Welcome to this week's Intersect dev update! Dive in as we review the “Plomin hard fork” info-action, Cardano Constitution updates, how to interact with DReps, continuing Budget awareness, and critical Hard Fork updates. Check out governance action updates, Govtool, and Parameter changes, updates from our core teams and social channels, and more!

Chang Hard Fork update

Plomin hard fork (a current on-chain proposal)
The Intersect hard fork working group has proposed naming the next Cardano hard fork the “Plomin hard fork” in memory of Cardano community contributor Matthew Plomin. 

Matthew Plomin was an exemplar of the Cardano community, representing everyone ready to pick up the torch and carry the ecosystem forward. Matthew was a much-loved and respected member of the Cardano community. He passed unexpectedly on November 14, 2024.

There is a tradition of naming hard forks in memory of notable historical figures or significant contributors to the Cardano community. Naming this hard fork in memory of Matthew Plomin would memorialize his lifelong actions of selflessly supporting and contributing to the Cardano blockchain ecosystem.

Renaming the second Chang hard fork (Chang #2) to the Plomin hard fork, in memory of Cardano community contributor Matthew Plomin, reflects a natural progression of Cardano’s governance growth.

The Chang hard fork, a two-part upgrade, was named after Phil Chang, who sadly passed away in 2022. Phil Chang was an employee of Input | Output (IOG) who made significant contributions to Cardano’s governance system, helping to transfer the blockchain's control and responsibility into the community's hands.

On behalf of the hard fork working group, Intersect has raised a governance information action for the Cardano community to consider. You can also view this governance action via cexplorer, cardanoscan, or CF explorer.

Tracking the Cardano constitution journey: latest draft released

Following the conclusion of the latest delegate synthesis workshop on November 16th, the latest community-driven draft is now available. The latest draft remains a work in progress and may be different from the one shared at the Constitutional Convention, pending tweaks and adjustments requested by delegates.

Drafting the Constitution has been and continues to be an iterative process, involving nearly 1400 community members and now 126 elected delegates and alternates representing their communities’ views. During the consultation process, alternative variations and iterations of a constitution emerged. These have ranged from changes in language and simplifications to more fundamental challenges to principles and statements. Much discussion and idea-sharing has taken place on social media, particularly on X. Still, there are notable exceptions where supporting materials and documentation have been published and shared.

Cardano community member Cerkoryn recently published an excellent thread linking other materials and contributions, including their own, plus Adam Dean, Kevin Mohr, Jane, Alfonso Spencer, Collin Smith, and the Cardano Foundation. This list is not exhaustive, but alongside the thousands of hours spent deliberating the draft Constitution through the workshops and Cardano Civic Committee, it’s evident how much effort has been made. 
 

Next Steps
The draft will soon undergo an off-chain vote by elected delegates, requiring a 51% majority for approval. If passed, the text will move to an on-chain vote, where it must achieve a 75% DRep approval threshold and a two-thirds majority vote by the interim Constitutional Committee.

New Convention microsite!

Launching today, a microsite to host and connect the Constitutional Convention to the Cardano community. The microsite includes an indicative schedule (subject to change pending delegate progress), and an open-invite to the signing ceremony. Head to cardanoconvention.com to find out more and RSVP.

DReps - delegated representatives

We’re excited to remind you about our weekly meetings, an open space for collaboration and discussion. These sessions are designed to clarify processes, gather valuable feedback, and address any questions regarding the budget approval process.

These meetings are growing weekly, and we’re incredibly grateful for your engagement and involvement. Let’s keep building momentum! Join us.

Committees and working groups

As Intersect continues to evolve, October 2024 marked a historic moment with our first-ever full-scale elections for our committees and governing board. This significant milestone, achieved with the active participation of our global community, reflects the spirit of inclusivity and collaboration that underpins our organization.

Following the elections, each committee comes together to elect its chair.  

