The Chang upgrade #1 is set for September 1, 2024. In a pivotal meeting held on Wednesday, August 28, 2024, the hard fork working group, with representatives from the community, Intersect, Emurgo, the Cardano Foundation, and Input | Output, voted unanimously to initiate the hard fork known as Chang #1. This hard fork will take effect on the Cardano mainnet on September 1, 2024, at 21:44:51 UTC. This marks the first of two hard forks in the Chang upgrade and a significant step forward in Cardano’s journey toward full decentralization, where ada holders make all decisions about the chain’s future.

Key highlights from the meeting include:

• SPO readiness: 92% by stake, stable for several days.
• Exchange readiness: Over 90% ready by liquidity.
• DApp readiness: Over 50% of the total value locked.
• No critically severe issues: The network is deemed stable.

Members of the hard fork working group will be on call and will closely monitor the transition through the hard fork. The upgrade will be celebrated at an X space event on September 1.

What is the Chang upgrade?

This major upgrade introduces advanced scalability features, enhanced security protocols, and community-driven governance mechanisms. By implementing a constitutional committee (CC), delegate representatives (DReps), and on-chain community consensus, Cardano seeks to empower community members to take an active and pre-eminent role in decision-making processes. The upgrade will also unlock Cardano’s significant treasury to fund future maintenance, technical enhancements, and initiatives to foster growth and broader adoption. The on-chain and off-chain mechanisms established by the upgrade will ultimately shape the future capabilities of Cardano as an open-source, self-sustaining, and genuinely representative platform.

The upgrade honors Phil Chang, who sadly passed away in 2022. Phil pioneered Cardano governance at IOG, and his thinking contributed significantly to Voltaire's conceptualization.

Transitioning to the Conway era

As part of Voltaire, the Chang upgrade transitions the ledger into the Conway era, establishing decentralized decision-making foundations by implementing CIP-1694 on-chain governance mechanisms.

The road to Chang

The Chang upgrade will be implemented through Cardano's hard fork combinator (HFC), facilitating seamless transitions between protocol eras. Chang transitions the Cardano ledger era from Babbage to Conway. Let’s recall some previous upgrades:

• Vasil Upgrade: Transitioned the ledger into the Babbage era, bringing diffusion pipelining, Plutus V2 scripts, new Plutus built-ins, and more.
• Valentine (SECP) Upgrade: Introduced new built-in functions to Plutus to support SECP elliptic curves (ECDSA and Schnorr).

Chang functionality

• Decentralized governance mechanisms
  The Conway era instituted enhanced decentralized governance mechanisms outlined in CIP-1694. These mechanisms enable a constitutional committee (CC), delegate representatives (DReps), and stake pool operators (SPOs) to foster community-driven decision-making processes. You can learn more about governance terminology here.
• On-chain voting
  The Chang upgrade enables on-chain voting for governance actions, allowing stakeholders to propose and vote on protocol changes, upgrades, and other governance-related matters directly on the blockchain. On-chain voting is based on liquid democracy, combining direct and representative democracy, ensuring ada holders can cast their vote by leveraging expert knowledge in the voting process.
• PlutusV3 ledger language
  PlutusV3 introduces advanced Plutus primitives and cryptographic capabilities, enhancing the platform's smart contract functionalities. These enhancements include improved cryptographic primitives, such as BLS12-381, Blake2b-224, and Keccak-256, enabling developers to employ industry-standard cryptographic algorithms seamlessly.
  • Sums of products (SOPs) - PlutusV3 introduces SOPs, a new approach to encoding data types in Plutus Core. This method improves script efficiency and code generation for Plutus Core compilers, leading to faster program execution and streamlined smart contract development.
  • Bitwise primitives - The Chang upgrade introduces several new bitwise primitives, offering robust capabilities for low-level bit manipulations. This enhances performance optimization, cryptographic support, integer-string conversions, and smart contracts' efficient algorithms and data structures.

Chang’s upgrade in stages

The Chang upgrade will occur in two stages: an interim (or bootstrapping) period and complete on-chain decision-making.

A hard-fork working group – composed of experts and stakeholders from the Cardano technical community – was established at Intersect earlier this year to oversee and manage the upgrade's technical deployment. The first stage will be initiated by a hard fork that will be ratified by the SPOs, enabling the initial governance features and laying the groundwork for the Conway-era functionality.

First stage
During this bootstrap stage, DReps will be able to register, and ada holders can start delegating their voting power to the DReps they trust in decision-making. PlutusV3 will also be available, including its governance features. The first stage will include the bootstrap period, where only SPOs and the Interim Constituional Committee (ICC) can vote on any changes, ensuring security and continuity during the governance bootstrapping phase.

Second stage
The second stage will be introduced as a final upgrade after the bootstrap period. During this stage, Intersect will establish self-governing initiatives to ensure the continuity and future development of the ecosystem. At this stage, all governance entities (DReps, SPOs, and the CC) can propose, submit a governance action, and vote. Treasury withdrawals will be possible after the second stage.

Preparing for the upgrade

Preparing Cardano for a smooth transition into the Chang upgrade requires several steps. It involves managing and coordinating a complex web of stakeholders and dependencies—from core technology to supporting infrastructure, wallets, exchanges, and more. Developers and stakeholders within the Cardano ecosystem work diligently with the Chang hard fork working group to implement the necessary changes and upgrades to support the newly introduced features. The latest node version is 9.1.0, and over 90% of SPOs (by stake) and exchanges (by liquidity) have already upgraded their nodes to enable the upgrade to be scheduled. You can keep up to date with the latest on this Chang Status Page.

Taking action

For ada holders, the Chang upgrade will be seamless, requiring no action on their part. However, everyone in the community with an interest in Cardano’s future governance frameworks should stay informed about the upgrade process and any potential changes.  A great way to do this is to express your interest in joining Intersect, the member-based organization helping steward the governance journey and future core operations.

Conclusion

Please continue to check the social media channels for updates. Join the celebration of this milestone on X space on September 1, 2024, and stay engaged with the Cardano community as we embark on this transformative journey. For more information, follow us on X, Discord, and LinkedIn.