IO: Cardano Upgrades
7 of 7 committee members voted
- Ace Alliance71aa5b3a…8f04YesActive · term ends epoch 726Rationale
Ace Alliance finds the proposed "IO: Cardano Upgrades" Treasury Withdrawals Governance Action Constitutional. Rationales are archived at https://github.com/ace-alliance/ace-voting/
"IO: Cardano Upgrades" is a Treasury Withdrawals Governance Action requesting 13,103,039 ada to fund three coordinated platform workstreams delivered by Input Output in collaboration with Ensurable Systems: CIP-159 Account Address Enhancement (7,069,985 ada), CPS-23 Multi-Asset Treasury design (2,356,662 ada), and Babel Fees (3,676,392 ada). The delivery period spans Q3 2026 through Q2 2027. Funds will be administered by Intersect on behalf of Cardano Development Holdings, routed through Sundae Labs Treasury Reserve Smart Contract (stake17xzc8pt7fgf0lc0x7eq6z7z6puhsxmzktna7dluahrj6g6ghh5qjr) with Project-Specific Smart Contracts for disbursement. Input Output is the proposer; the same constitutional standard applies as to any other proposer. The constitutional review scope is Article II, Section 6 and Article II, Section 7, together with the Appendix I TREASURY guardrails.
Article II.6.1 (Metadata Format). Metadata is anchored on IPFS at QmeNzwKE9bMyr65E4Dxtvoji7WBbazXUVykqQWq1pHXZvQ with matching on-chain anchor hash 2289200a99552eb3cc4fba5791a0d8c700adf48f3f84ad3d039b781d6c1cd871 (recomputed and confirmed), ensuring immutability. The document conforms to CIP-0108.
Article II.6.2 (Metadata Structure). Title, abstract, motivation, rationale, KPI alignment, deliverables roadmap, budget breakdown, risk register, and treasury governance and compliance materials are present and substantive. Sufficient.
Article II.7.1 (Terms of the Withdrawal). Purpose stated: three workstreams covering CIP-159 ledger primitives for account-address enhancement, CPS-23 design work for a multi-asset Cardano Treasury, and a Babel Fees service permitting transaction fees to be paid in native assets. Delivery period: Q3 2026 through Q2 2027 with itemised quarterly milestones. Amount: 13,103,039 ada, broken down both by workstream (7,069,985 / 2,356,662 / 3,676,392) and by funding category (development, infrastructure, security and audits, legal and compliance, engagement and ecosystem support, operations and delivery, governance, other). Refund conditions are stated: undisbursed funds at the end of the delivery period are returned to the Cardano Treasury, partial delivery or scope reduction triggers proportional return of unspent funds associated with cancelled or reduced deliverables, and a final reconciliation will be published as part of the oversight reporting cycle.
Article II.7.2 (Prior Funding Disclosure). Input Output and its affiliated entities disclose 130,708,860 ada allocated across prior treasury workstreams (Blockfrost, Catalyst, IOE, IOR, Governance), of which 78,459,777 ada has been withdrawn to date, with on-chain references for each workstream tied to the corresponding governance action.
Article II.7.3 (Net Change Limit Compliance). A 350,000,000 ada Net Change Limit is active for Epochs 613 to 713. The 13,103,039 ada ask is well within the applicable NCL, satisfying guardrail TREASURY-02a.
Article II.7.4 (Audits and Oversight). The proposal carries a dedicated Security and Audits line within the funding breakdown and funds an independent third-party Assurer responsible for reviewing and signing off milestone deliverables against the legal contract. Intersect's delivery assurance function provides administrator-side oversight, and a public on-chain dashboard exposes TRSC and PSSC activity for community audit. Both the periodic independent audit requirement and the oversight metrics requirement are satisfied.
Article II.7.5 (Administrator). Intersect is designated as administrator, acting on behalf of Cardano Development Holdings and responsible for monitoring fund use and milestone-based disbursement. A five-member Oversight Committee (Sundae Labs, Cardano Foundation, Dquadrant, Xerberus, NMKR) provides independent checks against unilateral administrator action.
