Hello there,

It’s time for the twenty-fourth edition of the Intersect Development Report! Once again we have a host of updates to bring to you with a heavy focus on node 9.1.0 - the final Chang node candidate to bring on-chain decision making to Cardano! 

In addition: community hubs, community tooling, and technical operations as well as ramping up the excitement for the upcoming events we will be at. 

Let’s get straight into this week's report.

Are you ready for Chang?

We’re now on the home stretch to bring on-chain decision making to Cardano. Since CIP-1694 was first published back in November 2022, Cardano’s governance design has seen incredible engagement; from over 1,000 people participating in CIP workshops last summer, to parameter working groups drafting the technical guardrails that underpin the safety and security of the network. 

Node 9.1.0 is out and is the final node candidate to bring CIP-1694 to mainnet and begins a new ledger era - Conway - for Cardano. SPOs have been steadily upgrading since its release earlier this week, but it takes the ecosystem to be ready before we can complete the first of two upgrades that deliver CIP-1694.

SPO’s head straight to our repository to upgrade.

For wallets, DApps, exchanges, tooling and more, check out the hard fork working groups ecosystem readiness page.

Supporting Cardano’s governance

Technical Steering Committee

Over the last two weeks, the Technical Operations Team have been working with the Technical Working Groups to help develop their prioritized backlogs for Q3 of 2024.

Many of these are publicly available via Github, such as the Consensus Team. However, over the next few weeks, each of the Technical Working Groups will be holding open meetings to share these prioritized lists and they will be enabling the community to ask questions and provide feedback. The first of these sessions will be held by the Consensus Team on Thursday, 26th of July 2024 will take place at 16:30 CEST. Please use the following link here to be a part of this.

More times and dates will be shared for these open sessions with each of the Technical Working Groups over the next week which will be posted on the newly created Technical Steering Committee Discord Channel.

Civics Committee

This committee provides facilitation to the Cardano community relating to the governance of Cardano. In their most recent update, they are currently preparing for the launch of community-led Constitutional workshops, starting in Berlin on the 28th of July. Hosted by the Cardano Foundation, join community members for the first over 50+ Constitutional workshops!

DRep Workshops

Upcoming DRep workshops:

DReps in Nigeria: On Thursday 11th of July, nexTrend organized a DRep workshop at the University of Lagos. Nigeria. They are also planning to have a series of discussions on the DRep and Cardano governance in the coming days.

DRep Workshop in Rio: 26th July. Hosted by Daniela Alves, in partnership with GovChainLab and the Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro (ITS-RJ) - Registration Link

DRep Workshop in Sydney: 3rd Aug. An in-person event, hosted by Phil Lewis and DGov Education - Registration

To learn more about DReps and how you can participate in Cardano’s on-chain decision making check out the DRep Pioneer Program.

Annual budget

Our Budget Committee collates the costs for the core operation of Cardano and feed this back to our members as well as the community.

They have been working on the budget roadmap for 2025 and beyond with an initial budget process in development to receive feedback for upcoming workshops. Join us at RareEvo for a budget workshop led by Intersect member Lloyd Duhon. 

Community hubs

LATAM (and introducing the latest community hub in Brazil!)

Launched at Blockchain Rio, our new hub in Brazil will bring local members together to collaborate & contribute to Cardano's governance, roadmap, & budget! Over 100 sign-ups to start the hub off with a bang. Headed by Intersect member, Otávio Lima, keep an eye on exciting updates coming from Brazil. Vamos lá!

Japan

Last week, our Japan Hub took part in a discussion about DAO activities, and they also spoke about Intersect’s mission. You can watch the recording here. The Japan Hub also held an X space, with 154 tuning in. You can watch the discussion here. LINE live talk scheduled for 26th July.

WADA (Africa)

Our WADA Community Hub held its weekly Town Hall on 18th July, with 22 participants. Please view the recording from the event here. The weekly Town Hall is on 25th July which you can register for here.

We are also hosting a launch event for Goma Hub on the 27th July, in-person and virtual options are available. 71 have already registered, if you would like to register please click here.

Community tooling

We are excited to share the latest updates on our ongoing grant projects! Daniela Alves and Maria Carmo have published their 4th Milestone relating to their Education and Multimedia grant - the release of a tutorial in Portuguese on YouTube explaining what a DRep is and how to become one. You can watch the tutorial here.

They have also published a guide on how to delegate to a DRep which you can watch here. Also, watch their workshop here on the opportunities in Cardano's decentralized governance.

You can follow all our current open grants here.

Upcoming events

Here are some of the events which Intersect will be present at over the coming weeks and months:

ADN: Argentina Digital Nation—Taking place in the Puerto Madero Hilton - Buenos Aires on the 31st of July, ADN is designed to attract critical figures and opinion leaders from the public, private, and web3 sectors in the fields of technology, politics, and entrepreneurship. It will provide a unique platform for in-depth discussions and meaningful collaborations. Expect around 600 attendees from across the globe, with over 25 recognized speakers, including Charles Hoskinson. It is an excellent opportunity to network with other blockchain enthusiasts.

You can find more information, including how to book, here: adn.events  

RareEvo - We’re excited to return to Las Vegas, and proud to sponsor RareEvo this year - sharing a Cardano spot with the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO. Kicking off on Friday at 12pm, join us as we host a panel conversation on Intersect’s role in Cardano with members Jenny Brito, Adam Rusch, and Lloyd Duhon.

Later on Saturday (from 10am to 12pm), we’ll have two workshops covering Cardano’s budget for 2025 and exploring Cardano’s open source governance tooling to drive participation and inclusivity.

This week's reminders 

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

• Our Core Infrastructure Roadmap working group now has a public Discord announcement channel! Visit and join this Discord channel here, and you can read more about this working group here on our knowledge base.

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!
• Town Hall - If you missed our June Town Hall, please check out the recording.

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.