Welcome to Intersect’s Development Update #83. This week brings strong momentum across Intersect and the Cardano ecosystem, with extended Committee Election registration, the opening of Executive Director recruitment, and Evolution SDK officially entering incubation.

Also this week, the Delivery Assurance team continues to strengthen transparency around treasury-funded projects. At the same time, committees, working groups, and upcoming events like the Community Town Square and October Town Hall highlight Cardano’s growing rhythm of collaboration, accountability, and progress. Let’s get into the details!

Committee Elections 2025 - Registration Extended

We’re now in the second week of Intersect’s Committee Elections 2025, and to encourage broader participation, the candidate registration period has been extended by 10 days. Applications will now close on October 24th at 12 PM UTC.

The voting period remains unchanged, running from October 27th to November 7th, with results announced on November 14th.

Committees play a vital role in Cardano’s governance, each tackling key challenges across the ecosystem, from technical guidance and open-source support to budget oversight, community growth, and marketing strategy. These member-led bodies ensure that decisions remain informed, accountable, and community-driven.

If you’re passionate about Cardano’s mission and can commit around 10 hours per month, we encourage you to stand as a candidate. The application form is available via the Members Area, and you can review the questions in advance to prepare your submission.

🗓️ Timeline

• Applications: Oct 1–24 (12 PM UTC)
• Voting: Oct 27–Nov 7 (12 PM UTC)
• Results: Nov 14 (12 PM UTC)

Hear from the Committee Chairs - Watch our new video introducing each committee and their impact on Cardano’s governance - youtu.be/i6Ogwzllof8

How to participate - Apply through the Intersect member’s area. An application pack is also available for download. If you have questions, raise them in the Intersect Discord channel, email committees@intersectmbo.org, or reach out to other community members. Applications are visible to all members as they are submitted.

Watch out for next week’s X Space session to connect members and candidates, answer questions, and encourage participation. Stay tuned for details.

For full details on eligibility, committees, and how to participate, read our Committee Elections 2025 overview.

Intersect’s Delivery Assurance team continues to review vendor progress on treasury-funded projects using smart contracts, ensuring milestones and payments are transparent and verifiable on-chain. You can follow the live dashboard. After each milestone is achieved, Vendors will complete a Milestone Acceptance Form, which is linked to each milestone within the Treasury Dashboard. Go check it out!

A new Delivery Assurance Milestone Report will be published soon, highlighting the key work achieved within the previous month. Between reports, the team will share milestone completions as they occur on X.

Intersect has officially opened applications and nominations for the role of Executive Director (ED), a key step in strengthening our commitment to transparent, member-led governance.

The Executive Director will serve as the operational and strategic lead of Intersect, not as a traditional “top-down” executive, but as a facilitator of community-driven progress. The process itself reflects the organization’s values of openness and accountability, inviting both direct applications and community nominations from across the Cardano ecosystem and beyond.

🗓️ Timeline

• Applications and nominations: Oct 6–24, 2025
• Member and DRep polling: Oct 27–31, 2025
• Panel interviews: From Nov 3, 2025
• Final selection: By Intersect’s Board

Throughout the process, Jack Briggs continues to serve as Interim Executive Director, ensuring continuity and stability.

Read the blog, learn more about the process, and then apply. You can also nominate someone if you know someone who might fit the role.

A significant milestone for Intersect’s Incubation Program: Evolution SDK, developed by No Witness Labs, has officially entered incubation,  the first project to do so following review by both the Open Source Committee (OSC) and Technical Steering Committee (TSC).

Evolution SDK provides developers with a TypeScript-first, modular framework for building decentralized applications (DApps) on Cardano. By offering a scalable transaction builder, wallet integrations, and multi-provider support, it simplifies development while improving reliability and flexibility.

As an incubated project, Evolution SDK will now grow within a vendor-neutral, community-driven environment supported by Intersect’s open-source governance framework. This ensures transparency, quality, and long-term sustainability as it becomes a foundational layer in Cardano’s developer ecosystem.

About the initiative, Christian Taylor, Head of the Open Source Office and Incubation, Intersect, has this to say:

“After a year and a half of development on this incubation process, bringing Evolution SDK as the first project into incubation isn’t just a project win; it’s a mission moment for Intersect. We’re here to serve the Cardano community as a true member-based organization, with our open-source efforts a key pillar in our coordination role, similar to the way the Linux Foundation serves its ecosystems: neutral, accountable, and focused on the long haul.”

Jonathan Rodriguez, Cofounder of No Witness Labs, concurred with Christian, he said:

“We are happy and proud No Witness Labs seized this opportunity while remaining the primary maintainer, focusing on quality. Together, we’re committing to a simple promise: Evolution SDK will be better than it is today.”

Learn more here, explore the SDK here, and the GitHub repo here.

