Peter Horsfall

as per rationale through intersect process

Abstaining until the team advise that the auditor has been changed.

Yes, required.

Yes, required.

Yes, required.

Yes, well written and milestone driven treasury submission.

Yes, required.

Yes as the team listened to the community and submitted a revised treasury withdrawal

Voting YES. Plutus is the foundation of every smart contract on Cardano, and this proposal strengthens it across the three dimensions that matter most: cheaper and more expressive on-chain execution, formal correctness guarantees that scale with node diversity, and a developer toolchain that no longer requires Nix or specialist setup knowledge. Implementing the already-ratified CIP-0156 multiIndexArray and the forthcoming CIP-0168 BuiltinValue functions turns common multi-asset operations into single cheap built-ins rather than verbose on-chain loops - a direct cost reduction for every DeFi protocol on Cardano. The property-based conformance testing framework is the honest infrastructure investment that makes alternative node clients viable in practice, not just in principle.

The VacuumLabs co-venture is the structural feature that elevates this proposal. Plutus stewardship transitions to VacuumLabs by end of 2026, distributing maintenance of Cardano's core smart contract platform across expert teams rather than concentrating it within IO. This pattern - shared public infrastructure maintained by a consortium - is repeated across the IO 2026 batch (Midgard Labs on L2, Ensurable Systems on maintenance and platform, the High Assurance consortium, VacuumLabs on Plutus), and it is precisely the distributed-ownership outcome the Cardano 2030 Vision is designed to produce. Same gold-standard treasury safeguards as the rest of the batch. Seven named risks with likelihood and severity, including the honest disclosure that CIP-0168 ratification (PR #1090) is still in flight - the kind of self-disclosure that signals a well-prepared proposal rather than a polished pitch.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. The smallest ask in the IO 2026 batch and arguably the highest leverage. Cardano grows by zero net developers per year while Ethereum adds 1,940 and Solana adds 884 - the developer gap is the upstream cause of every downstream complaint about the Cardano ecosystem, and this proposal is the most direct, evidence-based response to it. Five practical outcomes coordinated as one program: a setup CLI that takes new builders from zero to working project in minutes, an OpenZeppelin-style ready-to-use contracts library, a unified Developer Portal entry point built in collaboration with Intersect and the Cardano Foundation, community-aligned bounties paid to maintainers of existing tooling, and a measurement hackathon that quantifies the result.

The proposal soundness is grounded in real research, not assertion. A 109-developer survey, GitHub activity datasets, and comparative growth rate analysis surface the actual barriers - immature and fragmented tooling, scattered documentation, steep EUTXO learning curve, lack of ecosystem coordination. The strategy then maps each barrier to a specific deliverable. Stewardship of developer relations transitions to the Cardano Foundation by end of 2026, which is precisely the distributed-ownership outcome the Cardano 2030 Vision is designed to produce. The bounty model deliberately funds existing community maintainers rather than building parallel infrastructure - that is the right structural instinct. Same gold-standard treasury safeguards as the rest of the batch. The downstream coupling matters too: the contracts library feeds directly into Cardano High Assurance for formal verification, and cardano-init is the integration surface for the High Assurance plugin architecture - the proposals across this batch are designed to compound rather than compete.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. Pogun is the most structurally innovative treasury proposal in the IO 2026 batch and arguably the most consequential for the long-term shape of Cardano's treasury model. Three integrated components that compound: a non-margin peer-to-peer credit market modelled on real-world corporate credit rather than DeFi pool mechanics, a yield DApp that abstracts bilateral negotiation for passive capital, and a BitVM-powered trust-minimised bridge with 1-of-N security. EUTXO is genuinely the right execution environment for this stack: deterministic execution, no MEV, single-party fraud proofs, and native asset security at the ledger level. Bridging Bitcoin liquidity to Cardano without competing with ADA staking rewards is the structural insight that distinguishes this from yet another wrapped-BTC scheme.

The treasury return commitment is the single most important structural feature of this proposal. 20% of quarterly EBITDA returned until the $2.95M is fully repaid, followed by 5% perpetual return - this is direct implementation of Cardano 2030 Vision Pillar 5 Objective E.1, which calls for the treasury to evolve from a passive pool to a yield-generating, multi-asset position. The Cardano Foundation Governance Advisory Team flagged the question of how treasury-funded commercial ventures should be structured; Pogun answers it. Phase-gated milestone disbursement across four tranches, the most extensive refund clause in the batch including a specific "fundamental technical infeasibility" provision that returns bridge-specific funds if BitVM proves unworkable, formal audit by TxPipe in flight on the credit market contracts (completion expected 27 May 2026), and a product committee of Pi Lanningham, Philip DiSarro, Lucas Rosa, and Santiago Carmuega serving pro-bono.

