Cardano Shake-Up: Input Output Founders Exit as Governance Vote Looms

Cardano’s core development firm Input Output just lost key leadership—right as the network gears up for a high-stakes governance vote. Timing? Impeccable.

Founders Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood are out, though insiders insist it’s ’planned succession.’ Sure—just like that ’strategic pivot’ your CFO pitched before the liquidity crunch.

The exits come days before Cardano holders vote on treasury reforms that could reshape the chain’s future. Coincidence? Decentralization purists will call this progress. TradFi veterans will recognize a classic power vacuum.

One thing’s certain: when the suits flee before an election, smart money checks the exits.

Cardano Elections

The ICC was formed alongside the first phase of the Chang upgrade in late August 2024, a hard fork that introduced the foundations of on-chain governance to Cardano’s Conway-era ledger. The upgrade empowered ADA holders to elect delegates (dReps) and submit governance actions—features that required an oversight body while the full Constitutional Committee framework was being finalized.

Intersect’s election roadmap sets out five phases that run through the northern summer. Candidate registrations opened on May 1 and close on May 31; campaigning occurs in parallel. Token-weighted voting will then run from June 10 to July 10, followed by onboarding and credential generation for the seven successful candidates from July 10 to August 1.

Formal ratification—including an on-chain governance action to recognize the new committee—is scheduled between August 1 and September 1. The three highest-vote recipients will serve two-year terms, while the remaining four will sit for one year to create a staggered election cycle.

What Changes—And What Does Not

IOG’s withdrawal does not diminish its technical role in Cardano’s open-source development, but it signals a decisive shift in governance: founding entities will henceforth compete on equal terms with community candidates if they wish to help police the Constitution. For many long-time stakeholders, that shift fulfills the Voltaire-era promise of “governance by the holders,” a milestone repeatedly described by Hoskinson as the final piece of Cardano’s original roadmap.

The forthcoming ballot will test the viability of large-scale, token-weighted elections on a live L1 network and will give over 4 million ADA wallets a direct say in who interprets and enforces the cardano Constitution. Should the schedule hold, Cardano will enter September with its first fully elected Constitutional Committee in place—while the company that launched the chain steps back to the same arm’s-length status as every other participant.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.75.