Cardano Chang update - mainnet upgrading September 1st!
Welcome to the twenty-ninth edition of the Intersect Development Report! This week’s edition has more on the Chang upgrade, membership milestones, committees, working groups, the Cardano constitution, governance and community tooling, and more!
On Wednesday, August 28, the hard fork working group, including representatives from the community, Intersect, Emurgo, the Cardano Foundation, and Input | Output, voted unanimously to initiate the hard fork, Chang #1. This hard fork will take effect on the Cardano mainnet on September 1 and is the first of two in the Chang upgrade. To prepare for this, Intersect has been working closely with stake pool operators (SPOs), exchanges, and developers of distributed applications (DApps). The SPOs are ready, as 92% of stake is on pools running Cardano node v.9.1.0. Exchanges are also prepared, with 92% of liquidity held by exchanges that have been upgraded to v.9.1.0. Most DApps are ready, and no high-severity issues have been raised. There will be a special X Space as we cross the epoch boundary! In addition, contingency plans are in place, with technical first responders on standby in case of unexpected events around the hard fork - read more here. The transaction itself When that transaction takes effect at the next epoch boundary (Sunday, September 1, 2024 at 21:44:51 UTC), the Chang hard fork will occur. That will take the Cardano blockchain into the Conway ledger era and herald the start of Voltaire. (Cardano eras and phases) From then on, the seven cryptographic keys used to sign the very first block of the chain (the genesis block), termed the genesis keys, are no longer valid. The genesis keys operated using the Shelley governance model, whereby the founding entities could transfer from the treasury (for project Catalyst), update protocol parameters, and trigger hard forks. The power is transferred from the few to the many, and the blockchain is on its way to being governed solely by the community of ada holders. You can dive right into the technical details and specifications here. |
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Membership and community In fantastic news, our paid membership has crossed the 800-member level. It's wonderful to see so many of you on board! Those who have yet to upgrade can check membership tiers and benefits. |
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Annual members meetings Initially, our annual members' meeting would consist of one event in Japan. However, due to the progression, success, and collaboration our community hubs have generated, we are excited to announce that we are going to host six smaller AMMs across different regions to foster greater inclusivity, hosted by our current four community hubs and two new community hubs, which we are looking to launch shortly. |
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Community hubs This week, our Japan community hub held two meetups: one in Okayama with 16 attendees and one in Fukuoka with 11 attendees. The hub also held a LINE LIVE talk with 11 attendees. This week, there are lots of activities taking place led by our community hubs: LATAM community hub
Japan community hub
CoinCeylon (Sri Lanka) hub
Our community hubs' excellent work is evident in the growing number of Individual members and associates, driven by the impactful events they deliver. Some statistics about the events and members are shown below: |
Exciting Cardano events An exclusive Cardano research and networking event will occur on September 11 in Tokyo. The event will commence at 14:30 JST with a keynote address from Charles Hoskinson, founder of Input | Output. Attendees will also receive an update from Mario Larangeira, head of the Tokyo Blockchain Lab, on the latest research initiatives. The event will include presentations from Cardano's decentralized innovation engine, Catalyst, and the member-based organization Intersect. Following the presentations, there will be a networking session with prominent members of the Cardano community, lasting until 19:00 JST. For more details, visit Tokyo Community Event 2024. Osaka Event: September 13, 2024 For more information and to register, visit Osaka Event 2024. |
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Committees and working groups Intersect is designed to be steered by its members so that the future of Cardano is community-led. The membership body provides this steering via standing committees, which are intended to be community-led, with community members taking an active role in influencing the future of Cardano. You can learn more about Intersect committees in our knowledge base. Upcoming committee elections Are you an individual or enterprise member? Congratulations, you are eligible to apply for a seat on an Intersect committee! And, of course, you are also eligible to vote on candidates through the voting process. This benefit does not apply to all; associates are not eligible to apply for committee seats or vote in the election and other AMM votes. If you are an associate and would like to apply for a committee seat, please visit the member portal and upgrade your membership before the application deadline (September 27). If you are an associate and want to participate in the AMM events and election voting, please visit the member portal and upgrade your membership before the deadline (September 30). Please note that the application dates have changed slightly to allow sufficient testing time. The application timeframe is now September 9—27. Lastly, the bi-weekly committee report is now available. This regularly updates the core Intersect committees and their working groups. |
