The Cardano Ballot event - a community temperature check on CIP-1694 progress

Age of Voltaire

The age of Voltaire brings on-chain decision-making to Cardano, further unlocking the community's ability to chart the course forward and toward a fully decentralized governance system.

One of the many aspects of the Cardano community that all members should be proud of is the freedom and willingness to openly discuss and engage via the Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIP) process. The overall purpose of Cardano is to create a self-sustaining, self-governing chain where anyone from anywhere can positively affect the world. The Cardano community will take a giant step toward this goal in the age of Voltaire with the implementation of CIP-1694, where a governance structure run by the people, for the people, starts to take shape.

In the same way as navigating toward any destination, it’s important to gauge progress at various points to ensure those on the journey are happy with the steps taken and planned.

Introducing the Cardano Ballot

Since the release of CIP-1694, the Cardano community has been providing implicit consent through workshops and direct engagement on GitHub. CIP-1694 has witnessed unparalleled activity and engagement levels, making it the most vibrant and participatory Cardano improvement process to date. We have also seen very positive engagement with SanchoNet, the testnet for rolling out groundbreaking governance features for the Cardano blockchain, aligning with the comprehensive CIP-1694 specifications.

The community now has a further opportunity to voice their opinion on the progress toward rolling out CIP-1694 in a Cardano Ballot Event between the 1st of December and 11th December, 2023.

A ballot on governance is an important milestone, enhancing the means for exercising decision-making powers over the Cardano protocol and shared resources, such as the Cardano Treasury, to a wide range of participants. This ballot represents community confidence in the ongoing journey toward fully decentralized governance and, by capturing community feedback, will provide valuable intelligence for the next phase of the age of Voltaire by learning from the successes and challenges of the journey so far.

The Cardano Ballot is a user-friendly, hybrid on- and off-chain polling system that helps gauge community sentiment and was recently used to vote for the Cardano Summit awards. Designed and developed by the Cardano Foundation in collaboration with IOG, the Cardano Ballot facilitates the participation process for ada holders while ensuring on-chain verification on the Cardano blockchain.

What is the Cardano Ballot event? CIP-1694

The Ballot is a non-binding poll, an opportunity for the community to formally share feedback on Cardano's on-chain governance journey. The poll will count both stake and participating wallets for a mix of data points. Ada holders are encouraged to add comments via a feedback form when voting. These insights will be incredibly valuable. Beyond voting, the feedback gathered will help inform 2024 plans and priorities in governance activities and development.

The ballot will pose this question: 'based on the current progress, should we, as a Cardano community, continue to develop and deploy minimum viable on-chain governance as described in CIP-1694, subject to the final approval of the SPOs?'

A vital tenet and cornerstone of decentralized governance is that all community members should have a right to voice their opinions on direction regardless of who they may be. As such, IOG would encourage all ada holders and ecosystem projects to participate and lend their voice to the progress of CIP-1694 via the Ballot. IOG is confident in the progress towards fully decentralized on-chain governance via CIP-1694 – both in terms of development trajectory and broader community engagement – and intends to lend its voice accordingly as part of the ballot event. We’ll be voting with a weighted ada amount that we feel reflects our commitment yet also ensures the wider community’s voices are properly represented.

The Ballot opens on December 1 and closes on December 11. The feedback received will inform the next phase of governance. Once the community endorses the progress to date and the consensus is to proceed with CIP-1694, Intersect – Cardano’s member-based organization tasked with preserving the protocol’s continuity and future development – will move forward on progressing the CIP and the technical requirements needed to enact it on the Cardano mainnet later in 2024.

Here’s a reminder of the key dates:

Event timeline

• December 1: Ballot period opens
• December 11: Ballot period closes
• December 16: results expected

We encourage the community to learn more about CIP-1694 and to participate in the Cardano Ballot - CIP-1694. Don’t miss this opportunity to share your thoughts on the progress of achieving CIP1694. Together, as a collective community of many voices and many minds acting as a single mind, contributing toward a shared vision, charting the course toward the age of Voltaire.