Cardano Holders Make History: First-Ever Vote Approves Funding for Network Upgrades

Decentralization in action—ADA holders flex governance muscles.

For the first time since its launch, Cardano's community has voted to allocate treasury funds for network upgrades. No more begging devs for scraps—this is on-chain democracy at work.

The nitty-gritty:

- Proposal passed with [X]% approval (because crypto voters love consensus almost as much as they love lambo dreams)

- Funds will boost scalability and interoperability—because even blockchains need to play nice with others

- Treasury now down to [Y] million ADA after this spend (don't worry, they'll print more... wait, that's the other guys)

Wall Street bankers watching from their marble towers: 'Wait, stakeholders can actually vote on budget allocations?' Cute.

Next up: Seeing if decentralized governance works better than Congress at passing infrastructure bills.

A Major Step Toward Decentralized Governance

This vote marks a new chapter for Cardano’s decentralized structure. In the past, core protocol decisions and budget allocations were typically managed by centralized entities like Input Output Global (IOG) or the cardano Foundation. Now, for the first time, those decisions are being made directly by the community through transparent on-chain governance.

Tim Harrison, Executive Vice President of Community & Ecosystem at Input Output, called the event a “milestone moment” for Cardano. He noted that CORE protocol development is now “funded directly by the community,” signaling a shift to greater transparency and shared responsibility.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson echoed that sentiment, thanking the community for its trust and support. “Let’s get it done,” he wrote on social media following the vote.

What the Funds Will Support

The approved 96 million ADA will be used to fund several critical projects within the 2025 roadmap. These include:

• Ouroboros Leios: An upgrade to Cardano’s consensus mechanism to increase throughput without sacrificing security or decentralization.

• Hydra: A scalability solution designed to enable low-latency and low-cost transactions for real-time applications.

• Mithril Enhancements: Improvements to reduce the time it takes to sync a Cardano node, and support lightweight clients.

• Nested Transactions: A feature to extend the flexibility of smart contracts and improve interoperability between blockchains.

• Project Acropolis: A modular redesign of the Cardano node architecture to encourage community contributions and improve accessibility.

These upgrades aim to enhance Cardano’s capabilities as a smart contract platform and broaden its appeal to developers and businesses.

Strong Oversight and Accountability

The funding approval is not a blank check. To ensure accountability, a number of checks and balances are built into the disbursement process. The funds will be released based on milestone achievements verified by Intersect—a member-based organization that oversees governance within the Cardano ecosystem.

Milestone-based payments will only be issued upon verified delivery, using a mix of smart contracts, third-party auditing, and regular community reporting. Monthly progress updates, engineering timesheets, and quarterly budget reports will help maintain transparency throughout the development cycle.

Ricky Rand, General Manager at Input Output Engineering, emphasized that the vote is just the beginning. “Securing this funding is just the start. The real work begins now—delivering with integrity and reporting with transparency,” he said.

A New Model for Blockchain Governance

This vote sets a precedent for how future development could be handled in Cardano—and possibly in other blockchain ecosystems. Rather than relying on a centralized core team, Cardano is evolving into a network where key decisions are made collectively by its stakeholders.

Intersect, the organization overseeing governance, mentioned that several other proposals are also being prepared for community votes, suggesting that decentralized funding decisions will become a regular part of Cardano’s development model.

Additionally, Input Output plans to bring in external vendors, especially those from the Cardano Developer Ecosystem Coalition, to work on various parts of the roadmap. This MOVE is designed to promote a broader base of contributors and gradually reduce dependency on a single development entity.

Looking Ahead

Cardano’s first community-approved core funding proposal demonstrates a powerful use case for decentralized governance. It shows that major decisions about blockchain development can be made collectively and transparently—without relying solely on centralized authority.

With the funds now approved and development underway, the Cardano community will be watching closely to see if this new model delivers results. If successful, it could serve as a blueprint for other blockchains seeking to decentralize their governance and development processes.