Hardfork Initiation Submission Policy
This page shows the Hardfork Working Group's hardfork governance action submission policy
The hardfork working group maintains a 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 [email protected]
Raise an issue via Github/HF-WG-Documentation (or pull request - see how-to)
Request to join the working group by emailing your interest [email protected].
Mainnet Hardfork Initiation Governance Action Submission Criteria
Version: 0.2
This policy describes 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 CC, SPOs and DReps.
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 CC 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. Who in turn pass this recommendation to the Intersect Board.
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, tempo.vote, DRep Campaign, Cardano Governance Voting Tool, SyncAI
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
Preferably by the time of ratification the following metrics have been met and are present across the ecosystem. These are in addition to any 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
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
*Note DApp and Defi readiness is subjective. Different upgrades will affect the ecosystem in entirely different ways. The HFWG looks for evidence that trusted and mature ecosystem builders, where a level of expertise and experience are evidenced, have upgraded. This demonstrates 'the art of the possible’, which contributes to understanding ecosystem impact and timeline required, and also builds confidence a good level of testing has been undertaken.
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