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The latest Cardano Budget Committee AMA session featured presentations from the Product Committee and the Civics Committee, focusing on their budget proposals for 2025. The session provided insight into their research initiatives, governance strategies, and funding plans while allowing the community to ask questions and engage in discussions.
The session began with an outline of meeting principles, encouraging structured discussions, professional dialogue, and a fair allocation of speaking time. Attendees were asked to listen to the committee presentations before asking questions and were encouraged to raise their hands to be recognized. Each question was given a two-minute time limit, with one follow-up question allowed before moving on to the next participant.
Product Committee Presentation
Sam Leathers, Chair of the Product Committee, led the presentation alongside Vice Chair Kyle and other committee members. Their primary objectives include facilitating an open and transparent process to create both a 2025 roadmap and a five-year vision for Cardano, as well as recommending the scope of the research budget.
The research budget was divided into four categories:
Vision Creation: Funding work to develop and refine a five-year vision for Cardano through community collaboration, public discussions, and whiteboarding sessions at events.
Academic Research: Supporting long-term blockchain research focusing on security, sustainability, scalability, and interoperability to maintain Cardano’s leadership as a third-generation blockchain.
Product Research: Conducting short- and mid-term research on user behavior, market trends, and blockchain adoption to ensure that Cardano meets evolving industry needs.
Overhead: Covering administrative costs associated with facilitating and managing these research activities.
The top priority for 2025 is increasing adoption and usage, which the committee broke down into three areas:
Governance Evolution: Ensuring Cardano’s governance mechanisms adapt and improve over time.
Scalability & Interoperability: Developing core blockchain improvements to support increased transactions and cross-chain interactions.
Vision Creation: Shifting from a founder-led vision to a community-driven long-term roadmap for Cardano.
In terms of academic research, several key focus areas were outlined, including Ouroboros Omega, proof of useful work, tokenomics, identity solutions, and partner chain infrastructure. These research efforts will help Cardano stay at the forefront of blockchain technology while ensuring long-term usability and financial sustainability.
Kyle then discussed product research, emphasizing the need for data-driven decision-making to inform development. A major area of focus will be identifying the transaction volume required to sustain ecosystem incentives, ensuring the long-term viability of Cardano’s reward mechanisms. The committee also highlighted research into potential partnerships, such as settling other blockchain transactions on Cardano’s Layer 1 as a means of increasing usage.
To support these initiatives, the committee proposed a small overhead budget to manage these research efforts efficiently. A QR code was provided for attendees interested in joining open calls and contributing to the research agenda.
Community Q&A for the Product Committee
The Q&A session opened with questions about Ouroboros Omega, a research area focused on improving consensus mechanisms and network scalability. Sam explained that this research bucket includes multi-resource consensus, proof of useful work, and congestion control mechanisms to enhance transaction efficiency and network fairness.
Further discussion centered around Democracy 4.0, a research initiative aimed at refining on-chain governance. Sam noted that the committee recommends waiting at least six to nine months before making further governance changes to allow time for observing real-world governance interactions post-hard fork. This approach ensures that adjustments are data-driven rather than speculative.
Nicholas raised concerns about incentivizing DReps (Delegated Representatives), questioning how their participation could be maintained and improved over time. Sam emphasized that reward mechanisms should not be rushed and should be evaluated based on real-world participation trends before implementing automatic incentives. The discussion also covered academic research contributions, with community members encouraging universities to analyze Cardano’s governance model for academic study.
Civics Committee Presentation
Following the Product Committee’s presentation, Nico and Hansen from the Cardano Civics Committee presented their 2025 governance strategy. The Civics Committee’s primary mission is to ensure that Cardano’s governance is accessible, fair, and transparent, focusing on three main objectives:
Supporting Governance Participants – Providing training, tooling, and potential compensation for DReps, SPOs, and the Constitutional Committee to improve governance efficiency.
Stewarding the Governance Process – Overseeing the ratification of the Constitution, planning the Constitutional Committee election process, and improving governance-related tooling and documentation.
Facilitating Governance Improvements – Conducting annual governance reviews, assessing the effectiveness of governance actions, and developing recommendations for improvements.
The committee emphasized the need to improve accessibility and participation in governance. This includes language accessibility, ensuring that governance tools and educational materials are available in multiple languages. Nico also noted concerns about low SPO participation in governance votes, highlighting the need for better engagement strategies and educational outreach.
Another major discussion point was potential DRep compensation, a topic that has been widely debated within the Cardano community. The Civics Committee has allocated a budget placeholder for potential DRep rewards, but no final decision has been made. The committee stressed the importance of consulting with active DReps and conducting further analysis before implementing any formal compensation models.
Community Q&A for the Civics Committee
Logan raised concerns about improving the user experience of governance participation. The discussion highlighted the importance of wallet integration, as demonstrated by Daedalus' recent 20% increase in governance participation after integrating governance features. Nico emphasized that governance should be as easy as staking, and future wallet updates should further streamline delegation and participation.
Mike asked about the contingency plan if the Constitution fails ratification. Lloyd explained that if DReps reject the Constitution, another draft would need to be proposed, taking into account feedback from dissenting votes. The lack of an approved Constitution would also halt Intersect’s funding, requiring the community to find alternative solutions to sustain Cardano’s governance operations.
Final Discussion and Next Steps
The session concluded with a discussion on Cardano’s first official governance action: the Plutus Hard Fork proposal, which will go on-chain in the coming days. The governance vote requires 51% SPO participation, and community leaders emphasized the need to mobilize stake pool operators to ensure the proposal is approved.
Additionally, the net change limit discussion was addressed, with a proposal set at 350 million ADA for 2025. Adam and Jonah raised concerns about ensuring clear definitions for the net change limit, particularly how treasury inflows and outflows are accounted for. Lloyd assured the community that the proposal will undergo a two-week public discussion before being submitted on-chain.
As the meeting wrapped up, attendees were encouraged to continue participating in upcoming budget discussions. Plans were set to further refine the budget, schedule committee-specific discussions, and mobilize governance participants for the hard fork vote. Community members were reminded to check the budget knowledge base for presentation materials, session recordings, and ongoing governance discussions.
The meeting concluded with well wishes for the holiday season, and an invitation for all participants to continue engaging in Cardano’s governance and budget processes in the new year.
Join us for the latest town hall covering Intersect's 2025 budget proposals. Discussion includes updates from the Product Committee, led by Sam Leathers and Kyle, and the Civics Committee, represented by Nico, Nicholas, and Einherjar. The Product Committee focuses on research initiatives, vision creation, and data-driven strategies to enhance Cardano’s scalability and adoption. The Civics Committee is dedicated to improving governance accessibility, supporting DReps and SPOs, and ensuring a transparent election process for the Constitutional Committee.
