• Cardano is expected to initiate the Chang fork this month, which will set the stage for the “Age of Voltaire,” introducing new features such as treasury management, governance, and decentralized voting.
• Voltaire will transition Cardano’s governance from IOHK to the ADA community, making the network fully decentralized and ushering in a new era for the entire blockchain ecosystem.

Since its launch in 2017, Cardano has always been meant to be a project for the people, by the people. However, it would always take time before the systems are in place for a fully decentralized network governed by its community. This reality is edging ever closer, and according to Charles Hoskinson, June will be the critical month that sets the foundation of the “Age of Voltaire.”

Cardano was designed to undergo five eras, each introducing new functionalities that make the network faster, more cost-efficient, more decentralized, and more secure. The first was Byron, which laid the foundation; then came Shelley, which focused on decentralization; third was Goguen, which built out smart contracts; and then it was the Basho era, where scaling was the main focus.

The fifth and final era is Voltaire, named after the famous 18th-century French philosopher and writer. This final era will iron out all the technical foundations to make Cardano a self-sustaining network with the introduction of the voting and treasury systems.

(Image courtesy of the Cardano website).

According to founder Hoskinson, the foundations are in place for the transition, and the upgrade could be later this month.

“It looks like June will be the month that Cardano Node will reach 9.0. This means that Cardano is Chang fork-ready and waiting for 70 percent of the SPOs to install the new node. Then, a hard fork can occur, pushing Cardano into the Age of Voltaire,” Hoskinson recently revealed, as Crypto News Flash reported.

Cardano Enters the Age of Voltaire

Voltaire is a significant leap for Cardano. According to Hoskinson, it’s “the most significant milestone in the history of Cardano and for the industry as a whole.”

He added:

Cardano will be a decentralized civilization spanning the entire world with millions of residents. We’ll have the most advanced blockchain governance system, annual budgets, a treasury, and the wisdom of our entire community to guide us.

Cardano will advance into the Age of Voltaire in a number of steps. First was the launch of Cardano Node 9.0, which set the stage for the Chang fork. Governance features will be the first to be implemented as laid out in the proposal CIP 1694, which ushers in decentralized voting. This will morph into other advanced features, such as proxy voting and treasury withdrawals. This will allow ADA holders to fund projects without the involvement of IOHK or the development team.

As with other upgrades, Voltaire won’t happen in isolation. Cardano conducts upgrades in parallel, not in sequential order. For instance, decentralized governance has been underway for months, affecting features such as smart contracts and scaling.

ADA could benefit greatly from Cardano’s transition into a fully decentralized ecosystem. The token currently trades at $0.426, dipping 1% in the past day for a $15.2 billion market cap. Trading volume has also dropped 10% to $462 million.

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