Cardano Blockchain Heads for 'Chang Hard Fork,' Biggest Upgrade in Two Years

Cardano, launched in 2017 by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, is pushing toward its biggest upgrade in two years, with major changes to the structure of its main network, introducing mechanisms to users to participate in on-chain governance.

The upgrade, known as the "Chang hard fork," is a major milestone in Cardano’s roadmap, punctuated by the much-awaited addition of smart-contracts functionality in 2021. The Chang hard fork was initially set to go through this week, but Hoskinson announced on Friday that it had been pushed back to Sept. 1 so some exchanges, including Binance, could prepare their systems.

"The magic of deadlines is that people who aren't taking upgrades seriously suddenly say damn we got to get moving," Hoskinson wrote on X.

Cardano ranks as the 30th biggest blockchain by the website DeFILlama, but the project tends to be closely watched in crypto circles partly because of the colorful personality and outsize popularity of Hoskinson, known for his frequent video and podcast appearances. Hoskinson introduced Ethereum alongside co-founder Vitalik Buterin in 2014 but split from the project soon afterward.

A hard fork is a major change to a blockchain that makes the older versions invalid. Sometimes contentious, but often planned and coordinated, hard forks can bring big changes for users and developers including new features or fixes to problems in the chain.

The main feature of the latest upgrade is to give Cardano the ability to introduce on-chain governance features. Those that hold ADA, Cardano’s native token, will be able to elect representatives (called Delegate Representatives, or dReps) and vote on improvement proposals as well as future technical changes to the blockchain.

“This will mark the first step towards a minimum-viable community-run governance structure outlined in CIP-1694, meaning that the Cardano community will be responsible for maintaining and shaping the blockchain network,” the Cardano Foundation, the main organization supporting the blockchain, wrote in a blog post.

CIP-1694 is the Cardano Improvement Proposal at the core of the upgrade, which introduces various governing structures to the Cardano ecosystem including its Constitutional Committee, dReps, and Stake Pool Operators (SPOs.) Once CIP-1694 is implemented, the Cardano blockchain and any changes made to it will be in the hands of these groups.

The Chang upgrade is part of the Voltaire Era, the final era on Cardano’s current roadmap. Voltaire is supposed to “provide the final pieces required for the Cardano network to become a self-sustaining system,” the foundation writes.