• Budget Committee - Steve Lupien(Chair)
• Cardano Civics - Awaiting final results expected imminently
• Membership and Community - Nori Nishigaya(Chair), Darlington Wleh (Vice-Chair)
• Open Source - Pedro “Lucas” (Chair), Adam Dean (Vice-Chair)
• Product Committee  - Samuel Leathers (Chair), Kyle Solomon (Vice-Chair)
• Technical Steering - Kevin Hammond (Chair), Adam Dean (Vice-Chair)

The Budget Committee continues to provide open “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) sessions across different time zones and days, seeking wide input from the Cardano ecosystem regarding the annual budget process.

Through these sessions, committees have begun presenting their proposals to the community. The Product Committee, Technical Steering, Open Source, and Membership and Community Committees have each given their proposals and taken questions. The Civics Committee is scheduled to present in the coming days.

Take an active part in the process.
Intersect encourages participation in the consultation phase through surveys, AMA sessions, and committee engagements. Contributions from all stakeholders enhance the planning process.

Rebranding for Clarity: CDF Becomes CDH
When Intersect was established in December 2023, it assumed the Cardano Development Foundation (CDF) administrator role. The financial vehicle was created to support the ongoing maintenance and development of the Cardano blockchain.

A request to rename the Cardano Development Foundation was made to serve our members better and avoid confusion with the Cardano Foundation.

Following thorough discussions with the Intersect Board and the foundation's legal counsel, we are pleased to announce that it will now be known as Cardano Development Holdings (CDH).

This name change underscores our commitment to clarity and distinction within the ecosystem while continuing to uphold our mission. As we move through the budget process, we will share much more detail about the CDH, its structure, and how it operates.

Product committee

In an update, the Cardano Product Committee reports that they presented at the recent Budget Committee open calls, sharing the current state of the proposed 2025 Cardano common goals and inviting everyone to participate in the consultation. The committee members and various SMEs are now discussing how to structure a first draft of the research budget proposal, which will be presented for feedback and consultation at the beginning of December.

Additionally, they congratulate Samuel Leathers and Kyle Solomon on being elected as Chair and Co-Chair of the Cardano Product Committee.

Technical Steering Committee
Core infrastructure CIS-roadmap prioritization - inputs requested

The Technical Steering Committee attended the budget AMA on Tuesday, November 19, to share the work done with the Product Committee and Core Infrastructure working group on shaping the 2025 roadmap and how the wider community can get involved. The Intersect Knowledge base has an online version of the presentation under the TSC

Review proposed roadmap projects.

Since August, the Core Infrastructure Roadmap working group (CIR-WG) has collated potential roadmap items with contributions from the community and technical working groups. You can read more about that here. Your input, however, is crucial in determining the direction of Cardano's development for 2025 and beyond. By participating, you help prioritize what’s most essential and ensure that we are addressing the needs of the Cardano community. 

The full backlog of project briefs for proposed roadmap items submitted to date is now publicly available for review in the TSC knowledge base. 

Submit a prioritization survey

The committee is inviting you to provide feedback to help shape the 2025 Core Infrastructure Roadmap. Please share your thoughts by completing this survey. We value quantitative and qualitative input, so please let us know what matters most. The survey will remain open until December 6, 2024.

Roadmap project proposal process

Additionally, if you have a project you would like to submit for consideration for the 2025 roadmap, you can do so here. You can learn how to submit your proposal by following this explainer.

Parameters Sub-Committee

The Parameters Sub-Committee is inviting applications for open roles!
This is an incredible opportunity for skilled professionals to make a tangible impact on Cardano's evolution. Whether you’re a seasoned SPO, a developer working on DApps, DEXs, CEXs, or an expert in a technical field, this is your chance to help drive Cardano innovation forward.

The Parameters Committee is pivotal in shaping Cardano’s protocol by recommending updates and offering expert advice in key domains like economics, technical security, networking, and governance. If you’ve got a passion for blockchain and a strong track record in your field, we’d love to hear from you.

Who are we looking for? We’re seeking individuals with:

• Deep subject-matter expertise
• A solid understanding of Cardano and its operations
• Broad technical knowledge and strategic thinking
• Experience in governance or advisory roles
• A proven ability to represent the community's best interests

Ideal candidates are experts and leaders who inspire and engage with others in the Cardano ecosystem.

