On January 24, 2025, the Plomin hard fork was approved for enactment.

The three thresholds specified for a hard fork action during this interim governance period have been met;

• At least 85% of stake pools by active stake should have been upgraded to a Cardano node version capable of processing the rules associated with the new protocol version.
• Over 51% of stake pool operators (SPOs) voted in favor.
• Over 67% of the interim constitutional committee (ICC) voted that the hard fork was constitutional.

Actual results:

• 94% of block producing stake pools
• 65.38% SPO vote
• 100% ICC vote

You can view the governance action on chain via GovTool and cardano explorers;

• GovTool
• Cardanoscan
• Cexplorer
• Adastat

Now that it is approved, the hard fork will be enacted on-chain at the end of the following epoch – on January 29, 2025, at 21:45 UTC.

This upgrade sets the stage for all future enhancements to the Cardano blockchain. It requires approval from selected community members; all future upgrades will require approval from most of the entire community of ada holders via DReps.

About the hard fork

The Plomin hard fork is the second part of the Chang upgrade to Cardano. Known initially as Chang #2, it was renamed in memory of Cardano community contributor Matthew Plomin. 

The Chang #1 upgrade moved the blockchain into a bootstrapping phase to prepare for the transition to full community governance. An essential feature of this phase was the creation and approval of a draft  Cardano constitution in December 2024.

When the Plomin hard fork is enacted, the system of voting by ada holders will be established. Everyone who holds an ada can vote directly or through a delegated representative (DRep). The vote can be for or against a governance action or directed to one of two predefined options: abstain or no-confidence.

Staking Rewards

The community should note that, although staking rewards will continue to be earned as usual, ada holders must delegate to a DRep to withdraw their rewards following the Plomin hard fork. The delegation can be one of the predefined options: a single key, a native script, or a Plutus v3 script. 

Keep informed 

Join the dedicated Plomin hard fork Discord channel at #hfwg-plomin.

After the hard fork enactment, the Intersect knowledge base will continue to be updated as needed. Information about the Plomin hard fork can be found in the refreshed Cardano Updates space.

We recommend bookmarking this page and checking back often, as the hard fork working group regularly updates details. The Knowledge base, guides, and FAQs on GovTool contain information on the constitution and on-chain governance.