Cardano Enters the Voltaire Era of Decentralized Governance

Cardano is fully entering the Voltaire era of decentralized governance, and it released a roadmap to explain the rollout of these changes.

Cardano has now fully entered the Voltaire era, which will see decentralized governance. The blockchain has also released a roadmap that outlines the rollout of these changes.

Three categories have been identified by the roadmap as requiring significant upgrades:

- Scalability

- Usability

- Utility

The Plomin hard fork, which was triggered by a successful proposal to the Cardano Foundation, also went into effect today. This fork will completely change the blockchain’s governance model, shifting towards a decentralized focus.

Cardano Enters a New Governance Era

Founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, stated that this era will be defined by community governance, with increased transparency and autonomy. The roadmap also outlines several key upgrades, including ZK rollups and data API services, which will enhance the blockchain's scalability.

Furthermore, the roadmap describes an on-chain fund called ‘Catalyst,’ which will be used to bootstrap the development of Dapps and other projects on the network.

However, it is evident that governance changes are a top priority for developers. Hoskinson criticized the Cardano Foundation’s governance model in December and co-authored a proposal to drastically alter it.

This proposal was just passed, marking the Plomin hard fork and a complete restructuring in the new Voltaire era.

“Cardano evolves tonight. The Plomin hard fork takes effect, transitioning to full decentralized governance. ADA holders now have a direct say in parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, hard forks, and the blockchain’s future. A milestone in blockchain governance,” the Cardano Foundation announced today.

These governance changes come at a crucial time for Cardano. Despite ADA token showing strong price momentum at the beginning of January, it has since fizzled out.

Whales poured $140 million into ADA following a buy signal, but bearish trends escalated into a full-blown rout.

The Plomin hard fork brought a slight recovery, but it hasn’t overcome this negative momentum.

Despite the community’s enthusiasm for these governance changes, developers have set even more ambitious goals for Cardano upgrades.

The roadmap outlines plans to integrate Layer 2 state channels into Hydra, its scaling solution. Additionally, Layer 2 rollups, new consensus protocols, and signature certificates will be developed to enhance scalability.

In comparison to scalability, the developers' goals for usability and utility are less well-defined. These topics have a narrower range of action items on the roadmap, primarily focused on enhancing developer tools.

Nevertheless, Cardano is undergoing a transformation, and the network is poised to become more scalable and utility-driven in the future.