Cardano Finalizes Constitution Blueprint, Implementation Begins End of February

• Cardano’s Chang hard fork officially introduced governance and voting rights in September 2024.
• The first official Cardano Constitution passed with 85% approval from the community.
• Cardano network fees increased 254% to $1.8 million between Q3 and Q4 2024; its DeFi TVL increased 94%  to roughly $450 million.

Cardano’s (ADA) efforts to become truly decentralized have been bolstered by a recent community vote to formally ratify its first official constitution, which will now serve as the bedrock of the network and the ecosystem’s evolution.

With the ratification of its first official constitution, Cardano now shifts its focus toward network expansion and scalability as outlined in its 2025 roadmap.

Cardano Constitution

Having required 75% to pass, the official Cardano Constitution now replaces the interim Constitution with an 85% approval from the community.

Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, announced the result and congratulated the community in a livestream on Feb. 18.

“This is a special broadcast I’m very proud to make. Allow me to be one of the first to congratulate the entire Cardano ecosystem for reaching the ratification threshold for the constitution.”

He explains that over time, Cardano’s constitution can be updated and amended. According to Hoskinson, this means it is now “a living ecosystem” comprised of over 800 delegated representatives (DReps), with over 108,000 delegators participating in governance.

“I’m proud of you all,” he remarked, as despite the constitution not reflecting “everything that you wanted,” the community still came together to make it happen.

As Hoskinson notes, it took 65 workshops with 1,800 people, a constitutional convention, and “enormous amounts of effort” to finalize the constitution.

He boldly compares Cardano’s governance layer to the decentralized architecture of the Bitcoin network. However, a key difference is that Cardano can be updated.

The Ecosystem

According to Messari’s latest “State of Cardano Q4 2024 ” report, the network and token experienced notable activity upticks in the final months of last year.

Interestingly, its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem grew 94% Quarter on Quarter (QoQ) to $448.9 million.

In addition, the price of ADA climbed 126% to $0.84 in Q4, which was a surprising jump after spending a few years trading below $0.50. Naturally, its market cap jumped 127% QoQ to $30.3 billion.

After peaking at around $1.23 in Q3 2024, ADA has since pulled back and currently trades at $0.76.