Cardano is governed by its community. This page documents the standards those roles already answer to, drawn from the Constitution and established rules, and shows network-wide health signals. It restates and aggregates; it does not set new rules or grade individuals.
Benchmarks here are ecosystem-wide. For data on specific DReps, committee members, or pools, follow the linked tools.
Standards by role
Who keeps Cardano governance accountable?
Select a role to understand its mandate, responsibilities, and how the community can verify its work.
- Delegated Representatives
- Constitutional Committee
- Stake Pool Operators
- Treasury-Funded Work
Delegated Representatives
Vote on governance actions on behalf of the ada holders who delegate to them.
Accountable for
- Publicly disclose any compensation received as a DRep in a timely manner, and never pay ada owners in exchange for delegation or their votes. A DRep may act in the interest of the ada owners who delegate to them. (Constitution, Article II Sections 2 and 4)
- Act within the Cardano Tenets and Guardrails. (Constitution, Article I)
What good looks like
- Publishes a rationale for how it votes.
- Keeps an up-to-date public profile.
- Votes consistently and discloses conflicts of interest.
Constitutional Committee
Rules on whether governance actions are constitutional; most actions cannot take effect on-chain without the committee's affirmation.
Accountable for
- Judge governance actions only on whether they are constitutional, so that what is enacted on-chain stays consistent with the Constitution. (Constitution, Article III Section 1)
- Work transparently, publish every decision, and cite the specific parts of the Constitution behind any vote that an action is unconstitutional. (Constitution, Article III Section 4)
- Disclose any compensation received for committee work in a timely manner. (Constitution, Article III Section 4)
What good looks like
- Explains the reasoning behind each constitutionality decision.
- Engages openly with the community about its process.
- Members disclose potential conflicts of interest.
Stake Pool Operators
Run the block-producing nodes that secure the network and vote on the governance actions reserved to stake pools.
Accountable for
- Vote on the actions reserved to stake pools: no confidence, committee updates, hard fork initiations, security-relevant parameter changes, and info actions. (Constitution, Article II Section 5)
- Stay within the Cardano Guardrails when voting on security-relevant changes. (Constitution, Article I Section 2)
What good looks like
- Runs reliable, well-configured infrastructure with high uptime.
- Understands running online infrastructure and Cardano's parameters and mechanisms.
- Publishes contact details and keeps pool metadata current.
- Takes part in the votes open to stake pools, sharing arguments and reasoning, on top of casting a vote.
Treasury-Funded Work
Receive ada from the Cardano Treasury to carry out work for the ecosystem, under the terms approved on-chain.
Accountable for
- Present the funding request in the standardized, transparent format, with a permanent rationale document anyone can review. (Constitution, Article II Section 6)
- State the purpose, timeline, costs, and refund conditions of the withdrawal, and disclose any treasury funding received in the previous 24 months. (Constitution, Article II Section 7)
- Fund independent audits and name administrators who track how the ada is spent and whether the deliverables are met. (Constitution, Article II Section 7)
- Stay within the treasury's Net Change Limit, the cap on how much ada can leave the treasury in a given period. (Constitution, Article II Section 7)
What good looks like
- Reports progress against milestones openly.
- Publishes how the funds were spent.
- Delivers what was proposed and returns unused funds where applicable.