The new version of the Cardano Constitution was ratified with 79% of active voting stake represented by DReps voting in favor, marking a major milestone in community-driven governance. The updated Constitution will take effect at the epoch boundary on January 24.

From that point on, new governance actions will be evaluated by the Constitutional Committee under the revised Constitution.

What is the Cardano Constitution?

The Cardano Constitution is the highest-level governance document for the Cardano ecosystem. It defines:

• the principles that guide on-chain governance,
• the roles and responsibilities of governance participants,
• the constraints placed on governance actions, and
• the mandate of the Constitutional Committee (CC) is to assess constitutional compliance.

All on-chain governance actions must comply with the Constitution in force at the time they are evaluated. A governance action may receive strong voting support and still be rejected if it does not meet constitutional requirements.

How did we get here?

The transition to decentralised governance on Cardano was a multi-stage evolution that moved from technical frameworks to a community-ratified Constitution. This journey began with CIP-1694, which established the initial on-chain governance mechanisms and led to an Interim Constitution to bootstrap the "Voltaire" era. To advance toward a complete framework, the community launched a massive consultation effort comprising 63 global workshops across more than 50 countries. These sessions allowed stakeholders to debate the protocol's core values and roles, and to elect delegates to represent their views at the Constitutional Convention in late 2024. At the convention, delegates synthesized this global feedback into a final draft, which was approved by an overwhelming 95% majority.

Following the convention, the Constitution was moved for on-chain ratification, achieving official enactment in early 2025 after meeting the necessary approval thresholds. This Constitution now serves as the social contract for the ecosystem.

Since its initial ratification, the Constitution has been a living document, with community members and DRep Yuta leading a series of document iterations and governance actions to refine it. The third governance action, ratified on January 19th, secured the necessary approval from both the Constitutional Committee and DReps, resulting in the updated Constitution taking effect.

Why does Cardano have a constitution?

Cardano’s governance system is designed to balance decentralized decision-making with long-term sustainability. The Constitution exists to:

• provide predictable, rule-based governance,
• guardrail, treasury spending, and protocol changes,
• reduce ambiguity in governance processes

By defining these rules in advance, the Constitution provides a shared reference point for ada holders, developers, DReps, and the Constitutional Committee.

What changed in the new Constitution?

The updated Constitution refines how governance actions are structured and assessed. Key changes include:

• Constitutional amendments
• Inclusion of Constitution Definitions
• Budget Info Actions are no longer constitutionally recognized
  • Info Actions may still exist on-chain, but they are no longer treated as budgets or as authorization for treasury spending.
  • Impact: Those seeking treasury funding have fewer constitutionally mandated steps.

• Treasury Withdrawals are fully self-contained
  • Responsibilities previously associated with budget approvals now sit directly on Treasury Withdrawal governance actions.
  • Impact: Those seeking treasury funding are required to include more information than previously within Treasury Withdrawals. 
• Stricter governance action standards
  • Governance actions must reference off-chain documents using immutable links.
  • Impact: Governance action authors should use services such as IPFS for references.

Impact on currently active Governance Actions

The updated Constitution will have direct effects on two currently active governance actions once it takes effect on January 24th.

1. Cardano DeFi Liquidity Budget – Withdrawal 1

Under the updated Constitution, Treasury Withdrawals must meet all constitutional requirements independently, including those previously addressed through budget-related Info Actions.

As currently structured:

• The action does not meet the new requirement for immutable off-chain metadata.
• The action relies on a budget-related justification that was previously provided via a Budget Info Action, a mechanism that is no longer constitutionally recognized.
• Requirements that now apply directly at the Treasury Withdrawal level are therefore not fully satisfied.

As a result, once the updated Constitution takes effect, this Treasury Withdrawal does not meet all constitutional requirements in its current form.

2. DeltaDeFi: Hydra Trading Infrastructure Budget (₳1,500,000) - budget info action

Under the updated Constitution:

• Budget Info Actions are no longer recognized as budgets.
• Info Actions may continue to exist on-chain as records of sentiment.
• However, they no longer carry constitutional weight and cannot be treated as budget authorization.

As a result, once the updated Constitution takes effect, this action:

• will continue to exist on-chain,
• But it will no longer be considered a valid budget under the constitutional framework.

Votes on the action may still be visible as expressions of sentiment, but they will not have constitutional effect.

When The Updated Constitution takes effect at the epoch boundary on January 24th, new governance actions will be evaluated under the new rules, while existing actions will remain on-chain but no longer hold constitutional relevance.

• The updated Constitution takes effect at the epoch boundary on January 24th.
• From that point forward:
  • new governance actions are evaluated under the updated rules,
  • existing actions are not retroactively removed from the chain,
  • But removed concepts no longer have constitutional relevance.

Governance under the updated Constitution

With the updated Constitution coming into force, Cardano governance continues under a more clearly specified and formally constrained framework. The changes primarily affect how governance actions are structured, justified, and evaluated, rather than who participates or how voting power is distributed.

The practical impact of these changes will become clearer as new governance actions are submitted and assessed under the updated constitutional rules.