Cardano Foundation’s Proposal for a Cardano Constitution

Presenting an updated proposal for the Cardano Constitution, contributing to the ongoing governance process.

• The Cardano Foundation (CF), as a contribution to the ongoing governance development of the Cardano Ecosystem, is publishing its own updated proposal of the Cardano Constitution (Proposal) including the Guardrails. Various translations (incl. Japanese, Spanish, Hindi and Portuguese) will be provided in the coming days for ease of use.
• •The basis for the Proposal was the Constitution draft of 29 July 2024. The Proposal further builds on the constitutional workshops, Intersect civics committee work, and social media discussions, incorporates expert and community feedback, and iterates on structure and formatting.
• •This contribution aligns with the core ethos and principles outlined in ‘Our Cardano’.

The Cardano Foundation (CF) is releasing its own Proposal for the Cardano Constitution as a contribution to the ongoing Cardano governance workstreams. The basis for this Proposal was the Constitution draft of 29 July 2024 and it builds on the extensive work already undertaken. Further, it incorporates new expert and community feedback as well as miscellaneous improvements (see more details below). The overarching purpose of the changes is to improve the accessibility and clarity of the Cardano governance framework, particularly for a less technical audience. In doing so, we have attempted to balance the multitude of inputs received from various stakeholders.

The primary purpose of this Proposal is to inform, and make transparent and accessible the Cardano Foundation’s own position going into the next phase of Cardano governance. With this, we aim to live up to the recently launched ethos and principles, known as 'Our Cardano'. ‘Our Cardano’ was designed to inform and shape CF participation in Cardano governance and the Cardano Foundation’s role in the Cardano Ecosystem.

We hope that our suggestions will be duly considered by the Delegates for the constitutional convention in Argentina and Kenya. Several areas in the most recent Constitution draft reflect a similar direction as the Proposal, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with the community to further improve the Cardano Constitution.

The Cardano Foundation Proposal makes the following key changes, listed below in broad terms:

• •Elaborates roles and voting mechanisms to be more self-explanatory.
• •Provides specifications for different governance actions and their requirements.
• •Adds a new section on the applicability of the Constitution.
• •Adds a new safeguard to the election process for Constitutional Committee members.
• •Adds new provisions to elaborate on the role of the Net Change Limit Amount, Cardano Budget, and Cardano Treasury withdrawals.
• •Streamlines and made additions to the Preamble and Tenets, including moving certain principles from the Guardrails up into the Constitution.
• •Reinforces the relationship between the Constitution and the Guardrails.
• •Adds a set of definitions used in the Constitution.
• •Reformats, editorializes, or summarizes content throughout the Constitution.
• •Reformats and editorializes the Guardrails.
• •Adds a new table of contents, section numbers, and Guardrails version control.

The Cardano Foundation Proposal is available as a downloadable PDF and Word document, the Guardrails can be found here. Various translations (incl. Japanese, Spanish, Hindi and Portuguese) will be provided in the coming days for ease of use. A public Roundtable Talk to discuss the Cardano Constitution Drafts will also be held on Monday, 25 November 2024, at 2 pm UTC (link to join). We look forward to working on the next chapter of our decentralized journey alongside the community and broader ecosystem.

Giorgio Zinetti
Chief Technology Officer