Intersect - Knowledge Base
Intersect WebsiteBecome a member
  • INTERSECT OVERVIEW
    • What is Intersect?
    • Intersect's structure
      • Intersect values
      • Intersect governance
      • Intersect funding
    • Intersect membership
      • Membership tiers and benefits
    • Working on Cardano
      • Intersect support for Cardano's Governance
      • Intersect support for Cardano Product
      • Intersect support for Cardano Budget
    • Intersect committees
      • Intersect Steering committee
      • Civics committee
      • Membership and Community committee (MCC)
      • Growth & Marketing Committee (GMC)
      • Technical Steering committee (TSC)
        • Parameter committee (PC)
      • Open Source committee (OSC)
      • Budget committee
      • Product committee
    • Intersect groups (working & special interest)
    • Intersect development updates
    • Support and contacts
    • Recent updates
  • Cardano
    • Cardano Budget Submission
      • Intersect as an Administrator
      • Budget Info Action FAQs
      • Budget Glossary
      • FAQs
      • Treasury withdrawal poll - voting pack
    • Cardano governance
      • Governance Overview
      • Cardano Constitution
        • Read the Cardano Constitution
          • Hash
          • Translations
          • Previous versions of the Cardano Constitution
            • Interim Cardano Constitution
              • Translated Interim Constitution
        • 2025 Constitutional Committee elections
          • Guide for Applicants
          • Guide for Voting
          • Multi-Stage Task for Constitutional Committee Applicants
          • Guidelines for Participation in a Constitutional Committee Election
      • Governance roles
        • General ada holders
        • Delegated Representatives (DReps)
        • Stake Pool Operators (SPOs)
        • Constitutional Committee
          • Interim Constitution Committee (ICC)
            • Intersect Constitutional Council
            • Interim CC elections
            • Interim CC FAQs
      • Governance tools
        • Voltaire GovTool
        • Constitutional Committee Portal
      • Governance process
        • Off-chain proposal submission and discussion
        • On-chain governance action submission
          • How to submit a governance action through the CLI
        • On-chain DRep registration
        • On-chain DRep delegation
        • On-chain voting
          • Governance action ratification
          • Governance action enactment
        • Off-chain governance action outcome socialisation
      • DRep Pioneering Program
      • SanchoNet
      • Key terms
        • Governance Action
          • GA - Motion of no-confidence
          • GA - New constitutional committee or Quorum size
          • GA - Updates to Constitution
          • GA - Hard-Fork Initiation
          • GA - Protocol Parameter Changes
          • GA - Treasury Withdrawals
          • GA - Info
        • Ratification
        • Enactment
        • Threshold
        • Metadata
        • Chang upgrade
        • CIP-30
        • CIP-95
        • CIP-1694
        • Constitutional Committee
        • Constitution
        • SanchoNet
      • Weekly governance bulletin
    • Cardano hardforks and upgrades
      • Chang & Plomin upgrades
      • Major release process
      • Quality and feedback
    • Cardano economy
      • Cardano treasury
  • Annual member meetings
    • Annual member meetings (AMM)
    • 2024 Annual Member Meetings
  • Intersect voting events
    • 2025 - Intersect elections
      • April 2025 - Committee elections
        • Committees key info
          • Intersect Committee Elections X-Space Events
          • Application Form - Translations
            • Spanish
            • French
            • Japanese
            • Portuguese
            • Sinhala
        • Committee elections FAQs
        • April 2025 - Committee Election Results
          • Voting Results - audit info
      • Onboarding Page
    • 2024 - Intersect elections
      • October 2024 election results
  • Intersect Operational Services