Article II.7.6 (Custody). Funds are held in Sundae Labs Treasury Reserve and Project-Specific Smart Contracts (stake17xzc8pt7fgf0lc0x7eq6z7z6puhsxmzktna7dluahrj6g6ghh5qjr), are not staked with any SPO, and are delegated to the predefined abstain voting option (auto-abstain DRep). Accounts are publicly auditable on-chain.
Appendix I (Guardrails). TREASURY-02a: the ask is within the applicable Net Change Limit. TREASURY-03a: denominated in ada, with USD figures provided for reference only. Other TREASURY items are not engaged.
Ace Alliance finds the proposed "IO: Cardano Upgrades" Treasury Withdrawals Governance Action Constitutional.
- Cardano Curia84feba94…6bd5YesActive · term ends epoch 799Rationale
Cardano Curia finds this Treasury Withdrawal constitutional under Constitution v2.4, on the basis that the final submission includes immutable canonical documentation (URL + hash) and clearly specified treasury administration, auditability, and custody controls consistent with the Treasury Withdrawals standards.
What is being proposed
This governance action proposes a Treasury Withdrawal (Treasury ask: ₳13,103,039) to fund the work program described in the canonical proposal "IO: Cardano Upgrades".
Constitutional and guardrails consistency (v2.4)
A Treasury Withdrawal is constitutional when it complies with (a) governance action standards for a stable, legible, hash-locked off-chain reference, and (b) the Treasury Withdrawals standards requiring: clearly stated purpose and delivery period; relevant costs/expenses; circumstances for refund/return of funds; disclosure of prior treasury receipts (last 24 months); Net Change Limit compliance; budget allocation for independent audits and oversight metrics; designation of one or more administrators responsible for monitoring and deliverables; and segregated auditable holding accounts (delegated to predefined abstain) for any funds held by administrators prior to onward disbursement.
Basis for a YES finding (positive)
Cardano Curia supports constitutionality because, as represented by the finalized submission state:
- The canonical proposal is referenced via immutable hosting with a fixed content hash for verification.
- The withdrawal’s purpose, scope and delivery period are set out in the canonical document.
- Oversight/auditability mechanisms and milestone-based disbursement controls are included, with administrators designated and custody controls defined to preserve auditability.
- Return/refund/close-out handling for unspent funds is explicitly addressed.
Determination
Given the above, Cardano Curia determines this Treasury Withdrawal is constitutional under Constitution v2.4, contingent only on the on-chain references matching the final immutable canonical documents (hash match).
Cardano Curia votes YES on constitutionality (5–0). The action, as finalized, satisfies Constitution v2.4 governance action standards and Treasury Withdrawals requirements, including immutable documentation and explicit administration/auditability/custody controls.
- Cardano Japan Council725d4d44…7b31YesExpired · term ends epoch 653Rationale
We consider this governance action to be constitutional.
This proposal is a Treasury Withdrawal Governance Action to withdraw ₳13,103,039 from the Cardano Treasury for “Cardano Upgrades” by Input Output. In accordance with Article 2, Section 6, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Cardano Constitution, this proposal adopts an immutable off-chain reference using IPFS. Furthermore, the proposal text includes the title, summary, motivation, rationale, deliverables, roadmap, budget, risks, and oversight structure, and we determine that it presents information sufficient for evaluation as a Governance Action. Regarding Article 2, Section 7, Paragraphs 1 and 2, in addition to the purpose of the Treasury Withdrawal, implementation period, cost breakdown, and repayment conditions, past Treasury receipt records are disclosed under the “Prior Treasury Receipts” section. Regarding Article 2, Section 7, Paragraph 3, the requested amount for this proposal is ₳13,103,039, which falls within the 350M ADA Net Change Limit applicable to Epochs 613-713 at the time of submission. Furthermore, the requested amount is stated in ADA, and the USD equivalent is provided for reference only. Article 2, Section 7, Paragraphs 4 and 5 describe the audit and oversight framework, including third-party guarantees, the Oversight Committee, audits, reporting obligations, and dashboards, and designate Intersect as the administrator. Furthermore, Article 2, Section 7, Paragraph 6 describes the use of Treasury Reserve Smart Contract (TRSC) and Project-Specific Smart Contracts (PSSC) for segregated management, a structure designed for on-chain auditability, non-delegation to SPOs, and delegation to auto-abstain DReps. We determine that this structure is intended to align with the requirements of “auditable by the Cardano Community,” “separate accounts,” “not delegated to a SPO,” and “delegated to a predefined abstain voting option.” Therefore, as no clear conflict with the Cardano Constitution has been identified, we determine that this proposal is constitutional.
