Following our recent introduction to Smart Contracts and Cardano budgeting, we’re entering a crucial new phase: live demonstration on the Cardano mainnet. This is the final proving ground before smart contracts are included in upcoming treasury withdrawal actions.

Over the past few months, the smart contract system underpinning this work has undergone rigorous development, followed by two independent audits from MLabs and TxPipe. Now, with a focus on transparency and community confidence, we are taking the next step, real-world validation.

Why mainnet testing matters

For both vendors submitting proposals and those evaluating them, having confidence in the process is crucial. Smart contracts offer a logical way to automate the treasury withdrawal process; therefore, it's essential to ensure it’s as robust as possible.

This week, we’re deploying smart contracts on the mainnet to simulate critical treasury functions. These tests are designed to demonstrate how treasury funds can be securely and transparently managed on-chain, paving the way for a more decentralized and auditable future.

We’ll be sharing progress every step of the way through blog updates and social media posts, giving the community visibility into what’s happening and why it matters.

Mainnet test end-to-end contract management

Purpose:

To simulate the full vendor funding and withdrawal lifecycle using smart contracts. Ultimately, to “sweep” functionality, funds are returned to the treasury after a timeout

How it works:

This test is more comprehensive. It will simulate:

• Treasury reserve contract initiation
• Funding a vendor contract
• Pausing vendor payments
• Withdrawing funds as a vendor
• Sweep unclaimed or unused funds back to the treasury

In this scenario, Intersect will act as both the administrator and the vendor, allowing us to test every aspect of the workflow. We’ll lock 10,000 ada into the contract and decide at the end how much (if any) to withdraw. All actions will be verifiable on-chain.

This will also demonstrate how time-locked contracts can automatically return unclaimed or unused funds, a core feature for secure treasury management.

Why this matters for Cardano governance

These public demonstrations are not just the culmination of our testing, but also a means for the community to be fully informed and included in the process.

They provide a way for the community to see firsthand how treasury funds will be securely and transparently managed on-chain. Following this and a short feedback cycle, Intersect will be in a position to confirm the final configuration, setup, and parameters for the treasury withdrawal governance actions. 

Stay informed and engaged

Follow progress over the coming days. You can follow this on-chain at this script address for the treasury reserve smart contract:

Look out for updates from the official @Intersectmbo, @Ryun1_, and @SundaeSwap. We’ll point out when certain types of smart contracts are created and when specific functionality is used on-chain. 

Once this activity is completed and reviewed, we will update you via another blog similar to this to share the success and any lessons learnt.