Things Are Moving For Cardano
2024 was a momentous year for Cardano, and upcoming developments will make 2025 even more exciting.
Our community of ada holders make the decisions about Cardano's future - many of them contributed to the plans for 2025. Here are the main projects being reviewed by the community:
Scaling the chain
Architectural improvements, new consensus methods, processing more transactions faster on the main chain – maturing Hydra, Midgard, Gummiworm, Leios, Peras and more.
Usability & utility
Improving the developer experience on Cardano with more capabilities and incentives for stake pool operators.
Interoperability & incoming liquidity
Collaborating with other blockchains for synergistic development and growing the layer 2 with partner chains, Minotaur, service layers and hybrid dApps.
Keep up to date
This year, 2025, will be the most revolutionary in Cardano’s history. It’s the first year of full community governance, a radical experiment in the decentralized management of a blockchain. For more information, see the detailed proposal.
People of Cardano
Meet just some of the thousands of citizens who move Cardano forward every dayHave your sayDelegate to a dRep
Cardano’s Vision
The world’s operating system
A central principle for the Vision. Becoming the world's operating system means Cardano becoming a core layer of modern IT infrastructure for the secure transfer of value, and supporting complex applications in the decentralized finance ecosystem.
Global Identity
Embedding decentralized identity within Cardano’s core functionalities (such as transactions, smart contracts, and governance) provides improved security, usability, and features such as decentralized reputation management.
The post-quantum landscape
Recent advancements in quantum computing underscore the need for blockchain systems to be resilient against future quantum-based attacks to ensure long-term sustainability. Quantum technology also has the potential to enhance blockchain security and performance.
Power to the people
Cardano has entered the age of Voltaire, the development phase named after the French anti-establishment thinker. Marking the transition to fully-decentralized, community-driven governance, it began with CIP-1694 – the year of Voltaire’s birth – a proposal that created a structure for decision-making driven by ada holders. The community now proposes, debates, and votes on the changes that will shape Cardano’s future.
Cardano’s governance model comprises four key roles:
- Ada holders who vote or delegate their votes.
- Delegated representatives (DReps) who vote on ada holders behalf.
- Stake pool operators (SPOs) who help validate technical governance actions.
- The constitutional committee that ensures all actions follow the Cardano constitution.
This structure balances participation, accountability, and technical integrity, with support from Intersect – a member-based organization helping to bootstrap Cardano governance.
At the heart of this system is the Cardano constitution – a community-shaped document that defines the principles and rules of governance. It ensures transparency, protects the protocol’s integrity, and guides the community in decision-making. In this new era of governance, ada holders are actively driving Cardano forward, together.
Watch the Cardano Constitution film
Community-led governance
Cardano has entered the age of Voltaire, the development phase named after the French anti-establishment thinker. Marking the transition to fully-decentralized, community-driven governance, it began with CIP-1694 – the year of Voltaire’s birth – a proposal that created a structure for decision-making driven by ada holders. The community now proposes, debates, and votes on the changes that will shape Cardano’s future.
The governance framework: four key roles
Cardano’s governance model comprises four key roles:
- Ada holders who vote or delegate their votes.
- Delegated representatives (DReps) who vote on ada holders behalf.
- Stake pool operators (SPOs) who help validate technical governance actions.
- The constitutional committee that ensures all actions follow the Cardano constitution.
This structure balances participation, accountability, and technical integrity, with support from Intersect – a member-based organization helping to bootstrap Cardano governance.
The Cardano Constitution: A Guiding Compass
At the heart of this system is the Cardano constitution – a community-shaped document that defines the principles and rules of governance. It ensures transparency, protects the protocol’s integrity, and guides the community in decision-making. In this new era of governance, ada holders are actively driving Cardano forward, together.
Watch the Cardano Constitution film