The Cardano blockchain has successfully undergone its highly anticipated hard fork, upgrading voting mechanisms and smart contracts and heralding a new era of decentralized governance.
On Sept. 1, at 21:44 UTC at block 10764778, the layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain underwent its Chang upgrade, which ushered in what the project calls the “Conway ledger era.”
One of the key changes is to transform Cardano governance, enabling any Cardano (ADA) tokenholder to submit or participate in the voting process for governance actions as part of the project’s “Voltaire” upgrade phase.
In a Sept. 2 X post, the Cardano Foundation wrote:
“Today’s Chang hard fork marks a major milestone for the Cardano blockchain, ecosystem, and community––fulfilling the promise of a truly self-governing, decentralized network.”
Chang implements onchain participatory governance via Cardano improvement proposal-1694, which allows direct voting or delegation to representatives. It also establishes a constitutional committee and a new governance role for stake pool operators, which will be phased in over the next 90 days.
The goal of the first stage of the upgrade is to “ensure security and continuity during the governance bootstrapping phase,” according to the Cardano Foundation.
“The second phase, expected in 2025, will oversee, establish, and help facilitate the community in self-government initiatives for the ecosystem,” it added.
The upgrade also enables Plutus scripts for governance, supporting advanced voting mechanisms such as decentralized autonomous organization voting. It also introduces new cryptographic and performance improvements for smart contracts.
In a video on X on Sept. 2, Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson said the ecosystem has grown tremendously throughout the years, adding:
“A day where the entire ecosystem, the community, every holder of ADA stands shoulder to shoulder as equals and they all have a say in the future not just of this protocol, but what this protocol can do for everyone in the world.
One small step for Cardano; One giant leap for the industry https://t.co/ENXV41XdhZ
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 1, 2024
Related: Cardano releases ‘Node 9.0,’ paving way for upcoming Chang hard fork
ADA prices saw no gain from the hard fork, slumping a further 2.4% on the day to trade at $0.333 at the time of writing.
A once top-five cryptocurrency, ADA has fallen out of the top 10 by market capitalization as other blockchains such as Tron (TRX) and Toncoin (TON) have grown.
Additionally, ADA remains down 89% from its all-time high which came three years ago today, on Sept. 2, 2021, when it hit $3.09.