    • Intersect Operational Services Overview
      • Procurement Management
      • Budget Process
    • 2025 Request For Proposal (RFP)
      • Open RFPs
        • Technical Steering Commitee
        • Product Committee
        • Open Source Committee
        • Civics Committee
          • Intersect Stake-Based Voting Tool
            • Requirements
            • Considerations
            • Application Process
        • Membership and Community Committee
        • Budget Committee
      • Eligibility criteria
      • Proposal evaluation criteria
      • Key terms
        • Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP)
        • CIP-1694
        • CIP-30
        • CIP-95
        • Voltaire GovTool
        • Governance Action (GA)
        • Anchor
        • Metadata (from Anchor)
        • Proposal
        • Proposal ID
        • Metadata Anchor
      • If your project is delayed
    • 2025 Delivery assurance contract updates
      • Delivery Assurance quarterly reports
      • Technical steering committee contracts
        • Tweag - Ouroborus Peras protocol
      • Membership & Community committee contracts
        • Japan Community Hub Interim Contract
        • LATAM Community Hub Interim Contract
        • Sri Lanka Community Hub Interim Contract
        • Africa Community Hub Interim Contract
        • North America Community Hub Interim Contract
        • Europe Community Hub Interim Contract
      • Civics Committee
      • Product committee
        • Dquadrant - GovTool Maintenance - Integrated Testing
        • We Deliver IT - GovTool Maintenance - Proposal Discussion pillar
        • Byron Network - GovTool maintenance - voting & delegation pillars
        • Bloxico Group - DevOps support for governance tooling
        • Bloxico Group - CC Portal Maintenance
        • DQuadrant - GovTool Maintenance
        • Byron Network - Constitutional Committee Voting Tool
        • Lido Nation - GovTool Maintenance - Governance Action outcomes pillar
      • Budget committee
      • Growth & Marketing committee
      • Open source committee
        • Bitergia - Analytics Subscription
        • Developer Advocate - Udai Solanki
        • Developer Advocate - Suganya Raju
        • Developer Advocate - Bernard Sibanda
        • Developer Advocate - Aleksei Seregin
    • 2025 Template Contracts
    • 2024 Cardano Continuity contracts
      • Cardano continuity suppliers
        • Cardano continuity progress
          • 2024 Milestone completion reports
            • Milestone report Q1 2024
            • Milestone report Q2 2024
            • Milestone report Q3 2024
            • Open Source Developer Maturity Report May 2024
    • 2024 Intersect, CDH and Grant Contracts
      • 2024 Intersect Contracts
      • 2024 CDH Contracts
      • 2024 CDH Grants
        • Closed grants
          • Proposal discussion forum
            • Functional requirements
            • Non-functional requirements
            • Optional functions
            • Considerations
            • Key Terms and resources
          • DRep campaign platform
            • Functional requirements
            • Non-functional requirements
            • Optional features
            • Considerations
            • Key Terms and resources
          • Constitutional committee portal
            • Functional requirements
            • Non-functional requirements
            • Optional features
            • Considerations
            • Key terms and resources
          • Education - multimedia content
            • Non-functional requirements
              • Content creation: non-functional requirements
              • Software development: non-functional requirements
              • Open-source requirements
            • Optional features
            • Considerations
            • Key Terms and resources
          • Open category for Cardano governance
            • Functional requirements
            • Non-functional requirements
            • Considerations
            • Key Terms and resources
          • DRep Pioneering Program
