McCutcheon), Open Source Program Manager at Intersect, and Georg Link, Open Source Committee Seat and Bitergia Open Source Strategist, will be presenting a keynote on Cardano at CHAOSScon 2025 North America! They’ll dive into real-world open-source governance, sustainability, and metrics within the Cardano ecosystem. Don’t miss this if you’re tracking how blockchain communities measure and mature their open source impact.

Stay tuned for next month’s report as we continue tracking the pulse of open source innovation across the Cardano ecosystem.

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.