For the reasons stated above, we determine that it is constitutional.
- Eastern Cardano Council2ea7a78e…10ecYesActive · term ends epoch 726Rationale
We have determined that this treasury withdrawal governance action is constitutional.
The governance action with ID "gov_action1w0s...6es0cp" and title "IO: Cardano Upgrades" is a Treasury Withdrawal, and is therefore subject to the following sections and guardrails in the Cardano Constitution.
ARTICLE II, Section 6 of the Cardano Constitution states that governance actions must follow a standardized and legible format, including a URL hosting an immutable document and a corresponding hash, and must provide sufficient rationale including a title, abstract, justification, and supporting materials.
This governance action includes a valid URL and hash, which matches the hash of the off-chain documentation referenced. The rationale also meets the minimum content specified in this section.
ARTICLE II, Section 7 specifies that Treasury Withdrawal governance actions must include the following:
1. Purpose, Delivery Period, Costs, and Refund Conditions
This governance action specifies:
- The purpose of the withdrawal is "three coordinated initiatives that together expand Cardano's economic models, strengthen long-term Treasury resilience, and remove one of the biggest barriers to mainstream adoption, the requirement to hold ADA before you can transact."
- Under the heading "Deliverables & Roadmap" the period for delivery of the proposed activities is between Q3 2026 and Q1 2027
- The relevant costs and expenses under the heading "Budget"
- The circumstances under which funds may be refunded to the Cardano Treasury as "All funds not disbursed by the end of the delivery period will be returned to the Cardano Treasury. A final reconciliation will be published as part of the oversight reporting cycle. In the event of partial delivery or scope reduction, unspent funds associated with cancelled or reduced deliverables will be returned proportionally."
These elements fulfil the requirements of Article II, Section 7(1).
2. Prior Treasury Funding Disclosure
ARTICLE II, Section 7(2) requires disclosure of whether the prospective recipient has received ada from the Cardano Treasury within the last 24 months.
This governance action states that "IO and its affiliated entities has been accountable for delivery of work funded by the Cardano Treasury. The total funds allocated has been ₳130,708,860 across a number of projects…". This fulfils the requirement of ARTICLE II, Section 7(2).
3. Net Change Limit (NCL)
ARTICLE II, Section 7(3) requires that Treasury Withdrawals must not exceed the Net Change Limit.
The Net Change Limit in effect at the time of submission of this vote on-chain is the governance action with ID "gov_action1m3x...4jsr7q".
- A. Current NCL Amount: 350000000 ada
- B. Current NCL Time Period: Epoch 613 to Epoch 713 (Inclusive)
- C. Total of Treasury Withdrawals within the Current NCL Time Period: 67842000 ada
- D. Amount of this Treasury Withdrawal: 13103039 ada
- E. "C" plus "D" = 80945039 ada
- F. "A" minus "E" = 269054961 ada
As the value of "F" is greater than or equal to zero, this governance action fulfils the NCL requirement.
4. Audit Allocation and Oversight Metrics
ARTICLE II, Section 7(4) states "Treasury Withdrawals actions shall require an allocation of ada as a part of such funding request to cover the cost of periodic independent audits and the implementation of oversight metrics as to the use of such ada."
This governance action states that "Acceptance of the work will be supported by a 3rd Party Assurer, who will be responsible for reviewing and signing off the work completed at each project milestone against the corresponding milestone deliverables detailed within the Legal Contract. This work is funded from a portion of this treasury withdrawal.", which fulfils the requirements of ARTICLE II, Section 7(4).