          • Inclusion and Accessibility phase 1
            • Functional requirements
            • Non-functional requirements
            • Considerations
            • Key Terms and resources
          • DevOps for Governance Tools
            • Functional Requirements
            • How to apply
          • Constitutional workshops
            • Constitutional workshop guidelines
            • FAQs
            • Key terms and Resources
            • Your commitment as a host
            • Apply to become a constitutional workshop host
          • Local face-to-face events and meet-ups
          • GovTool Governance Action Outcome
            • Application
            • Functional Requirements
            • Non Functional Requirements
            • Considerations
            • Expected cost range
          • Constitutional Convention Voting Tool
            • Application
            • Functional Requirements
            • Non Functional Requirements
            • Expectations
          • Community hubs
          • Inclusion and Accessibility phase 2
            • A Grant to implement the translation tool
            • Grants to translate GovTool and the Constitutional Committee Portal
            • Grants to translate the Interim Constitution
  • Intersect Website and Member area
    • Roadmaps
      • Intersect website roadmap
      • Intersect member area roadmap
    • Releases
      • May 15th
      • May 29th
      • June 12th
      • August 6th
      • August 23rd
  • Intersect Team
    • Open positions
      • Finance Lead
      • Social media and content manager
    • Closed positions
      • Grant Analysis & Support
      • Financial Controller
      • Community Engagement Manager - Cardano constitution consultation
      • Senior Project Manager - Cardano Governance Tools
      • Design System Lead
      • Platform/DevOps Engineer
      • Programme Support
  • LEGAL
    • Intersect's bylaws
    • Policies and conditions
      • Intersect Internal Policies
        • Terms of Use
        • Cookie Policy
        • Conflict of Interest
        • Intellectual Property Rights Policy
      • Intersect Members Policies
        • Intersect Membership Agreements
          • Intersect Membership Agreement V1
        • Code of Conduct
        • Privacy Policy
        • Data Access and Confidentiality Policy
        • Transparent Dealings Policy
        • Robert's Rules of Order – Simplified
        • Intersect Open-Source Antitrust Statement
        • Intersect Open-Source Glossary
      • Intersect Administration Policies
  • Glossary
    • General Glossary
      • A
        • ada
      • C
        • Cardano Ballot
        • Cardano Civics Committee
        • Cardano Improvement Proposal
        • Cardano institutions
        • Cardano Problem Statement
        • Cardano repositories
        • Chang upgrade
        • CIP-30
        • CIP-95
        • CIP-1694
        • Constitution
        • Constitutional Committee
        • Constitutional Convention
      • D
        • Delegated Representatives (DReps)
      • G
        • Governance action
        • Governance tools
      • I
        • Interim Constitution
        • Intersect
        • Intersect Grants
      • M
        • Members-based organization
        • Minimum Viable On-Chain Governance
      • P
        • Parameter Committee
        • Project Catalyst
      • R
        • Ratification
      • S
        • SanchoNet
        • Stake Pool Operator
      • T
        • Technical Steering Committee
      • V
        • Voltaire
      • W
        • Working groups
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Major release process
  • 1. Continuity suppliers contribute to building a feature ready node which is a candidate for a major release
  • 2. Intersect steers coordination of major release activity through the Technical Steering Committee and working groups
  • 3. Continuity suppliers prove quality
  • 4. Testing conducted with SPOs, Exchanges and dApps
  • 5. Feedback and major issues resolved by continuity suppliers
  • 6. Community adoption

