Cardano's Plomin Hard Fork Empowers ADA Holders

Cardano's Plomin Hard Fork Empowers ADA Holders with Governance Participation

Cardano, the layer-1 blockchain launched in 2017 by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, activated its highly anticipated “Plomin” upgrade on Wednesday, ushering in the ecosystem's long-awaited move towards a decentralized governance system. With the Plomin upgrade now live, ADA token holders will be able to shape Cardano's future, including voting on treasury measures and hard forks.

The biggest change coming to Cardano with Plomin is the full implementation of Delegate Representatives (dReps), who will vote on governance issues on behalf of ADA token holders. Previously, Cardano's three founding entities—the Cardano Foundation, Input Output Global (IOHK) and Emurgo—were in charge of governance changes and triggering chain upgrades. Moving forward, the keys they held and those responsibilities are delegated to new Cardano governance groups.

Ahead of Plomin, Stake Pool Operators needed to upgrade their nodes and approve the upgrade with a 51% vote. As of this week, roughly 85% of nodes were with the new version, allowing the network to proceed with the changes.

Cardano is set to activate the Plomin hard fork later Wednesday, ushering in a new era of decentralization for the blockchain network. This major upgrade, confirmed by the Cardano Foundation, will grant ADA holders direct voting power over key network decisions, including parameter adjustments, treasury withdrawals, and hard fork initiations.

The Cardano blockchain will transition to a decentralized governance structure after the Plomin hard fork takes effect. This hard fork introduces multiple critical changes to Cardano’s governance and functionality. It enables all seven governance actions outlined in the Cardano Improvement Proposal CIP-1694, including treasury withdrawals, new constitution proposals, and votes of no confidence. Moreover, it activates decentralized representative (DRep) and stake pool operator (SPO) voting on applicable governance actions.

The Plomin hard fork was officially approved last week for enactment after meeting all three necessary thresholds for such a transformation during the network’s interim governance period. The results saw that at least 85% of stake pools had elevated to a Cardano node version capable of processing the rules associated with the new protocol version. In addition, more than 51