One exciting concept that energizes blockchain enthusiasts is the idea that it doesn’t only decentralize the control of money and financial tools. It has the potential to transform other forms of power as well, thanks to the security and transparency inherent in blockchain.
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is a new idea that decision-making, work, and wealth could be shared among a collective in a new way, and it’s all made possible by blockchain, secure voting, and smart contracts. On a small scale, groups around the world are already running DAOs or trying to. Project Catalyst is an effort by Cardano to make history by creating a DAO that would span the globe, eventually putting decision-making control of the entire network into the hands of Cardano token holders.
There are many ways to participate in Project Catalyst - by reading this article, you are doing one of them: learning! Whether your education comes through “official” channels like the Cardano Foundation Blog, community websites like Lido Nation, Twitter Channels, and Spaces like Cardano over Coffee, podcasts, etc., it helps shape you into an informed electorate - way to go!
If you are brand new to Cardano, the next step might be to acquire some ADA and transfer it to a self-custody wallet (as opposed to leaving it in a wallet on a centralized exchange). If you’ve gotten that far: Welcome, citizen! You are a token-holding member of a diverse, idealistic community of dreamers, working to build a better future. You are ready to take the next step and vote.
Voting in Project Catalyst
Voting for new projects and proposals in Cardano’s Project Catalyst takes place roughly every three months. Voting takes place through the free phone app called “Catalyst Voting.” When you download and open the app, on-screen prompts will guide you through the steps to register, using a QR code to link to your Cardano wallet. This is necessary because you will vote with the power of your ADA.
At present, you must hold at least 500 ADA to qualify to vote. When you vote, you vote with the power of the ADA held in your registered wallet; 5000 ADA is 10x the voting power of 500. Of course, wallet balances are not static - users spend their ADA, acquire more, and move their tokens around for various reasons. To address this, Project Catalyst announces a “snapshot” date for every round of Project Catalyst. Whatever amount of ADA is in your registered wallet on the snapshot date will be your voting power for that round.
If you maintain more than one wallet, they can all be registered to vote. However, most users agree that juggling multiple registration QR codes and PINs, not to mention the actual task of voting from multiple accounts, is a tremendous hassle. Instead, many users pay attention to the snapshot date and send all their available ADA to one registered wallet in time for that one snapshot day. Once the snapshot is complete, the full voting power of their ADA is tied to that one wallet for that voting round, and they are free to put their ADA back where they prefer to have it.
When you register and participate in voting, you are compensated in ADA for voting. Payments however can only be sent to staked addresses. This is how Cardano knows where to send the voting rewards. Staking takes a few days, so plan to do it at least the week before you plan to register. If you are holding your ADA on an exchange like Coinbase or in a wallet without staking it, the whole blockchain suffers - but so do you. Your staked ADA not only helps secure the decentralized network but also earns you passive income. There’s really no downside, so get to it! You can pick any stake pool you want to delegate to, but we’d love it if you joined us here at LIDO (just search LIDO in your wallet’s staking tab or click the link below for 1-click staking from our website).
VOTING NEWS - Voter Registration and Snapshots
Registration for Fund 9 has closed, and the snapshot took place on August 4th, 2022.
If you missed it, start now to register for Fund 10!
Registration for Fund 10 is open until November 4th, 2022, with the snapshot also scheduled for that day.. (If you are already registered to vote, you don’t need to re-register for Fund 10.)
VOTING NEWS - Fund 9 Vote Delayed
Voting for the current round was originally scheduled to run from August 11-25, 2022. The vote has been delayed due to some Quality Assurance issues with the voting app. While the delay is regrettable, we will take the good with the bad. Most users have agreed that the voting app sorely needed some updates, and if it takes a little extra time to get it right… Well, that’s software for ya.
Voting is now scheduled to run from August 25-September 8, 2022. Get excited to see what new features the updated app brings us!
Rewards for good behavior?
As a last little treat, let us remind you that one of the clever design features of Cardano is that “good behavior” is always incentivized. We may be idealists, but we are realists as well - people will only participate if there’s something in it for them. Stake pool operators are rewarded, of course, but so are delegators. Proposal winners are rewarded for their work, of course, BUT SO ARE VOTERS! If you haven’t done it before, start voting in the next round, and enjoy that sweet dopamine hit when a little extra ADA is sent to your wallet after voting closes. Rumor has it that Fund 10 will introduce a new element to this equation - voters will have to vote (up or down) for a minimum number of projects before they qualify for remuneration. This means voters will have to spend a little time voting more broadly and not simply go in, vote for a couple of favorites, and leave. Stay tuned for details on this and other Project Catalyst news as it develops.
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