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 was rolled out through a series of hard forks rather than a single switch. Chang opened it on September 1, 2024 (protocol version 9), Plomin followed on January 29, 2025 (version 10) and switched on the remaining governance actions, and van Rossem on July 18, 2026 (version 11) added new Plutus builtins and was the first hard fork ratified entirely through that governance process. The next hard fork, Dijkstra, opens a new ledger era and is targeted for late 2026.
Explore next
- 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
- van RossemThe Conway-era hard fork on July 18, 2026 (protocol version 11) that added new Plutus builtins and was the first Cardano upgrade ratified entirely through on-chain governance.View term
- DijkstraThe next Cardano ledger era and hard fork, named after Edsger Dijkstra. Its first phase, targeted for late 2026, brings Linear Leios and nested transactions, a second phase adds Peras.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