Charles Hoskinson revealed future plans after the Cardano hard fork

Cardano (ADA), a layer-1 blockchain, has officially launched its Chang hard fork. This chapter marks a dramatic shift towards decentralization.

Late Sunday, $13 billion in blockchain management began transitioning to ADA token holders. The Cardano community has been waiting for this change for a long time.

The first phase of the Cardano Chang hard fork

With the Chang Amendment now active, ADA owners have the ability to elect management representatives and vote on critical development proposals.

The Cardano Foundation said: “Today's Chang hard fork is a major milestone for the Cardano blockchain, ecosystem and community – delivering on the promise of a truly autonomous decentralized network.

Read more: Who is Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano?

Described in Cardano Update Proposal CIP-1694, Chang's hard fork introduced a new governance structure featuring three user-driven components:

Constitutional Committee, Delegate Representatives (dReps) and Stake Pool Operators (SPOs).

Previously, the power to launch updates or hard forks resided with Cardano's three founding entities—the Cardano Foundation, Input Output Global (IOHK), and Imgurgo. Now, this responsibility will be transferred to newly formed management teams. In the year On August 30, Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson emphasized the finality of this change, declaring that “Genesis keys are dead.”

The Cardano Chang hard fork will have a two-stage implementation. The first, which has already emerged, contains an ad hoc constitutional committee.

This committee will oversee the administration on an interim basis while the rest of the governance model is implemented. Thus, the new governing bodies will be fully empowered within 90 days.

This initiative suggests that Cardano is one of the first major blockchains to implement a token-based governance system known as the Voltaire era. The name refers to a French Enlightenment writer who was a strong advocate of free speech.

Additionally, in an interview with BeinCrypto, Hoskinson revealed that he plans to introduce a vision for “Cardano 2” in October. It outlines possible improvements and directions for the Cardano ecosystem.

Challenges with a decentralized management model

However, while many Cardano supporters celebrate this move, decentralization presents challenges. Governing bodies such as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have faced criticism for issues such as tight budgets and lack of adequate checks and balances. Critics also point out that power is often concentrated in the hands of a few.

On the other hand, the new governance model could make it challenging for regulatory bodies like the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to label Cardano a security.

“If the SEC wants to send a subpoena to someone from Cardano, they should send it to all ADA holders around the world. The 3 founding members technically have no stake in Cardano,” explained community account Cardanians.

Despite the strong fork, ADA's market response was subdued, down 3.72%. As of writing, ADA is changing hands at $0.331192.

Read more: Cardano (ADA) Price Prediction 2024/2025/2030

Once ranked among the top three cryptocurrencies (excluding stablecoins), ADA dropped out of the top ten by market capitalization. Other blockchains like Tron and Toncoin have eclipsed Cardano's market capitalization.

Additionally, the ADA is down 89% from its record high of $3.09 on this date three years ago. However, Hoskinson plans to focus on narratives such as decentralized social networks and artificial intelligence (AI) integrations to support Cardano's strong position.

“We have now reached the point where the protocol is capable of building protocols and applications that can change people's lives. I am a big advocate of speaking up [hence] I love building a decentralized social network. Additionally, I recently spoke at the largest AI conference in the United States, where I spoke about the challenges of integrating AI and blockchain. I'd like to see decentralized AI lined up in the same way as what we've done here with Cardano.