CIP-1694 Workshop Recap
March 23rd, 2023
By Addie Girouard
Innovation and progress are not possible without collaboration and dialogue, and the recent Cardano governance workshop was a perfect example of this. Led by key contributors and thought leaders in the community, participants engaged in a range of collaborative activities and discussions to refine and debate the on-chain governance system proposed in CIP-1694. Named after the year of Voltaire’s birth, this CIP-1694 workshop was the first in-person community gathering (hosted by the three founding entities) to discuss the draft CIP published in November.
Throughout the two-day event, attendees were encouraged to fully engage in the governance discussion and share their insights in an open and inclusive space. The uninterrupted listening exercise introduced by the facilitation team, Voltage Control, allowed participants to express their thoughts and opinions on the purpose for the workshop, centering the group and setting the tone for the rest of the gathering. The co-created purpose statement focused on defining a minimum viable governance (MVG) framework that will further unlock community contributions.
Day one started with a brief overview of CIP-1694, given by Kevin Hammond, followed by a short Q&A period. Attendees looked at the high-level topics of empowering participants, incentives for dReps and voters, and avoiding on-chain congestion. Participants explored key topic areas in the draft of CIP-1694, which provided small groups with an opportunity to delve deeper into key issues, surface questions, and identify insights.
On day two, open spaces were created as an opportunity for participants to choose their own discussion topics centered around community tooling. These parallel sessions explored security, proposers, voters, and developers, allowing everyone to take ownership of their learning and engage with topics most relevant to their interests. Later in the day, passionate discussions were held at each table around three critical CIP-1694 thresholds: protocol parameter updates, hard fork, and vote of no confidence.
At the end of each day, participants reflected on their shared experience, identifying their next steps and committing to taking action to propel their work forward. The commitment of participants to continue advancing the ecosystem by their work is inspiring. This workshop, and many others just like it that will take place in the months and years to come, will have a long-lasting, positive impact on Cardano.
- CIP-1694 Miro Boards
- 2 Day Workshop Recap Deck
- Video Roundtable Discussing On-Chain Governance and CIP-1694
The CIP-1694 workshop was not only productive, and a model for future community workshops, but it also highlighted the importance of collaboration and inclusivity in governance frameworks. Following the workshop, the draft CIP-1694 was updated in GitHub to reflect the output from the sessions. By working together, the community is building a resilient, inclusive, and transparent governance framework for Cardano. To join a community digital roundtable to review the workshop outputs with the attendees and CIP-1694 creators on Thursday March 30th at 15:00 UTC, please add this event to your calendar.
This was only the first workshop in a series that will continue across the ecosystem throughout 2023 to the launch of the next era of governance for the Cardano ecosystem. Ongoing workshops will provide a platform for anyone interested to contribute to shape the future of the protocol. Every voice and contribution matters, and so the attendees of the first workshop were acknowledged in CIP-1694, as will the future workshop attendees. The entire Cardano community looks forward to seeing the impact of the Voltaire governance era and is excited about the ongoing recursive processes from workshops to CIPs that will continue to foster innovation and progress in the Cardano ecosystem. Guided by a principles-first approach and led by the community, this new age of Cardano advances inclusive accountability for all participants in the ecosystem.
