2025 Cardano Blockchain Ecosystem Budget - 7.5M ₳ for community builders
On-chain changes
Informational action. No on-chain effect; the vote signals opinion only.
Abstract
The Cardano 2025 on-chain budget process introduces a constitutionally driven, community-led model for treasury allocation. ADA holders, through Delegated Representatives (DReps) and Constitutional Committee oversight, vote on funding proposals within a capped Net Change Limit of 350 million ADA. The process includes two stages: community signaling and a binding on-chain Info Action vote.
Intersect, a member-based organization, facilitates the process by organizing submissions and offering domain expertise, while final decisions rest with the community. Intersect also serves as the administrator for the use of approved funds.
Current metrics show 11.22B ADA delegated, with 3.92B cast in Ekklesia—72% participation of active voting power. Yet, several proposals advanced without meeting a basic 50 + 1 Lovelace% threshold (2.69B ADA), raising concerns about legitimacy and governance integrity.
This info action aim to help community builders to quickly get approval onchain while individually they might not have 100k ADA deposit readily available. We submit all proposals (except founding entity proposals) that have met the 2.69B threshold for inclusion. Without respecting the safeguards put in place within the Cardano Constitution, low-support proposals may continue to pass, risking public confidence within the entire budgetary process.
The 2025 budget process reflects Cardano’s Voltaire vision—but its long-term success depends on transparency and accountability aligned with the constitution.
Motivation & rationale
The 2025 Cardano budget, established through the Intersect-led process, is designed to ensure Cardano remains secure, competitive, and growth-oriented during this pivotal first year of decentralized, constitutional governance. The total treasury allocation adheres to the community-approved Net Change Limit (NCL) of ₳350 million ada, reflecting our shared commitment to long-term financial sustainability.
A key issue in the initial budget process was the misapplication of the participation threshold. The 50% + 1 Lovelace threshold was calculated based on total ada participating in the vote, rather than the active voting stake—which significantly alters the democratic weight of participating DReps. This discrepancy risks enabling governance distortion through low-turnout manipulation, akin to gerrymandering.
To safeguard against such vulnerabilities and uphold the integrity of Cardano’s governance process, this Info Action includes only those proposals submitted by community builders (that might not have 100k ADA deposit) and met the corrected threshold of 2.69B ada, equivalent to 50% + 1 Lovelace of the active registered voting stake. This ensures that community-driven proposals with broad support are prioritized.
We invite the founding entities to formally submit their respective budget proposals for community approval through the same transparent and constitutional mechanisms. This approach preserves fairness, encourages decentralization, and reinforces the principle that all proposals—regardless of origin—must meet the same community-backed standards.
| Title | Ekklesia Vote Count Link | Allocation (ADA) | Ekklesia Vote Count (ADA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midgard - Optimistic Rollups | Link | 2,162,096 | 3,580,699,128 ADA |
| Starstream: next gen VM[t] | Link | 2,000,000 | 3,470,904,894 ADA |
| Blockfrost Platform community budget proposal | Link | 1,300,000 | 3,185,834,713 ADA |
| zkFold ZK Rollup | Link | 1,161,000 | 3,202,699,128 ADA |
| Hardware Wallets Maintenance | Link | 424,800 | 3,431,605,268 ADA |
| Ledger App Rewrite | Link | 300,000 | 2,829,275,087 ADA |
| Dolos: Sustaining a Lightweight Cardano Data Node | Link | 220,914 | 2,695,223,782 ADA |
| Total Allocation | 7,568,810 |
Total Allocation: Sum of all proposals that met threshold of 2.69B minus the founding entity proposals
Bottom line for DReps: The 2025 budget is guided by one core question: What mix of spending best transforms Cardano’s roadmap into real-world adoption and long-term resilience—without overspending the treasury? The proposed allocations reflect the community’s best answer, shaped by 2024 cost data, strategic modeling, and public feedback.
This plan excludes proposals from founding entities (Intersect, IOG, Cardano Foundation, Emurgo) and omits any proposal that failed to meet the 2.69B ADA threshold (50% + 1 Lovelace)—ensuring that only those with clear community support advance. It does not push through borderline or low-participation proposals, and it respects the constitutional framework governing treasury withdrawals.
Your vote determines whether this budget—and the projects it empowers—moves forward with legitimacy, accountability, and alignment with Cardano’s long-term vision.
