Chang Upgrade: Taking Cardano into Decentralized Governance

Cardano's Chang upgrade is a major milestone, fulfilling the promise of a self-governing, decentralized ecosystem

The Chang upgrade marks a pivotal moment in the history and development of Cardano, representing the culmination of many years of preparation and consultation. It will fulfill Cardano’s promise of becoming a self-governing, completely decentralized ecosystem as defined in CIP-1694.

Chang will be implemented in two phases:

• Chang Upgrade #1: The technical kickstarting stage as described in CIP-1694’s Bootstrapping Phase.
• Chang Upgrade #2: Will introduce the final features of on-chain governance.

The Chang upgrade represents a technical step in support of Voltaire era principles. It further enhances Cardano’s capabilities, preparing it for the more sophisticated governance functions Voltaire aims to implement. A robust commitment to security, transparency, and open communication will prove paramount to the delivery of this next stage, including in the signing and identification of the public keys by the Cardano Foundation in its role as Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) Member.

Voltaire: from experimentation to implementation

While Shelley’s infrastructure laid the groundwork for decentralization, Voltaire now intends to build on this foundation to create a fully decentralized, self-sustaining network. Voltaire represents the concluding phase in Cardano’s evolution, introducing community-driven and decentralized governance mechanisms that will allow ada holders to vote on network and funding proposals.

In its role, the Cardano Foundation anticipated and prepared the Chang upgrade by pursuing proactive experimentation and engagement. Among other initiatives, the Foundation designed a stake pool operator (SPO) poll to test possible governance mechanisms. These on-chain, run on mainnet polls may offer a simple yet reliable method for the entire Cardano community to collectively make key decisions about network upgrades and protocol enhancements.

The Foundation's first on-chain poll for SPOs represented an initial foray into this realm, testing and refining a system to ensure the creation of well-founded proposals. Following the governance introduced by the Voltaire implementation, similar polls, via the info governance action, can serve to inform delegated representatives (DReps), whose influence directly correlates with their delegated support.

Conway in the Voltaire Era

The final phases of Voltaire will advance Cardano's decentralized governance model by replacing the genesis keys with ongoing support from SPOs as well as additional involvement from delegated representatives (DReps) and the Constitutional Committee (CC). DReps will act as proxies for ada holders in governance matters, whereas the committee will safeguard Cardano's constitution. This era ushers in novel management mechanisms, revamps governance processes, and extends Plutus scripts to accommodate programmable governance actions.

Furthermore, the governance introduced by Conway, triggered by the first Chang upgrade, will provide DReps with dynamic influence, capable of evolving within an epoch. Unlike SPO delegation, DRep delegation occurs immediately, and does not require a two epoch lag. As a result, DReps will more actively participate in governance, representing their stakeholders in discussions and decision-making procedures.

Next steps in Cardano’s decentralized governance

As stake pool nodes upgrade to meet required thresholds and decentralized applications (DApps) near complete readiness, Cardano will fully transition to Voltaire upon the final use of genesis keys, triggering the hard fork. This milestone marks the realization of a self-sustaining blockchain, a groundbreaking achievement that sets a precedent for the broader industry.

Cardano's successful evolution demonstrates the power of decentralized governance and community-driven development. It paves the way for a future where blockchain technology thrives as a truly autonomous and self-sustainable ecosystem. The Cardano Foundation encourages community members to join the Constitutional Workshops to further participate in the next steps of Cardano’s decentralized governance journey.