Community voting for Catalyst Fund 12 is active, with 4,800 wallets casting over 180,000 votes, representing 1.6 billion ada. Voting ends on July 11, 2024, at 11:00 AM UTC. The Cardano Foundation published a beginner’s guide to blockchain on July 3, covering its basics, history, types, applications, and regulatory landscape. The “A Spotlight on Stake Pools” series features C3ETH, a pool focused on community and decentralization in the eastern hemisphere. The latest Developer Blog features an interview with Daniel Friedman, CEO of zenGate Global, discussing their platform Palmyra, which tokenizes commodities for transparency in trading. Other news includes confirmed global Constitution Workshop locations, the tentative agenda for the Cardano Summit 2024 in Dubai, Cardano’s adoption of the IBC Protocol for interoperability, and the latest Catalyst newsletter and Essential Cardano development update.

The Interim Constitution was released on June 21, 2024, serving as a temporary document until the Final Constitution is ratified by ada holders by early 2025. Drafting of the final constitution will involve global workshops and a Constitutional Convention. The Interim Constitutional Committee election ended on June 24, 2024, with results expected on June 26 after an audit. The Aiken team reports surpassing 1 million Mainnet transactions with Aiken smart contracts, contributing to 25% of all smart contract traffic. MinSwap completed its final audit on their new Aiken-based implementation, anticipating increased activity. A new full-time engineer, Riley, joins the team, with new libraries and features like property-based testing and backpassing being showcased in projects like Merkle-Patricia Forestry and Fortuna.

Today, June 10, 2024, is the final day to register for the Interim Constitutional Committee, which will uphold the interim Constitution during the Chang upgrade. The committee includes representatives from IOG, the Cardano Foundation, EMURGO, Intersect, and three community seats. Charles Hoskinson confirmed Cardano Node v9’s release this month, preceding the Chang Hard Fork. The “Spotlight on Stake Pools” series features Dmytro Stashenko of STAT stake pool. Other Cardano news includes updates from Vietnam Blockchain Week, MAV growth, and the Crypto Valley Conference.

On May 23, 2024, Cardano’s SanchoNet achieved a historic milestone by initiating its first hard fork using CIP-1694 governance. Intersect seeks community input for drafting the Cardano Constitution with workshops worldwide. The Cardano Foundation introduced the MACS algorithm for efficient coin selection on UTxO blockchains at the IEEE conference. Other news includes updates from Dr. Lars Brünjes, CNTools, RealFi, leaderlogs, Catalyst Working Group, and SanchoNet.

The Project Catalyst Fund12 proposal submission phase ended on May 13, 2024, with over 1200 proposals. Cardano Use Cases and Open categories can adjust proposals until May 16, with Community Review until June 6. Cardano Partners category proposals are due by June 6. The Cardano Foundation partnered with the Dubai Blockchain Center to launch a certification program on Cardano’s blockchain technology. Genius Yield’s Developer Blog highlights their Cardano-based DEX project. Other updates include #CardanoGirls, Cardano Builder Fest recap, governance actions, DRep Pioneer Program, and Cardano Summit 2024 early bird tickets.

The Cardano Foundation, with Blink Labs, dcSpark, Sundae Labs, and TxPipe, launched PRAGMA, an open-source association for blockchain software development, aiming to support Cardano projects. The “Spotlight on Stake Pools” features ZW3RK, led by Haskell expert Moritz, contributing to the Cardano ecosystem. Ambassador Stories highlights Tim Brückmann, a marketing expert behind IAMX. Other news includes BuilderFest in Toulouse, DRep and Fund12 Workshops, a Cardano Foundation survey on SPO activities, Frederik Gregaard’s discussion on Cardano’s Interim Constitution, and IOG’s X Space on decentralization and cross-chain interoperability.

Node version 8.10.0-pre is live on SanchoNet, including governance changes, Plutus v3 support, and updates for the Constitution Committee. This version should only be used on SanchoNet, which was recently respun. Frederik Gregaard highlights blockchain’s transformative potential, emphasizing five enablers: decentralized identities, zero-knowledge proofs, oracles, secure bridges, and smart legal contracts. Ha Nguyen, a Vietnamese Meetup Organizer, joins as an Ambassador, enhancing Cardano community engagement. Important updates include Project Catalyst’s new cancellation policy and various Cardano-related events.

Last week, the "Cardano Girls 59" video released on March 25, 2024, went viral, uniting the Cardano community and highlighting the importance of female participation and collaboration. A V2 of the series is also available. Cardano was nominated for ‘Layer-1 Solution of the Year’ at the Blockchain Life Awards 2024, with voting open until April 11. Project Catalyst Fund12 will launch in Barcelona on April 26, featuring workshops and a launch party, with online streaming available. Other news includes a spotlight on Stake Pool ABLE, a new bug bounty program with Immunefi, and a strategic partnership between Emurgo and Encryptus.

The Cardano Summit 2024 will be held in Dubai, UAE, from October 23-24, aiming to connect global blockchain enthusiasts and foster innovation. Cardano node version 8.9.0 has been released, introducing Genesis Lite and addressing the "Blocks from the Future" issue. The "Spotlight on Stake Pools" series features ABLE, led by Mike Hornan, highlighting its educational initiatives and contributions. Other news includes CEO Frederik Gregaard's reflections on 2023, a governance event in Tokyo, the Cardano Foundation's redesigned website, insights from the Aiken Team, and a Cardano Hackathon in Berlin on July 26-27.

On March 1, 2024, at 15:13:47 CET, Cardano celebrated its 10 millionth block, minted by JAPAN4 pool. This milestone highlights the community's dedication since Shelley in 2020. The Edinburgh Decentralization Index (EDI) released dashboards showing Cardano's superior decentralization, with a Nakamoto coefficient of 58, compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum's 2. The Japanese Cardano community hosted a successful booth at Japan Web 3 Week Tokyo, with future events planned. Other news includes Rejuve’s decentralized aging research, IOG's new stablecoin XSY, CIP-1694 governance feature testing on SanchoNet, and Cryptoheadz's Cardano introduction event in California.