Cardano Completes Historic Shift to Full Onchain Governance

Key Governance Milestones Achieved

Cardano has successfully transitioned to a fully community-governed system, marking a significant milestone years in the making, as detailed in Messari’s State of Cardano Q3 2025 report. This governance shift represents the culmination of the Voltaire era, establishing a democratic framework where ADA holders, stake pool operators (SPOs), and delegated representatives (DReps) collectively determine the network’s future direction.

The third quarter of 2025 was pivotal, signifying the realization of this vision. For the first time, Cardano’s Constitutional Committee (CC) was elected entirely through onchain voting, ending a period where founding entities like Input Output Global (IOG), EMURGO, and the Cardano Foundation held partial control.

The First Fully Elected Constitutional Committee

In September 2025, Cardano concluded its first comprehensive constitutional election, a process finalized through a transparent and verifiable onchain vote. Seven members were selected, including community-based organizations such as Cardano Atlantic Council, Tingvard, and Eastern Cardano Council, rather than corporate entities.

This election adhered to the strict constitutional rules outlined in CIP-1694, which mandated concurrent majorities from both DReps (67%) and SPOs (51%) for final ratification. The proposal received approval on September 1, and the newly elected CC officially assumed office by September 6.

This transition signifies the end of the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC), where IOG, EMURGO, and other founding entities previously held decision-making authority. Their stepping down has paved the way for a system where Cardano governance is now exclusively in the hands of its community, a rare achievement in the blockchain space where founding teams often maintain lasting influence.

Smart Contract Treasury Framework: Funding Goes Onchain

Concurrent with the election, Cardano launched its most critical governance infrastructure to date: the smart contract–based Treasury framework. This system is engineered to automate the allocation of community funds, replacing administrative trust with verifiable code execution.

The framework ensures that all ADA disbursements from the Treasury adhere to an auditable, rule-based process. Managed by Intersect, Cardano’s neutral coordination body, it incorporates multi-signature control, milestone-based funding, and real-time transparency.

Under the new model:

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  Each Treasury withdrawal requires multi-signature authorization, with a 2-of-5 threshold for routine actions and a 3-of-5 threshold for sensitive transactions.
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  An Oversight Committee, consisting of five ecosystem organizations—Sundae Labs, Xerberus, NMKR, DQuadrant, and the Cardano Foundation—is responsible for verifying every transaction.
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  Payments are triggered by smart contracts exclusively after a proposal has successfully passed ratification and constitutional review.

This structure replaces subjective administration with automated accountability, ensuring that community funds are deployed efficiently and are fully traceable.

Treasury Withdrawal Actions: Governance in Motion

The first large-scale implementation of this Treasury framework occurred in July 2025, when Intersect submitted 39 Treasury Withdrawal Actions (TWAs) for ratification. These actions represented the initial phase of Cardano’s community budgeting process, covering a wide range of needs from infrastructure maintenance to core protocol upgrades.

Following approval by DReps and the Constitutional Committee, a proposal progresses through three distinct stages: Proposal, Ratification, and Enactment. Votes are tallied at the conclusion of each epoch, allowing delegators the flexibility to alter their votes mid-cycle. Upon final ratification, funds are transferred to the administrator’s wallet via a verified smart contract.

The system demonstrated its reliability during these July transactions, which necessitated close collaboration between Intersect, vendors, and the Oversight Committee. Each payment was successfully executed within a 36-hour timeframe, illustrating how onchain governance can achieve efficiency comparable to centralized fund management, but with complete transparency.

A Historic Milestone: Funding the Network’s Core Upgrades

In August 2025, the community approved its first significant onchain infrastructure allocation: a package of 96 million ADA, valued at approximately $71 million, to fund crucial protocol upgrades including Ouroboros Leios, Hydra scaling, and Mithril enhancements.

This event marked the first instance in Cardano’s history where core development was financed directly through a community vote, rather than from a founding entity’s treasury. The Interim Committee authorized this transaction to facilitate a seamless transition, ensuring the newly elected body could assume office without immediate fiscal obligations.

This action effectively bridged the gap between Cardano’s governance aspirations and its operational reality, proving that decentralized funding mechanisms are capable of scaling responsibly.

Why It Matters: Separation of Powers in Blockchain Governance

Cardano’s Q3 governance achievements establish a significant precedent for decentralized networks globally. The integration of elected oversight, automated onchain treasury functions, and ratified funding introduces institutional-level transparency into an open blockchain environment.

In contrast to traditional DAOs that rely on simple token voting, Cardano’s model distributes authority across three fundamental pillars:

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  DReps act as representatives for ADA holders in governance matters.
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  SPOs are responsible for safeguarding network consensus.
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  The Constitutional Committee functions as a judicial body, ensuring that all proposals align with Cardano’s charter.

Collectively, these groups constitute a balanced governance system, mirroring the checks and balances found in democratic institutions but enforced entirely through cryptographic rules and smart contracts.

The Oversight Committee and the Path Ahead

The Oversight Committee, composed of five independent ecosystem organizations, now plays a critical role in upholding the procedural integrity of Treasury operations. This committee does not engage in political decision-making but rather verifies the accuracy and legitimacy of all Treasury transactions.

Each member holds limited signing authority, which prevents any single entity, including Intersect, from exercising unilateral control over community funds. As Cardano’s governance continues to evolve, this structure is anticipated to expand, incorporating additional organizations into the oversight process to ensure sustained decentralization.

Moving forward, the system will also integrate with Project Catalyst’s upcoming funding cycles, directly connecting proposal approvals with onchain Treasury disbursements. This integration aims to streamline funding for developers, researchers, and open-source contributors while maintaining rigorous accountability standards.

Brief Summary: A Blueprint for Decentralized Governance

Cardano’s governance reform represents more than an internal restructuring; it serves as a functional model for transparent, community-driven blockchain administration. Few networks have implemented onchain voting, ratified budgeting, and independent oversight with such a sophisticated approach.

Quick Snapshot

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  A fully elected Constitutional Committee has been operational since September 2025.
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  The smart contract Treasury disburses funds through auditable logic.
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  A total of 96 million ADA has been allocated for infrastructure upgrades via community vote.
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  Oversight is managed by five independent ecosystem organizations.

Conclusion

Messari’s Q3 2025 report clearly illustrates a network that has fully embraced decentralization, both in principle and in practice. Cardano is no longer directed by its founding entities but by its community, represented through onchain governance, transparent funding mechanisms, and verifiable smart contracts.

This transformation is arguably the most advanced implementation of democratic governance in blockchain to date. With the Voltaire framework now active and self-sustaining, Cardano has entered an era where every ADA holder truly possesses a voice—an era defined by accountability, transparency, and autonomy.