Cardano plans transition to ‘full decentralized governance’ after Wednesday’s Plomin hard fork
2025-01-29
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The Cardano blockchain is set to transition to fully decentralized governance, according to the Cardano Foundation’s latest post on X.
"Tonight, Cardano evolves. The Plomin hard fork takes effect, marking the transition to full decentralized governance," The Cardano Foundation posted. "ADA holders gain real voting power—on parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, hard forks, and the blockchain’s future, a milestone in blockchain governance."
Last Friday the Plomin hard fork was officially approved for enactment after meeting three required thresholds for such an action during the network's interim governance period. The results saw that at least 85% of stake pools had upgraded to a Cardano node version capable of processing the new protocol rules. Secondly, over 51% of stake pool operators (SPOs) voted in favor of the upgrade. Additionally, more than 67% of the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) determined that the hard fork was constitutional, paving the way for blockchain’s transition to decentralized governance.
Last Thursday the Cardano foundation posted on X that they had voted "yes" on the Plomin Hard Fork governance action, and that the governance action was constitutional. "The governance action to hard fork to Protocol Version 10 'Plomin' is constitutional, and it fulfills all procedural requirements, enables CIP-1694 governance and Plutus primitives, and complies with guardrails," the foundation said.
Key changes of the Plomin hard fork
The Plomin hard fork introduces several key changes to Cardano's governance and functionality. It enables all seven governance actions outlined in the Cardano Improvement Proposal CIP-1694, including treasury withdrawals, new constitution proposals, and votes of no confidence. Additionally, it activates decentralized representative (DRep) and stake pool operator (SPO) voting on applicable governance actions.
The hard fork also implements a restriction requiring staking reward withdrawals to be made only by accounts that delegate to a DRep, reinforcing the network’s decentralized governance framework. The hard fork, due to be enacted later today, ensures that the Cardano treasury will now be governed by ADA holders. Today's governance action was first submitted on-chain on Dec. 20.
Cardano's ADA token was changing hands for around $0.91 as of the time of writing, down by over 5% in the past 24 hours, according to The Block's Price Page.
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