This is the highest technical-risk proposal in the batch. The BitVM bridge is genuinely novel infrastructure rather than incremental work on a known protocol, and execution will be watched closely. The refund clause and milestone gating make the downside case manageable, while the treasury return model means the upside case rebuilds treasury reserves rather than depleting them. If Cardano is to demonstrate that treasury-funded ventures can pay back, this is the proposal that proves the model.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. Two coupled components addressing the same underlying problem from opposite directions. Project Cayley introduces decentralised slice indexing - allowing SPOs and node operators to choose which portions of the chain they index and serve, rather than requiring full-chain indexing for every data provider. The economic case scales with Leios: at 350 TxkB/s throughput, full-chain indexing costs grow to ~$7,871 per indexer per year, multiplied across hundreds of operators. Sliced indexing keeps decentralisation economically viable as the chain scales, which is a structural problem worth solving now rather than after Leios mainnet activation makes it expensive. The multi-chain architecture extending to Bitcoin alongside Cardano is well-aligned with the broader IO 2026 batch direction, particularly Pogun's Bitcoin DeFi work.

The operational subsidy is the more philosophically interesting half. Blockfrost has subsidised approximately 90% of free-tier Cardano API traffic from its own balance sheet since inception - a real public-goods contribution that the ecosystem has benefited from without ever paying for. Asking the treasury to share that cost is fair recognition that community infrastructure is best sustained as shared responsibility, and the 99.9% uptime SLA tied to quarterly disbursement gates is the right accountability structure. Same gold-standard treasury safeguards as the rest of the batch.

One caveat worth naming: the 90% free-tier traffic concentration through a single provider is itself the centralisation problem that Cayley is being funded to address. Subsidising the incumbent free tier while building the decentralised replacement is the right transitional move, but the long-term ecosystem health goal must be a genuinely distributed indexing layer where no single provider serves 90% of anything. The Blockfrost commitment to rework its commercial model so future pricing does not create barriers or negative dependencies for the ecosystem is the right signal; delivery on that commitment will matter as much as delivery on Cayley itself.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. Strong treasury stewardship, decentralising multi-vendor delivery, and proposal soundness make this one of the better-structured treasury asks in the 2026 batch. Formal verification is core to Cardano's institutional credibility, and this proposal makes it accessible to all developers.

The structural safeguards in this proposal - multi-sig disbursement, independent oversight, third-party milestone assurance, proportional refund - should be the template for all treasury withdrawals, not the exception. The multi-vendor delivery model actively decentralises Cardano's high-assurance stack rather than entrenching any single team. Formal verification is the credibility layer institutional capital requires, and making it accessible to all developers via Blaster + CBDE removes a structural barrier that has held the ecosystem back.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. Maintenance is non-discretionary infrastructure work - every other proposal in this batch and every future feature on Cardano depends on a stable, secure, well-maintained platform underneath. The nine-area scope (bug fixing, DevOps, monitoring, Cardano Blueprint documentation, open-source support, performance, QA, release management, component maintenance) is the complete support envelope, not a wish list. The Ensurable Systems collaboration begins distributing infrastructure stewardship away from sole IO custody, consistent with the Cardano 2030 distributed-ownership direction.
The treasury safeguards are the same gold-standard Sundae Labs framework as the rest of the batch: TRSC/PSSC architecture, five-entity Oversight Committee, third-party milestone assurance, proportional refund of unspent funds, NCL compliance. The ₳62.1M ask is large but proportionate when assessed against scope (nine functional areas, nine months, full-stack node infrastructure) and against IO's prior maintenance receipts disclosed in the proposal.

One substantive caveat: the deliverables section lists everything as "continuous" with no quarterly gating, which is operationally honest for maintenance work but reduces the natural milestone checkpoints that protect treasury funds on smaller technical proposals. The third-party assurer function and the public dashboard are doing more of the accountability work here than on time-boxed deliverables, so DRep and community vigilance on the dashboard reporting cadence will matter more for this proposal than most.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. Leios is the consensus upgrade Cardano needs to meet its 2030 transaction targets, and this proposal funds the disciplined path from working public testnet to mainnet-ready release candidate. The decision to enhance Ouroboros Praos through Endorser Blocks and committee-based validation - rather than replace it - preserves Cardano's security guarantees while unlocking 10–65x throughput. Praos stays as the proven foundation; Leios sits on top.

