As Cardano’s governance matures, the need for robust, decentralized, and efficient innovation funding becomes mission-critical. Project Catalyst has already made significant strides, supporting well over 2,000 projects across 114 countries through more than 3 million on-chain decisions. However, to meet growing demand and ensure Cardano’s competitiveness, Catalyst must evolve.
Today, the Input Output Catalyst Team has submitted a comprehensive proposal for 12 months, addressing key challenges like operational efficiency, user experience friction, and enhancing decentralized governance. This proposal, totalling ₳69,459,000, aims to transform Catalyst into a unified, scalable, and an even more resilient platform.
Proposed three Core Initiatives for next 12 months:
- Catalyst Interface Design & Development (₳2,479,000):
- Deliver unified, device-agnostic Catalyst interfaces (using Flutter for cross-platform compatibility) covering the entire lifecycle: proposal submission, review, voting, DRep delegation, and milestone tracking. Integrate support for diverse funding models, including Cardano Native Tokens (CNTs) for governance and match-funding campaigns. Aim to significantly increase participation (targeting 30-50% growth) by improving accessibility and user experience, especially for mobile users.
- Production-Grade Decentralised Infrastructure via Hermes (₳2,680,000):
- Replace the current federated side-chain infrastructure with Hermes – a fully distributed, peer-to-peer governance engine using IPFS, LibP2P, and WASM. Enable parallel voting rounds, maintain privacy-preserving Cardano-based vote casting, greater transparency with historic voting data, and enhanced censorship resistance. Implement advanced governance mechanisms like Quadratic Voting and Time-Weighted Stake models. Empower developers to build custom governance dApps on this resilient public good infrastructure.
- F14-F16 Funding Rounds, Retroactive Public Goods Funding, & Fund Operations (₳64,300,000):
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Community Project Funding (₳60,000,000): Allocate across three rounds launched over 12 months (Fund14, 15, 16 - targeting ₳20M each) to support an estimated 500-700 new Cardano projects. Funding categories include: Cardano Concepts (early-stage), Cardano Partners & Products (later-stage/pilots), Cardano Open: Developers (open-source), and Cardano Open: Ecosystem (grassroots/community).
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Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) Pilot (₳1,000,000): Introduce a pilot program to reward completed, high-impact public goods like developer tools, educational content, and potentially regional contributions.
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Fund Operations (₳3,300,000): Cover the operational costs for managing the three funding rounds over 12 months, including the full cycle from launch and communications to compliance, cohort management, and data publishing.
Who’s Involved?
Delivery for Initiatives 1 & 2 will be led by the Catalyst Team at Input Output Global Inc (IOG), supported by experienced subcontracting partners like TXPipe and Globant among others. Fund administration (Initiative 3) will be handled by Catalyst Foundation Company (CFC), an independent foundation, with IOG acting as the administrator responsible for operational oversight and execution of community voting decisions.
Why It Matters
This proposal represents a strategic investment to mature Catalyst’s infrastructure and processes. By addressing current limitations, it aims to:
- Reliable ecosystem funding: Support 500-700 community projects and startups over 3 funding rounds of ₳20m each + pilot a new ₳1m Retroactive funding process
- Increase Efficiency: Streamline operations through automation and unified tooling, potentially reducing operating costs by up to 50% from 2026 onwards.
- Enhance Decentralization & Governance: Move to the fully decentralized Hermes P2P architecture and implement fairer voting mechanisms (QV, DReps).
- Improve Scalability & User Experience: Support concurrent funding rounds, diverse funding types, and provide a seamless, device-agnostic user journey.
- Boost Participation: Make Catalyst more accessible and engaging, aiming for 10,000+ active voting wallets.
Next Steps
The proposal is now live for DRep and committee appraisal. 
Gov Tool Link Here
This is a crucial proposal for Cardano’s ecosystem growth engine. We encourage the community to review it in detail, challenge assumptions, and contribute to refining the approach.
Transparency and Reporting: Catalyst Horizons Annual Report 2025
Alongside evaluating this future-focused proposal, the community can also reflect on the release of the Catalyst Horizons Annual Report 2025. This report provides comprehensive insights and data on what is great about Catalyst plus the outcomes and impact of projects funded in previous rounds, reinforcing our commitment to transparency and continuous improvement based on real-world results.
Read it here: http://projectcatalyst.io/horizons2025
Let’s Discuss!
Does this comprehensive proposal effectively address the key challenges facing Catalyst? What are your thoughts on the proposed funding categories (Concepts, Partners/Products, Open Dev, Open Eco) and the ₳1M RetroPGF pilot? How important are the planned infrastructure upgrades (Unified UX, Hermes P2P engine) for Catalyst’s future? What impact do you foresee from enhanced governance features like QV and DReps? What information inspires you most in the Catalyst Horizons report?
Come and engage in conversation with us at Catalyst Town Halls to discuss any and all of the points and proposed initiatives. Join us at @Catalyst_onX to stay up to date with each of these events and opportunities to share your voice.
Thank you to all DReps, contributors, committees (@IntersectMBO, etc.), and working groups involved in this inaugural budget process.
Let’s work together to build a more powerful, efficient, and decentralized innovation engine for Cardano.
– Catalyst Team at Input Output