> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://committees.docs.intersectmbo.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://committees.docs.intersectmbo.org/intersect-budget-committee/committee-meeting-notes/2026-meeting-notes/budget-committee-weekly-meetings/may-4th-2026-budget-comm-minutes.md). # May 4th, 2026 Budget Comm Minutes ### Budget Committee Weekly Meeting — May 4th, 2026 **Date:** May 4, 2026 **Time:** 09:00 EDT **Attendees:** Christina Gianelloni (visitor), Dynamic Strategies (Dimitri), Eric Helms (SCATDAO), Kristijan (Chris) Kowalsky, Lloyd Duhon (Secretary), Lorenzo Bruno (visitor), Megan Hess (Chair), Nicolas Cerny, Otávio Lima, Seun Gbiri (visitor), Simo Simovic (Project Manager), Stephen Wood (Cardano Foundation — non-voting contributor) **Quorum:** Confirmed. > **Context:** This is the **last meeting of the current voting committee composition**. Election results are expected Tuesday, May 5; the new committee will seat next Monday. The Wednesday working session is **cancelled** (no working-session work outstanding). May the Fourth Be With You. *** ### 1. Opening and Status of the Published Budget Ask Lloyd opened the meeting and confirmed quorum. The Budget Committee's 2026 budget ask was published last week to **"absolutely zero fanfare"** — neither praised nor skewered. * Posted to all available announcement channels and promoted via Twitter (**@intersectCBC**). * **No DRep feedback yet.** Lloyd's read: DReps are likely waiting until everything is in place before commenting; early reactions usually mean someone got upset. * **\~14 proposals** have been deployed in the process so far. Founding entities are not using the process; smaller and mid-sized vendors are. * Lloyd has a meeting **Tuesday** with one prospective proposal team that had questions; will report back if anything actionable emerges. *** ### 2. Open Discussion — Why Use the Intersect Process vs. Direct Treasury Withdrawal? Dimitri opened a thoughtful conversation that drew contributions from most members. With no agenda items requiring decisions today, the committee used the time to think through the strategic posture of the process. #### 2.1 Dimitri's Question Why would a proposer choose the Intersect budget process over going directly to a treasury withdrawal? Is the only real differentiator the 100K ADA deposit, or are there others? #### 2.2 Nico — The Process Provides Iteration and Filtering * **Iterability:** Proposers can update their proposal during the cycle. A direct on-chain treasury withdrawal anchors to an immutable IPFS document — no back-and-forth, no refinement. * **Volume management:** With \~14 live governance actions today (and another submitted by a Vietnamese group this morning that arguably should have gone through the process), DReps are getting overwhelmed. Many will not vote on or will reject low-information proposals. * **Quality floor:** Many direct withdrawals provide little FTE breakdown, no cost transparency, no decomposition — "we have these three work packages and there's 5M ADA for that, 5M ADA for this, that's it." The Intersect process forces a level of disclosure that direct withdrawals don't. * **Committee role:** The Budget Committee should advocate proactively to DReps for the process — the value proposition needs to be communicated. #### 2.3 Kristijan — The Real Issue Is the ADA Price, Not the Process * DReps initially objected to the process as "forcing centralization" — many didn't actually read the info action; "even a simple AI would tell you" what the process did. * Real issue is timing and ADA price: his own company went direct because waiting until August/September would prevent delivering this year. The technical community has asked them to keep working. * Floated a different model worth thinking about: an EU-style subsidy structure (e.g., invest 20% yourself, get 80% from treasury; half upfront, half on delivery) as an alternative ethos. * Talked to \~30 DReps; \~20 more very vocal DReps aren't reading anything and are pushing through. The committee operates at "professional process / professional expectations" but the ecosystem doesn't yet have professional standards in place. #### 2.4 Tooling Gaps Surfaced The conversation moved into the persistent dashboard problem. * **Nico:** DReps must manually review what each proposer promised vs. delivered. There is no easy dashboard. The Sundae and Savos treasury dashboards are inadequate — sometimes show withdrawals without milestones, status mismatches, etc. * **Kristijan:** The Oversight Committee dashboard is missing at least one withdrawal entirely; was told it was "a technical thing" and couldn't be added. Their committee's full delivery is outside the dashboard. * **Christina (visitor):** The **Sundae Treasury site has improved significantly** in the last few days. She's been giving Pi specific actionable feedback and he's been responsive — he's literally being paid to make improvements right now. Encouraged the committee to send concrete issues directly. * **Nico:** Acknowledged the improvements are real; was venting frustration at the underlying state. Showed an example: an IoG proposal status reads "withdrawn for free milestones, evidence pending review" — which a normal user would interpret as 3M ADA paid out without evidence reviewed. * **Kristijan:** That same milestone was actually reviewed by Eric Helms on January 14 — but the dashboard surface doesn't reflect it. #### 2.5 Christina's Framing Pushback **Christina** raised an important framing point: it's wrong to refer to the Intersect process as **"the budget process."