5. Designated Administrators
ARTICLE II, Section 7(5) requires that one or more administrators are designated to monitor fund usage and ensure deliverables are achieved.
This governance action states that "A written off-chain Legal Contract will be created between Input Output and the Cardano Development Holdings (CDH), as mandated by the Constitution, and will be administered by Intersect.", which fulfils this requirement.
6. Fund Management Requirements
ARTICLE II, Section 7(6) states "Any ada received from a Cardano Blockchain treasury withdrawal, so long as such ada is being held by an administrator prior to further disbursement to the Treasury Withdrawal Recipient, must be kept in one or more separate accounts that can be audited by the Cardano Community, and such accounts shall not be delegated to an SPO but must be delegated to the predefined abstain voting option."
This governance action specifies the following withdrawal address, which at the time of assessment is not delegated to an SPO and is delegated to the auto abstain voting option:
- stake17xzc8pt7fgf0lc0x7eq6z7z6puhsxmzktna7dluahrj6g6ghh5qjr
Finally, the guardrails that require consideration for this governance action are TREASURY-01a, TREASURY-02a, and TREASURY-03a. These are addressed as follows:
- TREASURY-01a - The net change limit with governance action ID "gov_action1m3x...4jsr7q" is currently in effect, after being "agreed by the DReps via an on-chain governance action with a threshold of greater than 50% of the active voting stake".
- TREASURY-02a - As per the above assessment, this treasury withdrawal does not exceed the current Net Change Limit.
- TREASURY-03a - This treasury withdrawal is denominated in ada.
We therefore find this governance action Constitutional.
This governance action sufficiently fulfils the criteria specified for treasury withdrawals in the Cardano Constitution, so is deemed constitutional.
- KtorZ64f97568…3a49YesExpired · term ends epoch 653Rationale
Okay, with remarks.
Disclaimer: given the similarities in templates between all proposals from the Input Output Group, I have will re-use the same rationale even though each proposal has been assessed independently, rather than repeating the same points 9 times.
All 9 proposals are compliant with the constitution although it is worth underscoring that:
Many specified budgets are rather imprecise and allow a lot of undefined work that cannot be clearly assigned to a deliverable.
While third party audits are mentioned, no frequency, scope or designated auditor are specified. Plus, audits from previous withdrawals are nowhere to be seen, which raises more questions when it comes to future audits...
Some proposals such as the "IO & Midgard Labs: L2 Scalability Initiative" contain highly speculative and forward-looking claims that have yet to be proven yet are presented as truth without sufficient data to back them up.
However, given the timing of my vote (i.e. quite late in the voting period), there is not much point arguing about those points that have already been visibly discussed by DReps.
- Phil_uplc68bb0b42…8746YesActive · term ends epoch 799Rationale
- Tingvard646d1b3a…be43YesActive · term ends epoch 726Rationale
Tingvard judges the “IO: Cardano Upgrades” treasury withdrawal governance action constitutional.
This governance action satisfies the procedural requirements for a treasury withdrawal under Article II, Section 6 and Article II, Section 7.
The proposal includes a title, abstract, rationale, supporting materials, and specifies the purpose, delivery period, costs, oversight structure, refund conditions, and prior treasury receipts as required under Article II, Section 7, §1 and §2.
The proposal defines administrators responsible for monitoring and disbursement of funds through Intersect-managed smart contracts and oversight structures, satisfying Article II, Section 7, §5.
The proposal allocates funding for audits, assurance, and oversight mechanisms, satisfying Article II, Section 7, §4.
The proposal further states that treasury-controlled accounts will not delegate to SPOs and will delegate only to the predefined auto-abstain DRep option, satisfying Article II, Section 7, §6.
The governance action states that the withdrawal is denominated in ada and does not exceed the active Net Change Limit at the time of submission, in accordance with TREASURY-02a and TREASURY-03a.
The proposal also includes references to immutable hosting and document hashing in accordance with Article II, Section 6, §1.
Tingvard therefore finds that the governance action procedurally satisfies the constitutional requirements applicable to treasury withdrawal governance actions.Tingvard finds this governance action constitutional.