During a November 7 Ask Me Anything session, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said he does not control the blockchain’s treasury, consensus mechanism, or negotiate on behalf of ADA holders. He emphasized that his role does not equate to a traditional CEO who is accountable for the platform’s growth.
Governance structure and accountability
Cardano’s governance model separates several functions:
- Delegated Representatives (DReps) approve treasury spending proposals.
- Constitutional Committee reviews proposals for constitutionality and publishes its decisions.
- Funded recipients are responsible for delivering work according to the terms of their proposals.
- Administrators monitor fund use, keep withdrawn ADA in separate, auditable accounts, and ensure deliverables are met.
The treasury guidance explicitly separates approval of funding from reporting on payouts and results.
Proposal and spending requirements
Any participant can propose a treasury withdrawal, but proposals must receive DRep and Constitutional Committee approval, comply with the Constitution, and stay within the Net Change Limit, which caps the amount of ADA that can leave the treasury in a given period.
Proposals must disclose purpose, delivery timeline, costs, refund conditions, and whether the recipient has received treasury funds in the previous 24 months. They also must allocate ADA for independent audits and designate administrators for oversight.
Recent project updates
Intersect reported on November 6 that AdaStat’s October maintenance milestone was signed off on November 2, covering security, error‑handling, recovery and usability work. The consensus team’s November 3 update linked Leios implementation and prototype work to Treasury Funding Initiative 4 and maintenance to Initiative 17, providing concrete code changes for public inspection.
The November 6 development report noted that recent Leios changes remain in development on the main branch rather than being released to mainnet.
Organizational changes
Input Output Group (IOG) announced that consensus engineering will move to Serokell and developer experience to AlwaysTrue, with transitions scheduled through early 2027 and coordinated publicly through Intersect.
Holder participation
ADA holders can register as DReps, delegate their voting stake, or change existing delegations, giving them a direct role in funding decisions and governance outcomes. The effectiveness of these mechanisms will be judged by whether funded projects deliver usable products and services.