** It is the **Intersect budget process** — one path among several. As someone who has personally submitted governance actions (CC, Ding Bingo), she's been frustrated to see DReps treat Intersect as the end-all-be-all. The Intersect path has clear benefits (no 100K deposit, administrative support), but it isn't the only legitimate path. #### 2.6 Front-Running Continues **Dimitri:** The original argument for the budget process was that it would prevent front-running of the treasury, but front-running is happening anyway via the founding entities going direct. So the coordination value is partial at best. **Lloyd:** Yes — coordination is what the process is for, and yes, it is being undermined by participants who choose to bypass it. The DReps choose what to fund; the process provides the structured information for that choice. #### 2.7 Intersect Acting as Administrator on Direct Withdrawals **Nico** raised a structural concern: Intersect has approved acting as administrator for the IoG and Tweag direct treasury withdrawals — proposals running parallel to the budget process. This is a revenue stream for Intersect, but it **undermines the authority of the budget process**. **Lloyd:** It does. An entity will react to a guaranteed revenue stream over a community-service process. That's the dynamic. #### 2.8 Macro Context — Kristijan Kristijan closed the strategic discussion with a wider lens: * Forecasts about ADA price from December/January are gone — "a wind over a sand castle." * Cardano was top-10 by some measures; on Friday someone described it as **top-15** with the framing that this was something to be praised. It's not — "we are losing." Solana, TRX, XRP, ETH ahead. The ecosystem needs a more bullish posture, not a single-parent austerity mindset. *** ### 3. Operational Posture — No Decisions Required Today Simo confirmed there were no agenda items requiring committee decisions today. With the budget published and awaiting feedback, the committee's near-term work shifts to: * **Monitoring** the published proposal for DRep comments and responding within the same day to any directed changes. * **Preparing for the next cycle** — Simo flagged that the committee's hard work is **front-loaded**, not back-loaded. Survey design and retrospective preparation can begin now rather than waiting for the cycle to fully close. *** ### 4. Nico's Two Preparation Items #### 4.1 Concrete Dashboard Improvement Document for Delivery Assurance / Pi Nico proposed the committee compile a **document of specific dashboard issues** to give to Pi (and identify the actual page owner — the Delivery Assurance team). This is a productive use of the gap before the new committee seats: * Capture concrete, actionable issues with the current treasury dashboards. * Identify owner (likely Delivery Assurance) and clarify who should drive changes. * Get the Tweag work onto the dashboard properly — "if it's fetching on-chain metadata or whatever, then hardcode it somehow." * Acknowledge the recent improvements while pushing for more. #### 4.2 New Committee Transition Planning Nico flagged that the new committee transition needs structure: * New chair election required. * Possible new meeting time depending on new members' availability. * Don't wait three weeks for the new people to settle in — plan the transition mechanics now so they can be executed quickly. **Lloyd:** Agreed. He doesn't have election results yet (Tuesday). Once seated, the committee will need to: * Hold a chair election. * Review meeting times. * Determine direction — may simply be "carry on" or may require new direction. *** ### 5. Schedule Decisions * **Wednesday (May 6) working session: CANCELLED.** No working-session work outstanding. * **Next meeting: Monday, May 11**, with the new committee composition. * **Outgoing members are asked to attend Monday May 11** for a handoff with incoming members, even if they were not re-elected. * Re-elected and continuing members will be welcomed/congratulated at that meeting. *** ### 6. Acknowledgements Lloyd thanked the committee for the substantial work that produced this year's process. Christina (visitor) closed with thanks to the committee for letting her participate consistently, noting "we don't always agree, but here we are still doing it." *** ### 7. Action Items | Action | Owner | Notes | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | | Monitor published budget proposal in Ecclesia for DRep comments; same-day response to any directed changes | Lloyd | Standing | | Tuesday meeting with prospective proposal team — report back next Monday if anything actionable | Lloyd | Tomorrow | | Cancel Wednesday May 6 working session | Lloyd | Done in-call | | Gather election results (expected Tuesday May 5) and prepare new committee onboarding plan | Lloyd | For Monday May 11 | | Hold new chair election once new committee seats | Incoming committee | First order of business May 11 | | Review meeting times and confirm cadence based on new members' availability | Incoming committee | May 11 | | Compile concrete dashboard improvement document for Pi / Delivery Assurance team | Nico (lead) / committee | Productive use of transition gap | | Identify formal owner of treasury dashboard pages (Delivery Assurance suspected) | Nico / Lloyd | Clarify accountability | | Push for Tweag (and other Intersect-administered direct withdrawals) to appear properly on dashboards | Nico / committee | Hardcode if fetch logic doesn't pick them up | | Begin preparation for next cycle survey and retrospective design | Simo / Lloyd | Hard work is front-loaded | | Outgoing members to attend May 11 meeting for handoff with incoming members | All current members | Continuity | | Continue social promotion of the published Budget Committee budget proposal | Lloyd | Via @intersectCBC and announcement channels | *** ### 8. Adjournment Lloyd thanked the committee for a strong cycle of work — the 2026 process is live, in use by mid-sized vendors, and being worked around by founding entities. Both responses are part of the maturing of governance in Cardano. The committee will reconvene with new composition on Monday, May 11. **Headline outcomes:** * **Budget Committee 2026 budget ask is live in Ecclesia** — published last week, awaiting DRep feedback (none yet). * **\~14 proposals** in the process so far; founding entities going direct. * **Strategic discussion** on the process vs. direct treasury withdrawals: process provides iteration, quality floor, and a level playing field — but is being undermined by direct withdrawals (some of which Intersect itself is administering). * **Christina's framing pushback** noted: it is "the Intersect budget process," not "the budget process" — direct withdrawals are also legitimate paths. * **Wednesday May 6 working session cancelled.** * **Next meeting: Monday May 11** with the new committee; outgoing members invited for handoff. * **Transition planning:** new chair election, meeting time review, and direction setting on day one. * **Productive interim work:** Nico to lead a dashboard improvement document for Pi / Delivery Assurance; Simo to begin survey/retro prep for the next cycle. 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