The scope is honest about what IO controls and what it does not. Hard-fork enabling is defined by completing the activities within IO's reach - stable client interfaces, technical documentation, SPO and developer workshops, tactical support for DB-Sync, Mithril, and Blockfrost, governance artifact preparation - explicitly not by the mainnet hard fork occurring. External dependencies are disclosed as risks, not buried as promises. Seven named risks with likelihood and severity, including the unflattering ones: medium likelihood that final node integration takes longer than expected, medium likelihood of community readiness gaps for the hard fork. Treasury stewardship is the same gold-standard Sundae Labs framework, with milestone-based disbursement, third-party assurance, proportional refund of unspent funds, and NCL compliance. Praos has earned the trust to extend it; Leios has done the testnet work to deserve the next stage.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. Three platform-level enhancements that compound: CIP-159 unlocks micro-fee revenue for wallets and cheaper DeFi batchers, CPS-23 begins the design work for a multi-asset Treasury that would insulate future budgets from ADA price volatility, and Babel Fees removes the ADA-acquisition barrier for users entering Cardano from Bitcoin or stablecoins. The three workstreams are technically independent but additive in value - each delivers standalone, and together they reshape Cardano's economic surface area. The Multi-Asset Treasury workstream is particularly worth supporting given the fiscal discipline conversations across this entire 2026 batch; denominating future Treasury Withdrawals in stablecoins would directly address the ADA-volatility critique that has shaped community sentiment this cycle.

The proposal soundness is unusually strong. Honest TAM/SAM/SOM market sizing for Babel Fees ($1-2B addressable, narrowing to $2-7M obtainable) rather than headline-only numbers. MVP scope explicitly bounded - one Babel Fee provider, closed network layer at MVP, with extensibility designed in for subsequent decentralisation. Five named risks with likelihood and severity, including the dependency on CIP-118 hard fork completion (medium likelihood, high severity). Same gold-standard treasury safeguards as the rest of the IO 2026 batch. Babel Fees additionally serves the Oceania mandate to blend traditional finance with decentralised finance: removing the requirement to hold ADA before transacting is the single biggest onboarding fix for institutional and mainstream users entering Cardano from Bitcoin or stablecoin rails.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Voting YES. Closes Cardano's most pressing competitive gap - finality, fees, and throughput - through a co-venture with Midgard Labs that decentralises L2 stewardship rather than concentrating it within IO. Same gold-standard treasury safeguards as the broader 2026 batch, with the added structural innovation of L2 sequencer revenue routing back to the Cardano treasury.

The three-workstream design is well calibrated: shared L2-agnostic data availability infrastructure benefits every current and future Cardano L2, Hydra hardening protects live production commitments from Delta DeFi and Masumi, and Midgard's mainnet path delivers Cardano's first permissionless optimistic rollup. Hydra and Midgard address distinct trust models - they are not competing solutions, and supporting only one would leave a meaningful coverage gap. The Midgard Labs co-venture is precisely the distributed stewardship outcome the Cardano 2030 Vision is designed to produce.

Peter Horsfall - Independent DRep, Oceania.

Great for node diversity. Pebble and Gerolamo also bring some really unique developer and user experiences that’ll help strengthen our ecosystem

Combining the budget under the CF makes sense given all current frameworks.

Yes, market traction and protocol revenue should be prioritised. Blink labs has put together a solid proposal and I hope to see updates along the way.

Same rationale as to why I voted for the Budget Information action.

Voting yes as it improves on 2025 with clearer templates, KPI alignment, anti-spam measures, structured feedback, Ekklesia polling at >67%, tiered TWGAs, and transparent execution via escrow contracts and independent oversight – making the 2026 treasury process more strategic, predictable, and accountable while keeping full control with DReps.

Amaru's proposal stands out for its transparency and integrity – they even returned over 920k ADA from the last round.

The November 2025 incident proved it: relying on a single Haskell node is a massive single point of failure. Node diversity is now a critical security need for Cardano, and Amaru looks like our strongest realistic path to get it soon.

The ask is high, and multiple clients will complicate upgrades – but resilience beats convenience when the network's future is at stake.Solid, detailed proposal with a great retrospective, and those Amaru Pi nodes at the Summit were a brilliant, tangible showcase of treasury impact.This is the standard we should expect.

Easy yes from me.Great work, team – keep it up.

I am voting against the proposal to reduce the minimum Constitutional Committee seats to five. While governance stagnation due to vacant seats is a valid concern, lowering the threshold fails to address the underlying issue and risks diminishing collective decision-making while concentrating power at this essential governance layer. A larger committee enhances oversight of governance and the treasury. I advocate increasing membership and replacing inactive members rather than reducing the minimum. This was something I was quite vocal about in the 2024 governance workshops.

For transparency, I had to speak to some speak to community members to wrap my head around this technical proposal. Voting yes, as it stays within the constitutional guardrails, it's been validated on the testnet, low risk overall, and it gets us closer to stronger scalability for Cardano.

Voting yes as Max van Rossem dedicated his life to the community and Cardano's governance. This proposal continues the tradition of honoring those who've shaped where we are today (what I love most about this community personally). From our days in Argentina back in December 2024, I know Max would've loved this.

The NCL is required by the constitution for treasury withdrawals. Voting yes, as it's based in actual inflows and an already approved budget by DReps. We can revisit and adjust later if needed.

