Open category for Cardano governance

This grant category closed on 28th March 2024.

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Following the introduction of on-chain governance by CIP-1694, the community will have new opportunities to engage in Cardano’s governance. However, the on-chain features are only a small part of the overall journey for the Cardano community to make informed and wise decisions. The “Open” grant category is available for members to propose new tools that have not already been funded through any other categories, are not adequately addressed, or are not built at all. These proposals should aim to create new features and complement other tools being built in the ecosystem.

Tools/features that have already been built, or funded to be built (and are therefore excluded from this category) include:

• Proposal discussion forum for off-chain proposal discussion and polling before on-chain governance action (GA) submission.

• GovTool features for registering as a Delegated Representative (DRep), delegating to a DRep (which will include a DRep explorer function), submitting GAs, viewing GAs, and voting on GAs.

• DRep campaign platform for DReps to build up their profile and provide updates to the ada holders who delegated to them

• Constitutional Committee portal to document the constitutional committee’s votes and rationale, and hold a copy of the current Cardano Constitution

• A metadata indexer to access and store all governance-related metadata posted online, and then serve that metadata whole, or in part via an API to apps that request it

• Hardware and software wallet providers who have already been offered funds to upgrade to the CIP-95 wallet standard

• Developer tools already offered funds to upgrade for Conway ledger era changes

• Tools from the community listed on Sancho.Network

Most requested Cardano governance tools

In the first half of 2023, the Cardano community hosted workshops across the globe to discuss CIP-1694 and the community tooling needed to support the new features that the CIP brings. Based on the responses gathered, we are providing a prioritized list of what could be addressed in this open category. While this list provides some direction, open-category grant proposals may cover any functionality that would improve the Cardano governance experience.

1. Cardano governance communications

   • Communication between DReps and delegators

   • Communication between stake pool operators (SPOs) and delegators

   • Enable Cardano community sentiment/polling related to governance

2. A mobile wallet upgraded to CIP-95

3. Enabling crowdfunding for governance-related deposits

   • Allow multiple actors to pool funds to meet the deposit amounts required for governance participation

   • Accommodate changing deposit amounts

4. Reputation tracking for DReps

5. Decentralized identifiers (DIDs) /KYC/ proof of address control for Cardano governing bodies (DReps, SPOs, and Constitutional Committee members)

6. Provide on and/or off-chain governance data or regular reporting

   • Multiple formats are relevant

     • APIs, long-term storage, processing, exports, and explorers

   • Historical and current state/live data

   • Governance analytics related to:

     • Proposals and governance actions

     • DReps’ support of proposals and governance actions

     • Delegated stake to each DRep

     • Aggregate treasury spend over time

     • Proposed treasury spend

     • Define and track DRep reputation

Alongside the tooling listed above, there was high demand for governance tools that work on mobile devices and limited data settings, and also for implementing governance features within wallets.