Cardano Chang Hardfork Looms as “the Verge of a New Era” But a Constitutional Challenge Awaits

Key Takeaways

• Cardano’s CEO has announced the launch of an interim constitution for the network.
• The Chang hard fork is Cardano’s first major upgrade of 2024 with community-driven governance at its core.
• The constitution, which aims to guide the community through the transition, should be ready by the end of the year.

Cardano is coming to the final stages of its roadmap. As it prepares to become a decentralized community-governed network, CEO Frederik Gregaard announced the interim Cardano Constitution.

The constitution marks yet another commitment to maintaining the community-led ethos that Cardano seeks to embody via the Chang Hard fork. However, this could still take an entire year to finalize.

The Cardano Constitution

Taking to social media, Gegaard explained the importance of the Cardano Constitution, which aims to be the foundation of a community-driven governance system.

Cardano (ADA) is now in the final stages of its roadmap, which it calls “Volatire “. In this era, the network sets out to become truly decentralized through community governance. As Gregaard notes , the interim constitution hopes to “set the standards” that will guide Cardano stakeholders through this vital phase.

Gregaard explains that the interim constitution is to embody the key principles of Cardano governance, which are transparency, openness, and responsible decision-making. Furthermore, it’s designed to ensure all ADA holders, developers, and participants understand their rights and privileges.

According to Gregaard, the final constitution will be a community effort. He says there are both global workshops and a “constitutional convention” due later this year. Seemingly, 2024 could be the biggest year yet for both Cardano and ADA holders. However, it will need to undergo its first major technological upgrade of the Voltaire era, the Chang hard fork.

The Chang Hard Fork and Governance

Scheduled for the second quarter of 2024, the Chang hard fork introduces  “minimum-viable community-run governance”, and introduces a new and important governance feature, Delegate Representatives (DReps).

DReps are essentially the Cardano community representatives or frontline officials, elected by the community through ADA token delegation. They’ll supposedly be important figures who, guided by the Cardano Constitution, will directly vote on all governance actions.

Another governance role will be the Constitutional Committee (CC). This group votes  on “the constitutionality of actions”, i.e. updates to the constitution, treasury withdrawals, hard fork initiation, and so on. There are also Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) who will vote only on certain governance types such as motions of no-confidence and protocol parameter changes.

The Voltaire Era

Gregaard’s vision of the interim constitution is for it to be a “living document” that can be progressive and adaptive. However, he also intends the community to craft the final version.

Seemingly, this won’t be finished until the third or fourth quarter of 2024. This is because the Constitutional Convention is scheduled for the Autumn period, which is supposedly where ADA token holders can influence and shape the developed governance model.

The Cardano Foundation appears active in its efforts to educate those who are seeking the responsibility of being a DRep. However, it is unclear which Constitutional rules, practices, and ideas are shaping these discussions.

Meanwhile, the constitution, which will, supposedly, be the cornerstone of Cardano’s community-driven governance ambitions, won’t be finalized until the end of the year.

It is slightly odd though, that considering that the governance-enabling technology that comes with the hard fork is scheduled to occur in the next couple of months, the “living document” that guides the principles, ethics, and rules of this big change won’t be arriving until after the fact.