The Cardano blockchain is on the precipice of a significant transformation. The development team recently released Node 9.0, the final software update paving the way for the highly anticipated Chang hard fork. This critical upgrade marks the beginning of Cardano’s “Age of Voltaire,” an era characterized by a major overhaul of the network’s governance system.
On July 8th, Cardano released Node 9.0, the culmination of development efforts for the Chang hard fork. Announced via a YouTube video by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this software update represents the first node version capable of facilitating the transition across the 9.0 hard fork boundary on Cardano’s mainnet and long-running testnets like PreProd.
The Chang hard fork serves as the cornerstone for Cardano’s transition towards fully decentralized governance. This milestone signifies the commencement of the “Age of Voltaire” within Cardano’s roadmap, a period defined by sweeping changes to the network’s political landscape.
Cardano Improvement Proposal 1694 (CIP 1694) outlines the specific changes envisioned for the network’s governance. This proposal paves the way for the introduction of Delegate Representatives (DReps), who will be democratically elected by Cardano token holders. These representatives will be entrusted with drafting a Cardano Constitution, essentially the supreme governing law of the network. Once ratified, the Constitution will serve as the framework for DReps to propose future network modifications, ensuring a well-defined path for Cardano’s evolution.
While Node 9.0 lays the groundwork for decentralized governance, it doesn’t yet enable DRep voting or comprehensive governance actions. The full voting protocol, as outlined in CIP 1694, is slated for release in Node version 10.0. However, Node 9.0 facilitates the initiation of the “bootstrap phase” of CIP 1694 within production environments, marking a crucial step towards complete decentralization.
As of this writing, block explorer Cardanoscan indicates that cryptocurrency exchanges and stake pools haven’t yet completed preparations for the hard fork. In his YouTube video, Hoskinson anticipated the hard fork to commence “Monday or Tuesday,” suggesting a timeframe between July 8th and 9th. This timeline deviates slightly from Hoskinson’s earlier projection of a June launch, with a one-week delay attributed to the implementation of an additional node upgrade in June to address a distributed denial-of-service attack.