The 2025 Cardano budget process is built to reconcile strategic planning with decentralized authority, ensuring that treasury allocations are community-driven, constitutionally sound, and economically sustainable. It emphasizes transparency, voting legitimacy, and fiscal restraint—all within the framework of the Cardano Constitution and Net Change Limit (NCL).
1. Proposal Submission & Consolidation
The process began with dual intake:
- Block Budgets from Intersect’s seven working committees (technical, governance, marketing, etc.)
- Open Submissions from any Cardano contributor, regardless of Intersect membership.
All submissions were standardized—detailing problem, benefit, roadmap alignment, and cost—to ensure fair and structured evaluation. Founding entities (Intersect, IOG, Cardano Foundation, Emurgo) were expected to submit independent Info Actions and were not bundled with the general budget. This ensures neutrality and reinforces that this budget includes only community and committee proposals that met threshold—excluding those from founding entities.
2. Community Signaling
An off-chain signaling phase enabled DReps and ADA holders to express preliminary support via GovTool and Ekklesia. Only proposals that achieved more than 50% approval by voting power (a minimum of 2.69 billion ADA, or 50%+1 Lovelace of the 5.38B active voting stake) were advanced to the Budget Info Action.
Ekklesia recorded just 3.92B in voting participation, raising concerns that proposals receiving less than 2.69B ADA in support—but still included—would not represent majority consensus. This budget seeks to correct that by excluding all proposals that failed to meet the full quorum and by removing founding entity proposals, even if they surpassed the threshold. This aims to address prior practices resembling voter engineering or gerrymandering, where under-supported proposals were pushed through by bundling or procedural manipulation.
3. On-Chain Budget Approval (Budget Info Action)
Proposals that passed community signaling with >2.69B ADA were packaged into this Budget Info Action for on-chain ratification. In accordance with Article IV of the Cardano Constitution, a valid budget requires:
- A DRep vote surpassing 50%+1 Lovelace of active voting power (≥2.69B ADA)
- A minimum of 5 out of 7 Constitutional Committee votes affirming that the budget complies with the Constitution
- All treasury disbursements to remain within the 2025 Net Change Limit (350 million ADA)
This Budget Info Action complies with all of the above. DReps now vote knowing that only proposals that passed the threshold and are constitutionally sound are included.
Rationale highlights
Why some of the largest DReps voted for and against, in their own words.
Summary Yoroi as a DRep, votes No on this Info Action regarding 2025 Cardano Blockchain Ecosystem Budget - 7.5M ₳ for Community Builders(defbf15b06092718adf4befeab982e03d2966b9caeef93c19e470549ef75ea4900). Rationale Redundancy in Funding: All of these...
Summary
Yoroi as a DRep, votes No on this Info Action regarding 2025 Cardano Blockchain Ecosystem Budget - 7.5M ₳ for Community Builders(defbf15b06092718adf4befeab982e03d2966b9caeef93c19e470549ef75ea4900).
Rationale
Redundancy in Funding: All of these initiatives are already included in the Intersect budget process, and approving them again here risks double-funding and undermines the clarity of treasury management.
Upholding Process: Yoroi believes it’s essential to follow the established, transparent channels for treasury allocation to ensure fair, sustainable, and community-aligned funding.
Even though we support every proposal listed, we cannot support the approach taken in this governance action. For these reasons, Yoroi has voted No
I voted YES for the 7.5M and 275M budgets, including requirements that I would like met before treasury withdrawals could be made. *Even if all of these conditions are met, I would not necessarily automatically vote YES on the Treasury Withdrawal governance...
I voted YES for the 7.5M and 275M budgets, including requirements that I would like met before treasury withdrawals could be made.
*Even if all of these conditions are met, I would not necessarily automatically vote YES on the Treasury Withdrawal governance action.
Treasury withdrawal governance actions must be performed in reasonably granular chunks. This is a requirement, and any unreasonably aggregated Treasury withdrawal governance actions will be immediately voted NO.
Please have it reviewed by the relevant committee. (In particular, milestone setting, KPIs and target values, and their feasibility (including technical reviews if necessary) ) This does not necessarily mean getting "approval" from the committee. Please attach the review results from the committee (even if they are negative).
For each proposal, I outlined the requirements I wanted them to meet before the treasury drawdown could take place. In particular, I would like the following to be implemented for proposals that include large budgets with multiple contents:"Please rationally break down the contents of the proposal, hold a DRep vote on each one (off-chain voting is also acceptable), and reflect the voting results in the treasury withdrawal governance action."