What will you do? As part of the Parameters Committee, you’ll:

• Offer guidance on economic, security, governance, or networking matters
• Share insights from your professional expertise
• Advocate for the community's perspective
• Participate in regular committee meetings and discussions

Joining the Parameters Committee means collaborating with some of the brightest minds to tackle the critical challenges of distributed ledger technology and help steer Cardano’s continued success.

Applications are open now! If you’re qualified and excited to contribute, email parameters-committee@intersectmbo.org to get started.

Readiness page updates 

The hard fork readiness page on the Intersect Knowledge base keeps the community updated on progress toward the mainnet hard fork.

The community is encouraged to participate in updating and maintaining the status and details contained within this ecosystem readiness page.

You can suggest updates via this hard fork working group GitHub documentation repository, which provides a simple how-to guide.

Stay informed

Join the dedicated Chang #2 Discord channel #hfwg-chang-2

The Intersect knowledge base has been updated, and information about Chang #2 can be found in our refreshed Cardano upgrade updates space. We recommend you bookmark this space and keep checking back. As confirmed by the hard fork working group, details have been added.

Open source
Exciting updates from the world of open source at Intersect! Christian Taylor (Head of the Open Source Office) spoke on a panel at the Linux Foundation Member Summit this week. Joined by talented and experienced professionals, a unique and inspiring talk unfolded, bringing Intersect’s open source activities and vision to the forefront in the Web3 space. Find more details here.

Intersect’s open source team announced our Project Support Services survey last week, in case you missed it. This survey creates a foundation of projects for the Open Source Committee to review for acceptance. The survey also allows the open source team to forecast the various levels of support desired for projects within the Community. Fill out the survey here. Feel free to pop along and ask any questions in our Discord #os-project-support. Keep up with Intersect open source by following our socials X: @IntersectOSO YT: @osointersectmbo and our GitBook: Open Source Office/Committee.

Membership and community

We’d like to warmly welcome a few of our newest enterprise members and look forward to working with you all soon! Please welcome: Sharp Economy, TapTools, VESPR, and Inkuba.

Our membership continues to grow; here are our latest numbers:

Community hubs

Update Your Profile to Connect with Local Hubs

We are working to help our members feel even more connected by introducing a simple yet impactful update to their member profiles. By confirming your country or region, you can let us know where you’re based, and we’ll explore opportunities to connect you with a local Intersect hub if there’s one near you. These hubs are designed to unite individuals in the same geographical area, creating collaboration, networking, and regional engagement opportunities.

How to get started?
It’s quick and easy! All you need to do is:

1. Log in to your Intersect profile.

2. Update your country/region information in your profile settings.

3. Based on your location, we may be able to connect you to a local hub near you if one exists.

Let’s build stronger connections, one local hub at a time. Update your profile today to join a growing, engaged community! This week, our community hubs have been hosting and attending numerous events:

Japan hub

The Japan hub has attended Blockchain Expo in Chiba, Japan, from November 20-22. Yuta, our hub manager, has provided feedback on the event:

“Intersect and JapanHub members (individual members and enterprise members) had a strong presence at the Cardano booth at Blockchain EXPO, one of the largest blockchain events in Japan. We thank our ambassador, Wakuda (@shuwaku2), for providing us with this opportunity. We prepared 300 Intersect flyers, but they were so popular that we ran out of them.”

—--------------

日本最大のブロックチェーンイベントの１つであるブロックチェーンEXPOで、Intersectと、JapanHubメンバー（個人メンバー、エンタープライスメンバー）の存在感をCardanoブース内で示しました。

この場を提供してくれたアンバサダーのWakuda( @shuwaku2 )に感謝します。

Intersectのチラシを300枚用意しましたが、人気のため配り終えてしまいました。

• X Space is to be held on November 22 to discuss all things governance.

Sri Lanka hub, led by CoinCeylon

• The Town Hall will be held on November 23 at 15:00 UTC. You can participate in the event here. The hub's post on X details the speakers at the event.

And here you can see the updated community hub stats: 

Governance tooling

As part of the hard fork readiness activities, the Govtool team began the week by upgrading DBSync and node versions to their latest releases, 13.6.0.1 and 10.1.2, respectively. During this process, we encountered some challenges with the data migration, which required a total resync. As a result, GovTool could not display data related to DReps and Governance Actions. This led us to activate the maintenance page until either a workaround could be calculated or the resync was completed. 

