The ledger era of Cardano focused on on-chain governance. Conway introduces DReps, the Constitutional Committee, and the formal governance actions defined by CIP-1694, turning the Voltaire roadmap phase into something users can interact with directly.
The era is rolled out through a series of hard forks rather than a single switch: Chang 1 activated it on September 1, 2024; Plomin followed on January 29, 2025; further hard forks within the era are planned.
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- ChangThe hard fork on September 1, 2024 that activated the Conway era and brought CIP-1694 governance live on Cardano.View term
- PlominThe Conway-era hard fork on January 29, 2025 that turned on the remaining CIP-1694 governance actions.View term
- CIP-1694The Cardano Improvement Proposal that defines Cardano's on-chain governance system, introducing DReps, the Constitutional Committee, and formal governance actions.View term
- VoltaireThe fifth roadmap phase of Cardano development, focused on governance and treasury management.View term
- Governance ActionA formal proposal submitted on-chain for the Cardano community to vote on.View term
- DRepA representative that ada holders delegate their on-chain voting power to, so the DRep votes on governance actions on their behalf; like choosing someone to represent your interests in parliament.View term