Cardano now runs upgrades and treasury by on-chain votes under a ratified Constitution that gives governance real teeth.
Cardano (ADA) turned three years of governance talk into production, and the chain did not blink. The community took rough notes from CIP-1694, turned them into testable features on SanchoNet, and built a member organization called Intersect to keep things moving.
Workshops spanned fifty two countries, delegates were elected, and a dual city convention in Buenos Aires and Nairobi hammered a draft into something people could sign. The next step was the Chang hard fork to bootstrap governance on mainnet, followed by the Plomin upgrade that finished the wiring.
Then the vote arrived.
The Constitution went on chain, cleared the 75 percent supermajority among DRep delegates, and received sign off from the interim committee. From that point, the charter became the top rule set, the reference everyone cites when parameters or funding are on the table.
With the groundwork set, the community approved a 2025 roadmap, elected standing committees under the Intersect umbrella, and moved from theory to routine. Treasury operations evolved with smart contracts automating payouts, and an external Oversight Committee with five independent groups added eyes that are hard to lobby.
Transparency improved because every spending proposal posts milestones, addresses, and signatures where anyone can read them without a tip line. On participation, the DRep model showed it can channel voice without creating gridlock, and turnout keeps inching higher as tools mature.
The result is a system where token holders influence parameters, priorities, and funding without asking a foundation for permission. Cardano got here by treating governance like a product, not a press tour, and by keeping repos, tools, and votes in public view.
Cardano also learned that a ratified Constitution is more than a symbol, because it tells the next wave exactly how to change what they do not like. And yes, Cardano still has to avoid ossifying, which is why the same process that established guardrails can amend them when conditions shift.
With a live Constitution, an active DRep pipeline, and a community that actually shows up, the network now runs its own show on a clock. Upgrades look like maintenance, funding looks like policy, and the rest of us finally have receipts instead of promises.
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