Cardano is set for a major milestone as the blockchain network looks to evolve with fully decentralized governance.

On January 29, the Cardano Foundation announced the Plomin hard fork, a blockchain upgrade that introduces key governance changes to Cardano (ADA), takes effect “tonight”. 

The hard fork brings full implementation of Cardano’s decentralized governance to the community.

For instance, holders of the native token ADA are now able to delegate voting power to Delegated Representatives.

DReps are the individuals set to represent ADA holders’ interests in Cardano’s governance.

They vote on network governance actions.

For background, Plomin is a follow-up upgrade implemented after Chang’s hard fork that went live in 2024.

The upgrade forms part two of Chang and gets its name in memory of Cardano community contributor Matthew Plomin.

Plomin, co-founder of W3i, passed on in November 2024.

Milestone for Cardano

Cardano’s traction in the blockchain ecosystem continues with the latest network upgrade.

After Chang’s release, the transition to full decentralized governance on the smart contracts network takes another mega step. 

In this case, the hard fork’s successful implementation will be etched on-chain and see Cardano boast further transparency and accountability for network participants. This includes voting by stake pool operators or SPOs.

“The main feature of the Plomin hard fork is the full implementation of delegated representatives (DReps) with treasury withdrawals enabled, and completing the transition from the technical bootstrapping phase of CIP-1694,” the Cardano Foundation noted in a blog post.

What ADA holders need to understand

CIP-1694 is a Cardano Improvement Proposal that entailed the implementation of necessary network upgrades to introduce on-chain governance. These improvements open up to Cardano’s Voltaire era.

The Voltaire era is part of the Cardano roadmap that marks the phase in which the blockchain network enters a self-sustaining system.

It’s a landmark stage for the growth of this project, with its full rollout bringing into existence a voting and treasury system.

The development means ADA holders will be able to use their tokens to stake and vote on the network’s future development.

With Plomin, ADA holders are set to begin tapping into real voting power. This will be on aspects such as hard forks, parameter changes, and treasury withdrawals.

Cardano’s native token continued to trade in tandem with the broader crypto market. ADA price stood at $0.91 at the time of writing, down 3.7%.

The altcoin fell below the psychological $1 mark earlier this week.

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