At the time of submission of this vote
https://github.com/cardanoz/drep/blob/822355afa4b4bb0c22a0f7f1b70529d0209f2229/ga/cardano_budget_yuta_public%20-%20Cardano%20Budget%202025_Conditions.pdf
If there are any changes, they will be reflected in the next sheet.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M8JAuAntJOa7Z6j3GfC2hWFl4kbZLkzEel_cN4-kymw/edit?usp=sharing
ーーー
トレジャリー引き出しガバナンスアクションまでに満たして欲しい要件を添えた上で、7.5Mと275MのBudgetにYESを投票しました。
*これらの条件がすべて満たされたとしても、必ずしも自動的にトレジャリー引き出しガバナンスアクションに賛成票を投じるわけではありません。
トレジャリー引き出しガバナンスアクションは、合理的に細分化された単位で実施する必要があります。これは必須要件であり、不合理に集約されたトレジャリー引き出しガバナンスアクションは、直ちに反対票を投じます。
関連する委員会によるレビューを受けてください。（特に、マイルストーンの設定、KPIと目標値、そしてそれらの実現可能性（必要に応じて技術的なレビューを含む）について。)これは必ずしも委員会からの「承認」を得ることを意味するものではありません。委員会によるレビュー結果を添付してください（否定的な結果であっても）。
各提案について、トレジャリー引き出しガバナンスアクションを実施する前に満たすべき要件を概説しました。特に、私は金額が大きく複数の内容のBudgetを含む提案書に関して、それらを合理的に細分化して細分化された単位でDRepからの投票による需要調査をしてほしいと考えています。
この投票の提出時点：
https://github.com/cardanoz/drep/blob/822355afa4b4bb0c22a0f7f1b70529d0209f2229/ga/cardano_budget_yuta_public%20-%20Cardano%20Budget%202025_Conditions.pdf
変更があったら次のシートに反映：
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M8JAuAntJOa7Z6j3GfC2hWFl4kbZLkzEel_cN4-kymw/edit?usp=sharing
EMURGO upholds the importance of transparent, constitutionally grounded treasury processes that support sustainable growth for community-driven initiatives. While we strongly support grassroots contributions and have voted in favor of most within this...
EMURGO upholds the importance of transparent, constitutionally grounded treasury processes that support sustainable growth for community-driven initiatives. While we strongly support grassroots contributions and have voted in favor of most within this governance action, not all included proposals align with our criteria for support.
In particular, we note that all of the initiatives listed are already being considered for funding under the Intersect MBO 2025 framework. Proceeding with an overlapping Info Action introduces the risk of duplicated funding efforts and compromises the clarity and accountability we strive for in treasury allocation.
To maintain consistency, prevent redundancy, and reinforce the integrity of Cardano’s budgetary systems, EMURGO has chosen to vote ‘No’ on this governance action. We continue to encourage all proposals to follow the established, transparent channels to ensure long-term fiscal responsibility and alignment with the community’s governance model.
I voted YES for the Ecosystem Budget for Community Builders. Rationale: A total of 7,568,810 ADA is needed to fund seven community builder projects that have surpassed the 2.69B ADA threshold, which represents 50% + 1 Lovelace of the active registered voting...
I voted YES for the Ecosystem Budget for Community Builders.
Rationale:
A total of 7,568,810 ADA is needed to fund seven community builder projects that have surpassed the 2.69B ADA threshold, which represents 50% + 1 Lovelace of the active registered voting stake.
In GovTool and Ekklesia, I supported six out of the seven projects—but all seven are expected to have a positive impact on the ecosystem.
From Ekklesia’s voting results, it’s clear that DReps overwhelmingly support these projects, and that should be acknowledged.
Three of the seven projects—Midgard, Starstream, and ZK Rollup—specifically address scalability, which is the most pressing need for the Cardano ecosystem.
Given this context, voting YES was the only logical choice.
Founding Entity Proposals:
Proposals from founding entities that also met the threshold were intentionally excluded from this governance action. Instead, they are invited to submit their own governance actions for budget requests.
I fully support this decision, as it aligns with the ongoing community debate about the Net Change Limit (NCL).
The current NCL is set at 350M ADA, but a reduction is expected. Two governance actions have been submitted to adjust the NCL to 200M or 300M ADA.
To minimize spending, it’s best to decide on-chain for each proposal individually, rather than bundling multiple proposals into a single governance action.
This approach prevents situations where DReps who support IOG’s budget feel obligated to also back community proposals they disagree with.
Given the circumstances, Intersect has made the right decision, and I appreciate their approach.