Was this helpful?

  1. Cardano
  2. Cardano hardforks and upgrades

Major release process

PreviousChang & Plomin upgradesNextQuality and feedback

Last updated 1 year ago

Was this helpful?

Please note that this overview is indicative of the process, some details have been omitted for simplicity and brevity. The process is also adaptable and subject to change. Also note that the process will change in the near future to reflect on-chain governance actions.

The following information is intended to provide the community an indicative overview of the major release process, major releases include such events as hard forks. In blockchain technology a hard fork is one of the most significant upgrades. It is a radical change in a blockchain protocol that affects the validity of blocks and transactions on the decentralized network.

The below provides an outline of the role different roles that Intersect committees, working groups and the community play in contributing to the major release process.

Major release process

1. Continuity suppliers contribute to building a feature ready node which is a candidate for a major release

Here’s what each component entails:
  • Ledger - updates the system that keeps track of all transactions, making sure it's ready to handle the new types of transactions that the hard fork may introduce.

  • Node - improves the core software of the blockchain to support enhanced features and performance.

  • Consensus - the rules for how transactions are verified across the network, ensuring everyone agrees on what is valid.

  • CLI (Command Line Interface) - makes it easier for developers to interact with the blockchain by enhancing the tools they use to deploy and manage their applications.

Together, these and other updates from the continuity suppliers ensure the new node is robust, secure, and reliable for release, setting a solid foundation for a major release such as a hard fork

2. Intersect steers coordination of major release activity through the Technical Steering Committee and working groups

Technical Steering Committee - ensures that governance of Cardano is based upon sound technical awareness and best practices. The committee is a rally point for key members, suppliers and third parties to coordinate delivery of development services to support the Cardano blockchain.

Intersect Hard Fork working group - the hard fork working group focuses on the details of the hard fork. They are made up of relevant experts in different technical areas to facilitate the coordination on behalf of the TSC.

3. Continuity suppliers prove quality

Continuity suppliers play a key role in making sure that new updates and changes to our software are of the highest quality before they go live.

  • Development - push via quality - the process starts in the development phase, where the main focus is on integrating quality right from the beginning. Instead of adding it later, quality is a priority from the start, which helps in building a more reliable and robust product.

  • Quality Reports - once the development integrates quality measures, the next step involves detailed quality reports. These reports are generated to assess the performance and reliability of the new updates.

4. Testing conducted with SPOs, Exchanges and dApps

When preparing for major updates such as hard forks, community feedback and preparation is essential. Key members are invited to working groups, all of the community is encouraged to provide feedback.

Here’s how different community members can contribute:
  • SPOs (Stake Pool Operators) - play a crucial role in maintaining the blockchain network. Testing with SPOs helps ensure that the new updates will work smoothly in the live network environment. It checks the stability and efficiency of the network from the perspective of those who operate the network nodes.

  • Wallets - are tested to ensure that they can safely and effectively manage and store the new types of transactions that might be introduced by the update. This testing helps prevent issues that could affect users' funds.

  • Exchanges - need to integrate seamlessly with any new blockchain features to allow for smooth trading and liquidity. Testing with exchanges ensures that they can handle transactions without any disruptions or security risks.

  • DApps (Decentralized Applications) - Since dApps operate directly on the blockchain, testing with dApps checks for compatibility issues and ensures that they continue to operate efficiently even after the updates are applied.

5. Feedback and major issues resolved by continuity suppliers

Feedback and issues are iteratively collected, triaged, categorised and resolved by the appropriate continuity suppliers.

Here's how feedback and issues are managed:
  • Collecting Feedback - continuity suppliers actively gather feedback from users, stakeholders, and the community. This feedback is essential as it provides insights into quality and what needs improvement.

  • Major Issues - using the feedback collected, continuity suppliers work to resolve all major issues that could disrupt the service or product performance. These could include technical issues, performance inefficiencies, or community deployment problems.

  • Resolving Issues - once major issues are identified, the suppliers work on resolving them promptly. They prioritize these issues based on their impact and complexity.

6. Community adoption

Once satisfactory time has passed, allowing major exchanges, SPOs and DApps to contribute to the quality process outlined and no high severity issues remain, a hard fork combinator event can be initiated - pull of the community via adoption.

A hard fork combinator event is a way to update a blockchain without splitting it into two separate paths. Unlike a regular hard fork, which usually creates a new branch of the blockchain and leaves the old one behind, a hard fork combinator blends multiple updates into one smooth process. This means the blockchain can introduce new features or rules without stopping the system or losing any of its history.

How this works?

For example, when the Cardano blockchain moved from the Byron system to the Shelley system in 2020, they used a hard fork combinator. This tool allowed them to keep all the old Byron information while starting to add new Shelley features. This gradual change helped everyone on the network move over to the new system smoothly, without having to switch all at once


We hope you find the above a useful, as an indicative summary of how the major release process works, and the part the community has to play in the process.

Release 1

play a crucial role in preparing for the upcoming hard fork by building a node that's ready for release.

Release 2

Intersect coordinates major releases, such as a hard fork, through its community led and associated working groups.

Release 3
Release 4
Release 5
Release 6

To read more about, and to contribute to, quality and feedback please go to the following article on our knowledge base:

Continuity suppliers
Technical Steering Committee
https://docs.intersectmbo.org/cardano-upgrades/quality-and-feedback
Indicative Major Release Process