On June 5, a pivotal moment unfolded for Cardano’s governance as Intersect, an organization dedicated to harnessing on-chain governance, released its inaugural Budget Info Action (BIA). This nine-minute summary outlines 39 innovative proposals that Delegated Representatives (DReps) have already backed for funding. Intersect highlighted that these proposals embody the community’s vision for progress and development, reflecting a collaborative effort from builders, researchers, and contributors committed to creating tangible value.
The Future of Cardano Governance
This collection reveals the priorities of Cardano’s stakeholders for the upcoming 18 months. Notably, nearly half of the proposals target improvements at the protocol layer. Input Output Global (IOG) aims to secure ongoing maintenance budgets for cutting-edge projects like Hydra, which focuses on scalable transactions, and Mithril, designed to simplify the deployment of full nodes.
Additionally, IOG seeks enhancements for stake pool operator (SPO) incentives, a reworking of fee structures, and the establishment of new developer testing environments. The experimental designs named Leios and Peras are projected to significantly enhance transaction finality and throughput without sacrificing decentralization. Furthermore, Tweag, known for its expertise in Haskell and formal verification, proposes to manage the essential libraries that underpin both the consensus layer and off-chain applications over multiple years.
Governance tools emerge as another key aspect. A revamped initiative called “Catalyst 2.0” aims to integrate treasury voting directly into CIP-1694 governance processes, bridging the gap between project funding and constitutional decision-making. Complementing this, a proposal from Socious introduces quadratic funding grounded in on-chain reputation, promising increased fairness and community impact. The Cardano Builder DAO envisions a smart-contract-controlled fund capable of autonomously granting application-layer resources, while the “Beyond Minimum Viable Governance” report guarantees an analytical audit of the functionality of Voltaire-era institutions.
Enhancing developer experience and fostering open-source infrastructure represent the third focal point. MLabs intends to continue the maintenance of Plutarch, CardanoOps, and Hermes, enabling DApp teams to streamline their processes. Pallas will keep curating Rust libraries essential for lightweight indexers and explorers, while Blockfrost aims to maintain its accessible API service. NFTCDN plans to establish a global content delivery network for native assets, enabling seamless media file serving akin to Web 2.0 speeds but with the security of Web 3.0.
A series of proposals centered on security and resilience are also in the mix. Dolos, a lightweight data-node implementation, offers high-integrity ledger queries with minimal resource demands targeted at mobile developers and IoT initiators. TxPipe pledges to continue its support for an open-source RPC server that underpins numerous wallets, explorers, and analytical tools. Concurrently, Eternl requests funding for ongoing hardware wallet integrations, and another independent team proposes a comprehensive rewrite of Ledger’s Cardano application to introduce advanced multi-signature functionality. Notably, Sundae Labs and Xerberus have introduced an auditable smart-contract framework aimed at overseeing treasury withdrawals, complete with live dashboards for ADA holders to track spending in real-time.
Lastly, initiatives in education, outreach, and real-world adoption round out the proposal suite. Discover Cardano proposes branded booths at major tech events to amplify the community’s voice and facilitate easier engagements for builders. A related proposal aims to unify global event marketing for consistent branding and streamlined onboarding processes. On the utility horizon, Anzens seeks resources to broaden access to USDA, a USD-pegged stable asset native to Cardano, enhancing its availability through exchange listings and cross-border trial settlements. Meanwhile, MLabs’ cryptography division introduces a toolkit for privacy-preserving smart contracts, potentially enabling anonymous voting and confidential decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
What Lies Ahead?
At this stage, each proposal in the BIA serves as a recommendation. According to CIP-1694, ADA holders have a month to evaluate and either approve or reject the bundle. Should it gain approval, Intersect will translate the actions into Treasury Withdrawal endeavors requiring a super-majority vote of two-thirds on-chain. The organization has proposed segmenting the withdrawals into phases, ensuring funds are allocated as specific milestones are achieved—this strategy aims to reassure skeptical stakeholders and regulatory bodies that Cardano can manage capital with public-sector-like diligence.
By releasing the BIA, Intersect portrays this moment as a critical test for decentralized governance. “This is more than just a budget,” the post asserts. “It signifies Cardano’s ecosystem is prepared to deliver.” If the community endorses the 39 proposals, Cardano will transition from ad-hoc Catalyst funding rounds to a structured, constitutional funding cycle—turning Voltaire’s aspirational vision into a tangible operational framework.
As of this writing, ADA is trading at approximately $0.661.
