Hardfork Initation Submission Policy

This page shows the Hardfork Working Group's hardfork governance action submission policy

The hardfork working group maintains an offical policy reflecting the ecosystem criteria that is required before they recommend submitting a hardfork initiation governance action.

The first iteration of this policy was developed and then followed by the working group for submission of the Plomin hardfork action.

The policy is maintained via the hf-wg-documentation/policies repository. We copy-paste the policy here for convenience.

To provide feedback on the policy you can

  • Email hard-fork@intersectmbo.org

  • Raise an issue via Github/HF-WG-Documentation (or pull request - see how-to)

  • Request to join the working group by emailing your interest hard-fork@intersectmbo.org.

Mainnet Hardfork Initiation Governance Action Submission Criteria

Version: 0.1

This policy describes specific metrics which the hardfork working group (HFWG) considers before recommending submission of a hardfork initiation governance action to Cardano mainnet.

This policy aims to apply to the most normal circumstances, special cases such as security upgrades may not necessarily apply.

Context

  • The hardfork working group can not decide if Cardano is ready to hardfork, this is up to the ICC, SPOs and DReps.

    • Historically, the working group could decide this, but we are now in the brave new world.

  • The HFWG can decide when to recommend the submission of a hardfork initiation action - When do we think we are ready for SPOs and the ICC to consider a hardfork?

  • The HFWG can recommend key indicators we would like to see met before a hardfork is ratified, these indicators can be forwarded to the voters for consideration.

  • The decision to recommend the submission of a hardfork action must be ratified by the Technical Steering Committee.

  • Submitting a hardfork does not guarantee the ratification and enactment of a hardfork.

Definitions

  • Full Release: A new release intended for use on Mainnet. Not a pre-release.

  • Hardfork Ready: A state of tooling as indicated by the builder.

Submission

Must see for submission

  • Full release of hardfork ready Cardano haskell node - available for at least one week.

    • The one week counter can be reset by breaking change releases.

  • Preview Testnet hardforked - 2 epochs (1 day epochs)

  • PreProd Testnet hardforked - no strict time limit.

  • Tooling readiness (full releases) - DB-Sync, cardano-wallet, Ogmios.

  • Engagement with all key stakeholders kicked-off - tooling, exchanges, wallets, dApps/Defi, ICC, DReps, SPOs.

Would like to see for submission

  • Preview Testnet hardforked - 3 epochs (1 day epochs)

  • PreProd Testnet hardforked - 2 epochs

  • Regular engagement with all key stakeholders - tooling, exchanges, wallets, dApps/Defi, ICC, DReps, SPOs.

  • Tooling Upgrades in-progress - all been reached out to and engaged:

    • Libraries - CSL, CML, JS-SDK, CTL, Mesh, lucid, Pallas, Aiken

    • Tools - Rosetta, GraphQL, CNTools, SPO scripts

    • High level tooling - Blockfrost, Maestro, Kiois, Demeter

    • Indexers - Kupo, Oura, Scrolls, Carp

    • Governance - GovTool, CC-Portal, DRep Campaign, tempo.vote

  • Block explorers - in-progress - Cexplorer, AdaStat, Cardanoscan, CF explorer

  • Exchange readiness - progress is shown, confirmation of tooling upgrades for the first few.

  • Wallet readiness - progress is shown.

  • DApp/Defi readiness - progress is shown.

  • SPO readiness - progress is shown.

Would like to see for ratification (WIP)

The idea for this section, is it matches the metrics tracked for Chang #1. These are in addition to the on-chain voting ratification requirements.

  • No major holidays or events - tech teams ready to respond and support to issues

  • Preview Testnet hardforked - 42 epochs (1 day epochs)

  • PreProd Testnet hardforked - 3 epochs

  • SPO readiness - 80% stake measure by pool tool.

  • Exchange readiness - 80% by liquidity.

  • DApp/Defi readiness - 80% of top 20 projects.

  • Tooling readiness - 80% of named tools.

  • Wallet readiness - 80% of top 15

Last updated