The Civics Committee met this week to focus on participation and momentum. Committee elections are underway, and the application window is extended to Fri, 24 Oct (12:00 UTC). Applications for Civics remain light, so members are encouraging fresh faces from across the governance community to step forward.

On funding, the CIP-149 grant program is now live, with early interest from wallet and tooling builders. Targeted outreach is underway. If you’re developing in this space, consider applying or reaching out with any questions. Find out more here.

Constitutional updates continue: a refreshed governance action is live to keep the discussion active. The Constitutional Amendment WG launches on Thu, 16 Oct, with an emphasis on translation and accessibility to broaden participation.

The Governance Health WG advanced its KPI framework to v0.4, adding new metrics for the Constitutional Committee, tooling/CLI, SPOs, and treasury proposals. A public reference is planned to help dashboards visualize “governance health.”

Finally, Civics will host an X Space debate “DReps Off-Chain: Pros & Cons” with Adam Rusch and Phil Lewis on Monday, October 13 (12:30 PM UTC). Bring your views on DReps’ off-chain influence - as always, we’d love to hear from you! Don’t forget to - Set Reminders!!

Two key community touchpoints are coming up this month, each with a distinct purpose in Cardano’s governance journey.

Community Town Square – October 16, 2025 12:00 PM UTC - Intersect’s first-ever Community Town Square is an open, community-led forum bringing together members, committees, and working groups to share updates, showcase initiatives, and discuss what’s next for Cardano governance.

This new format emphasizes bottom-up participation, giving the community space to connect, collaborate, and drive dialogue - Register here: October Town Square.

Intersect Town Hall – October 30, 2025 12:00 PM UTC - The Intersect Town Hall serves as a monthly organizational showcase, providing transparency into Intersect’s progress, key initiatives, and upcoming plans. It’s designed to keep members and the wider Cardano community informed, featuring updates from teams, committees, and leadership. The YouTube link is coming soon!

📋 Agenda Highlights:

• Committee Elections Update
• Event Recaps: TOKEN2049 & Tech Summit Japan
• Welcoming New Board Members
• Committee & Team Updates (including Rosie Graham, Head of People & Culture)
• 2026 Budget Process Overview with Lloyd

Together, these sessions reinforce the balance between community-led collaboration and organizational accountability, with the Town Square driving discussion and the Town Hall showcasing delivery and progress. 

The GDG Hyderabad DevFest 2025 promises to be an incredible celebration of technology and innovation, bringing together developers, creators, and tech enthusiasts from across India. This year’s event will feature a 6×6 Cardano booth represented by Intersect, Nucast, and EMURGO, showcasing the power of blockchain and open-source collaboration within the global Google Developer community. With an expected crowd of fresh and curious developers, it’s an exciting opportunity to connect, share ideas, and inspire the next wave of builders in the Web3 space, and help them start their Cardano journey.

Watch this space next week as we will have a Token 2049 special zooming in on the event and sharing some of the fantastic things that happened in Japan!

Enterprise Spotlight: SNEK

Snek has become one of the most recognizable symbols of community-driven creativity in the Cardano ecosystem, a memecoin project that has evolved far beyond its humorous origins. Built on a foundation of decentralization and inclusion, Snek blends culture, art, and blockchain utility to demonstrate how grassroots movements can drive serious network adoption. By empowering holders through transparent tokenomics and community-led governance, Snek exemplifies how the playful side of Web3 can fuel real engagement and innovation. Its growing ecosystem, from NFTs to community events and collaborations, continues to highlight how humor, identity, and collective spirit can serve as powerful tools for expanding Cardano’s reach and relevance.

This week, the team focused on incremental performance improvements to further optimize the live voting experience. Key efforts included moving parts of the voting logic from the frontend to the backend to improve responsiveness and reduce load times during high activity. Additionally, randomization-based sorting in the DRep Directory is being reintroduced, ensuring fairer and more dynamic results for users exploring representatives. These updates aim to make the user experience smoother, faster, and more consistent across all governance features.

Treasury Withdrawal Governance Action is now live on-chain for DReps to review and vote on. Approval of this action will unlock funds to:

• Continue active development of Cardano GovTool, the only fully open-source and community-owned governance tool
• Incentivize individual contributors
• Support additional open-source governance tools with dedicated funding

Questions or feedback? The GovTool Consortium can be reached on X via @cardano_govtool, through DMs, or in the weekly Governance Working Group sessions. Discussion is also open on the GovTool forum.

That’s it for this week’s update. Thank you for reading. To learn more about Intersect’s work, explore our Knowledge Base, which provides detailed information on governance structures, committees, and funding. Additionally, visit the Intersect website for the latest news, updates, and roadmap information.

Join the conversation on Discord, and follow us on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn to engage with fellow members, working groups, and the broader community.

Your voice helps shape the future of Cardano governance.