Cardano approaches a pivotal moment with the Plomin hard fork, aiming to establish fully decentralized governance through a phased voting process.
Cardano ADA $0.87 24h volatility: 1.3% Market cap: $31.60 B Vol. 24h: $1.31 B is on the track to evolve as a widely used protocol. This comes as the much-anticipated Plomin hard fork is scheduled to launch later this month. This upgrade is a key step in Cardano’s goal of building a fully decentralized blockchain without central authority.
The process leading to the hard fork is an exciting phase, with the Cardano community eagerly awaiting the outcomes of governance decisions.
Cardano’s Plomin Hard Fork: A New Era for Blockchain Governance
The Plomin hard fork is a crucial upgrade for the Cardano ecosystem, marking the end of a key development phase and the start of something bigger. The update aims to implement full decentralized governance at its core, eliminating reliance on a central authority for key decisions.
This shift, outlined in the Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP-1694), is a significant step for the protocol. If successful, Cardano will become fully self-governing, with the role of the core team in making key decisions phased out with time.
The governance action for the Plomin upgrade was submitted on December 20, 2024, signaling the start of the voting process. Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) will decide whether the upgrade proceeds.
For approval, both SPOs and the Intersect Constitutional Committee (ICC) must endorse the proposal. Notably, this process is not just about getting the right votes. Rather, it ensures enough stake (the collective amount of ADA voters hold) supports the proposal.
Voting will occur in several rounds, with a phased January 14, 19, and 24 deadlines, respectively. The final decision is expected by January 29. As of January 6, 79% of SPOs have upgraded to Node version 10 and are backing the hard fork.
Of the 213 SPOs who have voted, 209 have supported the upgrade, representing 17% of the total stake. At least 51% of the stake must vote to ratify the hard fork. Support from SPOs is strong, and the community’s enthusiasm for the change grows daily.
17.7% of the stake has already voted for the Plomin hard fork. 227 SPOs voted, 224 of them voted YES.
The threshold is 51%. Deadline is January 24th. pic.twitter.com/4NTLU3yxuE
— Cardano YOD₳ (@JaromirTesar) January 7, 2025
DApp and Exchange Signal Readiness
The excitement around the Plomin upgrade goes beyond Cardano itself. Many decentralized applications (dApps) are getting ready for the change, which could affect how they operate on the network.
Intersect has been updating which dApps and exchanges are prepared for the upgrade. Some early supporters include Danogo, Fluid Tokens, Genius Yield, Minswap, Snek.fun, Splash, Summon, Tempo, and Wanchain.
Major exchanges like Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Kraken are also ready for the transition. If approved, the upgrade will mark a new phase for Cardano.
This upgrade represents a technical change and a cultural shift, potentially inspiring other blockchains to follow. Many blockchains and protocols, including Ethereum, Polkadot, Scroll, and Avalanche, have implemented governance phases.
While their governance models differ, all aim to create community-driven decision-making processes and protocol upgrades.
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