We are happy to report that GovTool is now back online and preparing for another release next week. This update will ensure compatibility with the upcoming hard fork and support for all governance action types outlined in CIP-1694.

Cardano GovTool is currently in its bootstrapping phase, with a second hard fork planned in the coming weeks to enable full governance. All teams are working to ensure this transition supports full governance while maintaining system stability. Updates can be followed on SanchoNet, preview, and the core-gov-tool-announcement Discord channel.

You can also check for compatible wallets and known issues.

CC-Portal

A new CC-Portal was released this week, and it brings additional improvements. The complete release log is available on Discord. The CIP-136 rationale-compliant version has been postponed for the next release.

CC-Portal aims to offer easy access to the interim Cardano constitution and provide constitutional committee members with a streamlined interface for creating metadata as part of their on-chain voting rationale. Additionally, it serves as a platform for the Cardano community to understand committee members' voting actions better.

These improvements will make it easier for the constitutional committee and the wider Cardano community to engage with governance actions. The updates are expected to elevate both usability and transparency for all users.

Governance tools working group

The governance tools working group will hold another meeting next week, focusing on initiating the pilot process of getting much-appreciated community feedback on fairness and transparency. You can track the community backlog here.

The working group continues to invite community members to participate in discussions and feature development for the Cardano GovTool. All feedback is welcome (see feedback guide), and ongoing conversations are held in the wg-governance-tools Discord channel, where new feature ideas are regularly triaged and implemented.

Governance in numbers

As we press ahead following Chang #1, follow the progress of governance actions on-chain here every week. Since Friday, November 15, 2024: 

• We've advanced from epoch 521 to epoch 523
• Unique delegators increased by 8,527 (27,998 -> 36,525)
• Total number of vote delegations increased by 9,227 (30,125 -> 39,352)
• Total DRep votes increased by 8 (437 -> 445)
• The total number of DRep registrations increased by 29 (688 -> 717)

To learn how to start using Cardano GovTool, explore GovTool documentation. Here, you'll find everything from step-by-step guides to detailed explanations of its features.

On the Intersect Discord server, you can connect to the core maintainers of governance tools via the new request and new help & support channels under Core Governance Tools in Discord.

YouTube

Our YouTube channel posts fresh content, including footage from our time at the Cardano Summit early this year! In particular, this week's videos showcase our outstanding Enterprise members. 

Firstly, we chatted with Navjit Dhaliwal, the CEO and founder of Iagon, and learned all about the future of decentralized cloud storage—a truly fantastic business that showcases what can be achieved when building on the Cardano blockchain (check out the video here). We were also thankful to catch up with Seira Yun, the CEO of Socious, a platform built on the Cardano blockchain that seeks to pair talent with job opportunities and impact the world (Watch the video here).

November Intersect Town Hall Update

The next Intersect Town Hall will take place on Thursday, November 28, at 16:00 UTC on Zoom. You can join the session via this link: Zoom Link.

This Town Hall will delve into community perceptions of the current status of Cardano governance and expectations as we approach the Constitutional Convention.

Staff members are encouraged to share updates on what they’ve been working on. If you’re unable to attend, don’t worry—Town Hall facilitators can present your updates on your behalf. If applicable, we also encourage updates on how your group has supported constitutional delegates, both directly and indirectly.

Resources for participation:

• Current Town Hall Slides
• Town Hall Slides Overview Sheet
• Intersect Town Hall Playbook (GitBook)

Let’s collaborate to make this Town Hall a meaningful and engaging event for everyone involved!

Important member resources

• Intersect knowledge base - frequently updated, our knowledge base provides granular detail on our internal governance structure, committees and working groups, and funding opportunities, among many other items.
• Intersect website - the latest news, roadmap, and more.
• Support - Please always use your membership email address and contact Intersect for support with any application errors, login issues, or questions without answers.
• 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.
• Intersect events calendar - keep up-to-date with all events Intersect hosts, such as working group and committee meetings, X spaces, and more.
• Social - we are continually active on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn, so follow us there to stay updated on our latest news and insights.

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.