The Cardano treasury wasn’t always part of the protocol; it emerged as a cornerstone of community governance only in the Voltaire era, after years of building toward decentralized decision-making. With Treasury Withdrawals now live on-chain, infrastructure is finally in place for the community to access funds responsibly, transparently, and under their own control.

Intersect’s role in this process isn’t about directing where funds go; it’s about enabling a process that is secure, auditable, and structured, empowering DReps and the Constitutional Committee to govern effectively.

This post reflects on that journey, how the foundations were laid, the tools built, and the safeguards introduced to support responsible access to Cardano’s community treasury.

From Vision to Structure: Why Treasury Administration Matters

Decentralized governance isn’t just about voting. It requires a robust infrastructure to ensure public funds are distributed effectively and fairly. For Treasury Withdrawals, this means:

• Clear roles for administrators, DReps, and oversight bodies
• Reliable mechanisms to track milestones and deliverables
• Transparent policies and secure technical execution
• A feedback loop that protects the Treasury from misuse

When vendors appointed Intersect as a Budget Administrator, they asked us to support this framework, not as arbiters of value, but as stewards of process and accountability.

Policies That Define the Process

One of the first steps Intersect took was to codify our responsibilities in a set of administration policies and FAQs. These documents define how proposals are submitted, how milestones are tracked, and how oversight is applied.

Our role is facilitative. We assist with milestone reporting, conduct basic delivery assurance checks, and coordinate smart contract interactions. But final approval rests with governance actors: DReps and the Constitutional Committee (ICC).

This separation of roles helps preserve decentralization while ensuring the process is supported with real-world operational capacity.

Smart Contracts: Automating the Treasury

Intersect worked alongside ecosystem contributors to develop and deploy a new smart contract framework that supports:

• Cryptographic signature verification of proposal authors
• On-chain proposal and milestone metadata
• Controlled, auditable fund disbursement
• Native ada compatibility

This tooling, tested over several public demo days, is now live on the mainnet. It removes the need for trust in individuals, replacing it with transparent, rule-based automation.

Independent Oversight for Public Funds

Technical safeguards are crucial, but community funds also need human oversight. To strengthen this aspect, Intersect helped establish a new external Oversight Committee to review milestone reports and add an impartial layer of accountability.

Together with our internal checks, this body helps ensure:

• Milestones are reviewed independently
• Incomplete or underperforming projects can be paused.
• Surplus funds are returned to the Treasury when necessary.

This layered model strikes a balance between automation and human judgment, designed to scale as Cardano’s governance matures.

The First Round of Treasury Withdrawals

With the framework and tooling in place, Treasury Withdrawals have now moved from theory to practice. In July 2025, Intersect submitted 39 Treasury Withdrawal actions,  the first large-scale deployment of on-chain funding proposals using the new system.

Each proposal:

• Was preceded by a successful Budget Info Action
• Includes delivery milestones tied to real-world outcomes
• Is subject to a 67% DRep supermajority and ICC approval
• Can be tracked on-chain via numerous open source tools, including  GovTool and AdaStat

This marks a turning point,  from centralized disbursement models to a community-led funding process, secured by infrastructure.

Serving the Ecosystem, Not Steering It

Intersect’s role as Budget Administrator isn’t about authority — it’s about service. Our goal has been to equip the community with the systems, safeguards, and support needed to execute treasury-funded work with confidence.

Along the way, we’ve learned:

• Governance needs both technical infrastructure and human oversight
• Clear policy frameworks foster trust and participation
• Transparency through demos and documentation strengthens legitimacy
• Sustainable community funding depends on reliability and clarity

Intersect is proud to help build that foundation, while continuing to evolve and improve it alongside the community.

What’s Next?

Voting on this round of proposals continues through Epoch 576 (ends August 17, 2025). Members are encouraged to:

• Review how their DRep is voting
• Redelegate if needed
• Stay informed via GovTool and Intersect channels

As governance expands and new Administrators emerge, we’re committed to supporting a system that is scalable, accountable, and truly community-owned.

This is just the beginning, and there are always things that can be improved, we will run a complete retrospective post withdrawal and have regular reviews to ensure we are delivering exactly what our members direct us toward.