Cardano’s Plomin hard fork sets stage for full decentralized governance

Cardano’s Plomin hard fork activates full decentralized governance, empowering ADA holders with direct voting power on blockchain upgrades.
Cardano’s Plomin hard fork activates full decentralized governance, empowering ADA holders with direct voting power on blockchain upgrades.

Cardano is set to transition to a fully decentralized voting system thanks to its forthcoming major upgrade.

The Cardano blockchain will transition to a decentralized governance structure after the Plomin hard fork takes effect, the Cardano Foundation said in a Jan. 29 X post, writing:

“The Plomin hard fork takes effect, marking the transition to full decentralized governance. $Ada holders gain real voting power—on parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, hard forks, and the blockchain’s future.”

Plomin hard fork announcement. Source: Cardano Foundation

The upgrade will enable Cardano (ADA) tokenholders to delegate voting power to delegated representatives who vote on governance actions, including protocol parameter changes, treasury withdrawals and hard fork initiations.

Hard forks require staking pool operators to upgrade their nodes and approve the upgrade with a 51% majority. As of Jan. 22, 78% of Cardano’s network nodes had upgraded to the new version, according to a Jan. 23 report from Emurgo — a voting member of Cardano’s Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) that supported the hard fork.

Cardano Foundation approves Plomin upgrade. Source: Cardano Foundation

The Cardano Foundation has also voted in favor of the upgrade, according to a Jan. 23 X post that wrote:

“After a thorough review, we have determined that the governance action is fully constitutional.”

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ADA token eyes breakout to $1.90 after Plumin hard fork

Despite the long-awaited upgrade, the ADA token has been struggling to gain momentum. The ADA token fell over 8.2% on the weekly chart, to trade above $0.91 as of 1:23 pm UTC, Cointelegraph Markets Pro data shows.

ADA/USDT, 1-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph

Still, Cardano’s governance token is up over 95% over the past year, outperforming Ether’s (ETH) 38% yearly rally. Bitcoin (BTC) outperformed both altcoins with a 156% yearly gain.

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BTC, ETH, ADA, 1-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph 

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Cardano’s ADA token may be on track to rally above $1.90 after the hard fork, according to a symmetrical triangle, which on confirmation, would result in a significant breakout.

Symmetrical triangles form when price action consolidates between converging trendlines, typically preceding a breakout in the direction of the prevailing trend.

ADA/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

This emerging chart pattern sets ADA’s long-term price near $1.90, up around 108% from current price levels. However, the 50-day small moving average (SMA) momentum indicator remains a critical resistance at the $0.962 mark. 

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