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Open source The Open Source Committee (OSC) is running a pre-election vote to elect 4 empty voting seats. Another three voting seats will be elected during the October election period. Eight amazing candidates have applied to join the OSC, many with deep technical proficiency and a comprehensive understanding of best open-source practices. From today, all eligible Intersect members can vote and select their preferred candidates to sit on the OSC for a one-year term. Key info:
Voting will run on a custom version of the Summon platform based on one-member-one-vote. To participate, click here and register using the email you used when joining Intersect. Note: It’s crucial to register with the correct email address for your votes to be counted. Contact [email protected] or create a support ticket on Discord if you need support. |
Anyone who wants to participate but still needs to become a paid member can join us here! This allows you to have your say in this pre-election and the upcoming elections in October. For any help and support, please contact OSC at:
Be sure to learn more about the candidates by attending the open interview/intro sessions on Tuesday, September 3, at 1 pm UTC and Wednesday, September 11, at 12 pm UTC. The voting period will run until Friday, September 13. |
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Constitutional workshops Summer may be closing, but constitutional workshops are only ramping up! The last week has seen workshops in Georgia, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Vietnam, with attendees from across the global community having their say on all aspects of the draft constitution, voting for their delegates, and traveling alternates to attend the constitutional convention in December. Next week, workshops will be held in the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, Japan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, and Brazil. The schedule is hectic, so check the calendar to sign up for a workshop near you. |
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Community grants The GovTool governance action outcomes grant is now open. CIP-1694 introduced on-chain governance, which empowers ada holders to submit a governance action (GA) directly onto the Cardano mainnet. This ability will transform how decisions are made on the blockchain. Once the project is completed successfully, the successful applicant will have the opportunity to become one of GovTool's core maintainers with a related contract. To find out more and apply, please click here.
The stats below provide an overview of community grant status. The grants page has more information about the grant projects. |
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Delivery assurance Delivery assurance refers to the commitment and processes between continuity delivery partners to ensure the timely and reliable delivery of products, services, or projects, meeting specified requirements and expectations. Steered by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC), the Delivery assurance team is a core function at Intersect, completing the tasks outlined above on behalf of the community. |
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DReps workshops
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Intersect is conducting a five-minute multiple-choice survey to understand the community's thoughts, explore DReps' backgrounds and motivations, identify whom they represent, and uncover any barriers to becoming a DRep. |
We want to highlight the importance of members' feedback on this vital subject. We'll share the results in a future update, so watch this space. |
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Over the past eight months, governance tooling has been tested with over 6,000 users, allowing Intersect to gather feedback and make consistent improvements. With Chang upgrade #1 coming soon, contributing teams are making the final touches to prepare GovTool and the CC Portal for the technical bootstrapping phase (post-hard fork). Special attention is given to keeping the tool CIP-119 compliant, enabling proper DRep metadata management. Sanchogov.tools allow a user to test full governance, while preview.gov.tools allows testing of governance features in the bootstrapping phase in preparation for Chang upgrade #1. |
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This week’s reminders
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Important member resourcesIntersect Knowledge Base - Frequently updated, our knowledge base provides granular detail on our internal governance structure, committees & working groups, and funding opportunities, among many other items. Intersect website - The latest news, roadmap, and more. GovTool - Take part in testing governance actions on the SanchoNet testnet. Discord / Telegram - Join our lively community and interact with committees, working groups, and other members. Social - We are continually active on Twitter and LinkedIn, so follow us there to stay updated on our latest news and insights! Town Hall - For those of you who missed August's town hall, the recording covers what was discussed. |
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Well, that’s it for this week's update. Thanks for reading! |
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