The DeltaDeFi team have written a great proposal and we should encourage innovators in the Cardano community. The product is live on main net and have clear KPIs - voting yes.

Having previously voted in favor of the budget, I support the withdrawal. I will be keeping a close eye on this, as it will set the precedent of future requests.

All reasonable revisions.

It's a good start and required. Further iterations are required and will provide feedback in other forums.

I'm voting yes however noting that this will cause another future issue of having an even number of members on the CC.

Yes. Onwards for governance.

Voting yes as I'm in support of CCIP info action.

This has been long overdue and is extremely beneficial for everyone that is in and uses the Cardano ecosystem. I truly believe this is the cyberpunk movement we've been waiting for.

Supportive.

Read through and the changes are reasonable and make sense. Thanks.

Voting yes as this was part of our 'Oceania' proposal as well to have this reimbursed. Promises made, promised kept.

I am voting YES. This proposal establishes a strong foundation for Cardano's growth in Oceania through a well-structured Year 1 pilot, with clear quarterly timelines, accountable stage gates, and measurable KPIs such as doubling community size and securing pilots in key sectors. The 778,000 ADA budget is thoughtfully allocated and phased, emphasizing transparency with quarterly reports, audits, and potential savings returns. Notably, it fulfills a community request by reimbursing 100,000 ADA for the "Cardanoの生きがい - Ikigai" governance deposit, reinforcing trust and shared values while enabling regional innovation without undue risk.

I am voting YES on the v2.0 Cardano Constitution. Having proudly signed the original Constitution in Argentina, I can attest that this updated version effectively eliminates unnecessary barriers to entry, enhances overall clarity, and positions Cardano for unprecedented growth and success. It is also the first truly community-refined Constitution. I fully anticipate additional refinements as our ecosystem continues to evolve and mature.

Budget: 275M ADA for 39 Cardano projects.
Community support: 3.8B ADA voted, 70% of active stake.
Projects: Cover tech, marketing, dev tools for Cardano growth.
Oversight: Intersect uses smart contracts, controls to secure funds.
Process: Open to all, top ideas with 50%+ DRep support chosen, including some I voted for.

No data available to read - therefore a no vote has been cast.

After evaluating this governance action, I would vote "Yes" because the proposed Net Change Limits of 300M ADA for 2025 and 250M ADA for 2026 align conservatively with forecasted treasury inflows, ensuring sustainable spending while allowing flexibility for future adjustments if higher limits are deemed necessary. To improve this Info Action, I suggest including a clear mechanism or timeline for reviewing and adjusting the Net Change Limit mid-period if unexpected changes in treasury inflows or ecosystem needs arise, enhancing adaptability. For consideration, we (DReps should weigh whether the fixed ADA amounts might limit responsiveness to ADA’s price volatility, potentially justifying a supplementary percentage-based approach in future proposals to better account for economic fluctuations.

Why I’m Voting ‘No’ on Reducing the Cardano Treasury Tax

1. A Check on Overspending
   The treasury tax was set at 20% from Cardano’s early days to fuel growth and innovation. It’s a high bar by design. Recent discussions, like the Intersect budget proposal, have sparked fair concerns about spending creeping beyond what’s sustainable. Cutting the tax might seem like a quick fix to limit funds and force discipline, but I see it differently. Keeping it at 20% gives us room to prioritise high-impact projects while maintaining oversight. Lowering it now risks underfunding the very initiatives that keep Cardano competitive.

2. Our Network’s Safety Net
   Think of the treasury as Cardano’s insurance policy. Staking rewards drive our ecosystem today, but they’re not guaranteed to cover all future costs, whether that’s development, security upgrades, or market downturns. A robust treasury, built from the 20% tax, ensures we’re not caught short when needs arise. Reducing it to 10% shrinks that buffer at a time when we can’t predict tomorrow’s challenges. I’d rather hold steady now than scramble later.

3. Managing ADA’s Circulation
   From a practical angle: the treasury tax pulls a chunk of ADA out of circulation, acting as a natural brake on supply. Dropping it to 10% would release more coins into the market, potentially a lot more. With whispers of a strong market cycle ahead, this could flood circulation, pressuring ADA’s value when stability could be our strength. Timing is critical, and this move feels like a risk we don’t need to take yet.

4. Open to Future Review
   I’m not against adjusting the tax forever. If we see clear evidence of efficient treasury spending over time, say, after a year of consistent budget reviews, I’d be open to revisiting this. For now, the case for caution outweighs the push for change. The treasury’s role as a stabilizer, both financially and economically, is too vital to weaken today.

This vote reflects my best judgment as your DRep, but it’s your delegation that drives me. I’d welcome your input, agree or disagree, let’s talk. Cardano thrives when we shape it together. Find me on X or LinkedIN to weigh in.

Peter Horsfall, Cardano DRep
February 19, 2025