Hello there,

Welcome to the thirteenth Intersect development report! As we delve into this week's updates, we're excited to share progress across various fronts. There's much to explore, from the latest grant applications, the DRep Pioneer Program, Plutus change proposition, continuity milestones, community hub updates, community and governance tooling, and the dynamic interactions within our working groups and meetups. 

Join us as we examine these developments shaping our community's journey forward.

DRep Pioneer Program

We have an exciting update on candidate selection for the DRep Pioneer Program. We’re happy to share that 15 applicants have been selected, and the onboarding process has begun. Those selected as DRep Pioneer workshop leaders are:

• Pedro Lucas
• Martin Musagara
• Ha Nguyen
• Cameron Smith
• Joao Bosco Ribeiro
• Reshma Mohan
• Daniela Alvez
• Phil Lewis
• Eystein Magnus Hansen. | Daniel Dahl Johnsen
• Ubio Obu
• Jaromir Tesar
• Adam Rusch
• Jenny Brito
• Hosky
• Wada Global

We congratulate all those who were successful and look forward to supporting the creation of their educational programs. In the coming weeks, the DRep Pioneer Program will be delivered by workshop leaders across the globe. We also want to encourage as many people as possible to become DReps. So, those not selected this time will be prioritized and included in the first cohort of pioneers!

We’ll be following the progress of the DRep Pioneer workshop leaders - stay tuned for more updates.

Proposed Plutus Changes

This week, there has been renewed interest in a few long-standing Plutus script usability problems (as described via CPS-05).

Context—Datums are additional data that must be passed to Cardano smart contract scripts to interact with them.

The higher-level problems

• Plutus scripts need datums - sending money to Plutus script addresses is harder than sending money to other addresses because a datum is needed in addition to the address and the value. On the flip side, many Plutus scripts don’t need datums. Since they are forced to have one, they must use a trivial fake datum, making things harder.
  
  
• Users need to become more familiar with the EUTXO concepts. They are typically aware of the concept of addresses but much less likely to be aware of the concept of datums. Thus, anything that requires them to think or operate with them will likely need to be clarified, counterintuitive, and error-prone (at least at first).

CIP-69 | Script Signature Unification proposes one solution to the first and partly to address the second problem. CIP-69 proposes making datums optional arguments for all types of scripts. These changes to Plutus and the Cardano ledger would allow for greater freedoms and usability of Plutus scripts.

The hard fork working group at Intersect will be evaluating the specifications to consider including the Chang upgrade. We’ll provide an update over the coming weeks.

Continuity

One of our pillars facilitates Cardano’s development and continuity. Cardano continuity is defined or referred to as any approved and required technical services needed to build or fix current and future areas of the Cardano blockchain. Continuity in this definition can include new development, such as the CIP-1694 governance software, component upgrades, or testing improvements, to name a few. You can read more about it here.

In the latest update, the Intersect Continuity Milestone Report for April has officially been completed, and the Technical Steering Committee minutes backlog has been written and published.

You can read these minutes here.

DevOps agency grant applications 

Significant progress has been made on the Intersect DevOps agency grant applications! We've finished evaluating all submissions and sent out follow-up questions to help clear up any outstanding details.

The selection process is nearing its conclusion, and we're gearing up to send out announcements to both successful and unsuccessful applicants early next week. This will provide all agencies with a clear understanding of the outcome and next steps.

Community tooling

The Inclusion and Accessibility Phase 1 category has now been fully evaluated by a group of community members who support our efforts to reward grants in the most fair and transparent way. The Membership and Community Committee will ratify the results on Tuesday, May 14th, with public announcements scheduled for Friday, May 17th. You can find out more about this grant here.

Phase 2 of the Inclusion and Accessibility category will primarily focus on translating GovTool into multiple languages. It is due to open in the next couple of weeks.

In addition to these strategic endeavours, we've supported grassroots initiatives by awarding small grants for local meet-ups. To kick off the first member-led event, Peter Horsfall hosted it in Melbourne, fostering meaningful connections on a local level. You can read more about that here.

Community Hubs

Expanding our reach beyond LATAM and Japan, we're actively discussing with various regions to broaden our Community Hub footprint globally. For those curious about our Community Hubs or seeking further clarification, we've compiled a comprehensive list of FAQs, addressing common inquiries and providing insights into our approach.

If you're passionate about driving positive change and nurturing community initiatives, we invite you to explore opportunities to apply for a Community Hub grant. Your involvement can catalyse impactful projects and contribute to community growth and enrichment. Click here to find out more.

Governance tooling

The WeDeliver team is progressing in developing Govtool's proposal discussion forum. Working together, the ByronNetwork team has started developing a new architecture to integrate Govtool's different pillars (Proposal Discussion, Governance Action Submission, Voting, Delegation).

Through discussions and workshops, the Governance Tools Working Group has created the first draft of the distributed process to decentralize the ownership and maintenance of the Govtool and Constitutional Committee Portal (core Governance Tools).

The draft will be reviewed and finalized in the next session of the Governance Tools Working Group and presented to the Open Source Committee to gather feedback. The current builders working on these tools and the Intersect product team will start implementing and using this process to refine and improve it, empowering the broader community to contribute to the governance tools.

We encourage everyone to keep testing the current implementation of Govtool on sanchogov.tools and to send feedback through the ‘feedback’ function. This feedback helps refine and improve these features and builds up the backlog of new features for the community to work on.

Here are the updated stats for GovTool; please note these stats are cumulative and take into account the period from the last reset to the present:

Additionally, here are the stats for the SanchoNet testnet for this past week:

Important member resources

• Intersect Knowledge Base - Frequently updated, our knowledge base provides granular detail on our internal governance structure, committees & working groups, and funding opportunities, among many other items.
• Intersect website - The latest news, roadmap, and more.
• GovTool - Take part in testing governance actions on the SanchoNet testnet.
• Discord / Telegram - Join our lively community and interact with committees, working groups, and other members.
• Social - We are continually active on Twitter and LinkedIn, so follow us there to stay updated on our latest news and insights!
• TownHall - Our monthly members' Zoom meeting where we highlight and discuss essential governance topics and member-based news. (Watch out for a new link to join soon!)

This week's reminders 

In this week's reminders section, we’d like to highlight:

Consensus—Intersect will attend Consensus 2024, the world's largest, longest-running, and most influential gathering, bringing together all sides of the cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 community. If you wish to attend, you can get your tickets here and get 15% off your pass using our code - INTERSECTC24.

May Town Hall—The next Intersect Town Hall will be held on 28th May. To be involved, you can secure your place here - (Watch out for a new link to join soon!)

Well, that’s it for this week's update. Thanks for reading!

And finally, we’re interested in hearing more from you about subjects important to you, such as Cardano’s governance. Your ideas and suggestions are crucial to us. If you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions, please get in touch via email, X, or LinkedIn.