Cardano Activates Full Decentralized Governance with Plomin Hard Fork

The Cardano blockchain is entering a new era of fully decentralized governance, as announced by the Cardano Foundation in a recent post on X.

"Tonight, Cardano evolves. The Plomin hard fork takes effect, marking the transition to full decentralized governance," the Cardano Foundation stated.

The Plomin hard fork was officially approved last Friday after meeting three key thresholds during the network's interim governance period. To move forward, at least 85% of stake pools had to upgrade to a Cardano node version capable of processing the new protocol rules. Additionally, over 51% of stake pool operators (SPOs) voted in favor of the upgrade, while more than 67% of the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) deemed the hard fork constitutional. With these requirements met, Cardano is now set to transition to decentralized governance.

Last Thursday, the Cardano Foundation confirmed its support for the governance action in a post on X, stating that they had voted "yes" on the Plomin Hard Fork and that it adhered to all necessary governance rules. "The governance action to hard fork to Protocol Version 10 'Plomin' is constitutional, and it fulfills all procedural requirements, enables CIP-1694 governance and Plutus primitives, and complies with guardrails," the foundation noted.

Key Changes Introduced by the Plomin Hard Fork

The Plomin hard fork brings significant updates to Cardano’s governance and functionality. It enables all seven governance actions outlined in the Cardano Improvement Proposal CIP-1694, including treasury withdrawals, new constitution proposals, and votes of no confidence. It also activates decentralized representative (DRep) and stake pool operator (SPO) voting on relevant governance actions. Additionally, a new restriction requires staking reward withdrawals to be made only by accounts that delegate to a DRep, further strengthening the network’s decentralized governance model.

The hard fork, scheduled for enactment later today, ensures that the Cardano treasury will now be governed by ADA holders. The governance action leading to this transition was first submitted on-chain on December 20.