Cardano To Shift On Fully Decentralized Governance With Plomin Hard Fork

Cardano (ADA) is transitioning to a fully decentralized governance protocol at this Wednesday’s Plomin hard fork.

The Cardano blockchain will undergo evolution this Wednesday night, January 29. According to the Cardano Foundation’s latest post on X, the network will finally transition to fully decentralized governance.

The Plomin Hard Fork signed into approval in December 2024 turns over Cardano’s governance to ADA holders. The change empowers the community members to delegate their voting powers to DReps (Delegated Representatives). This will, in turn, let them actively participate in deciding on matters pertaining to parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, hard forks, and the future of the chain.

Road to Self-Sustainability

The foundation considers the Plomin hard fork as the full realization of the Voltaire era of Cardano. This second phase of the Chang hard fork is crucial to the network’s roadmap to self-sustainability. It serves as a follow-up to the first part of the Chang hard fork in 2024.

Cardano explained that a hard fork updates the software across the distributed network of nodes that validate and secure blockchain. It unlocks a plethora of advantages, such as new functionalities, enhanced efficiency, and improved security.

The blockchain’s evolution comes hot on the heels of its founder Charles Hoskinson’s rants last month. During that time, he criticized the Cardano Foundation for running contrary to the chain’s original vision of decentralization due to its lack of direct community member participation.

Cardano Advises Users to Upgrade to the Latest Node Version

Since a hard fork is not backward compatible, Cardano reminded that stake pools and relays must upgrade to the latest node version. Node users who fail to do so may expose themselves at risk of a potential denial-of-service (DoS) attack following the hard fork.

The SPOs must update to node 10.1.4 to connect to the network. As of last week, 78% of the network nodes have already done so based on the foundation. Meanwhile, it deemed 60% of the exchange liquidity ready for the transition.

ADA Performance Ahead of the Cardano Plomin Hard Fork

Despite the incoming milestone in Cardano, ADA price dunked from a $0.9656 high to a $0.9051 low today. As of Wednesday noon (UTC), it recovered to the $0.92 range but has remained significantly down from the $1 price it latched on a couple of days ago. Nevertheless, it is still up by over 6% and 89% in the one-month and one-year charts, respectively.

Along the way, the token’s trading volume also dropped by nearly 20% as only $707.14 million ADA moved across wallets, indicating either a lack of interest or awareness in the upcoming event of Cardano or indecisiveness by the community amid the pivotal change in its landscape.

Giancarlo Perlas

Giancarlo is an economist by profession with a career spanning nearly two decades. His professional journey has seen him assume vital roles in various government and private organizations such as the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Megaworld Corporation, and the China Banking Corporation in the Republic of the Philippines. In addition to his civic and corporate pursuits, his forward-thinking approach has led him to manage several prominent websites in the banking and finance sector, notably the Australia-based RateChoice, where he immersed himself in the world of emerging financial technologies and where he found particular interest in Bitcoin all the way back to 2013. Prior to his addition to Blockzeit’s dynamic team, he held an essential role as Project Manager for initiatives encompassing blockchain, stablecoin, mining, special economic zone development, and iGaming. This noteworthy chapter in his career unfolded under the auspices of InPlan Consultancy Services, Inc., the think-tank of IMPERO Consortium Management Corporation headquartered in Manila, Philippines, and Tokyo, Japan. InPlan, led by a distinguished retired Cabinet member of the Philippines, collaborates directly with IMPERO's core management team, contributing to strategic planning and business development endeavors.