Add Constitutional Committee Member - Christina

This governance action proposes to add an additional Constitutional Committee member through a community-initiated Update Committee action.

The proposal is submitted independently by community participants, in accordance with Cardano’s permissionless governance framework, and explicitly references the previously submitted Update Committee action whose purpose was to add Cardano Curia to the Constitutional Committee

By increasing the number of Constitutional Committee members above the minCommitteeSize parameter (currently set to 7), this action strengthens governance continuity and reduces the risk of ratification delays should a committee member resign or retire during the current mandate.

Permissionless On-Chain Governance

With the activation of full on-chain governance under CIP-1694, Cardano transitioned into a governance system where any Ada holder may submit governance actions, provided they comply with constitutional guardrails and ledger rules. This permissionless design ensures that governance is not limited to institutional processes, but remains open to direct community participation.

Context of the Snap Election

Intersect facilitated a snap election to fill a vacant Constitutional Committee seat following the resignation of a committee member. That process resulted in the selection and on-chain ratification of Cardano Curia through an Update Committee governance action.

During the off-chain snap election process facilitated by Intersect, the outcome between candidates Christina and Cardano Curia was exceptionally close. While Curia was duly selected and ratified through the established process, the narrow margin demonstrated substantial community support for Christina as well.

Governance Resilience

The protocol parameter minCommitteeSize is currently set to 7. When the number of active Constitutional Committee members falls below this threshold, governance actions requiring Constitutional Committee ratification cannot be approved.

Adding an additional committee member above this minimum threshold increases operational resilience. It ensures that, should another committee member step down or become inactive during the current mandate, the Constitutional Committee would remain capable of ratifying governance actions without interruption.

This proposal therefore seeks to reinforce governance continuity while remaining fully compliant with existing constitutional and ledger constraints.

In accordance with the Cardano Constitution, CIP-1694, and the permissionless nature of Cardano governance, this Update Committee governance action is submitted as a community-initiated proposal to allow an additional opportunity for representation where the off-chain electoral outcome was narrowly decided.

This action does not override, invalidate, or conflict with the previously submitted Update Committee action whose purpose was to add Cardano Curia to the Constitutional Committee. Instead, it explicitly references that governance action as its required previousGovActionId, ensuring strict ledger ordering and consistency.

By design, this governance action cannot be ratified unless the Curia Update Committee action has already been ratified. As a result, it is structurally incapable of negating or replacing the Curia outcome.

Permissionless Community Initiative

This proposal is submitted independently, on the author’s own accord, and is fully financed by community members. No institutional mandate is claimed or implied.

Non-Conflict and Ledger Safety

This governance action:

• References the Curia Update Committee action as its previousGovActionId
• Does not modify the Constitutional Committee voting threshold, which remains set at 67%
• Does not remove or replace any existing committee member
• Does not alter existing committee terms

If ratified, this action will add one additional Constitutional Committee member, leaving all previously enacted committee memberships and term expirations unchanged.

Proposed Committee Member

The candidate proposed by this governance action is Christina. The cold Constitutional Committee credential provided by the candidate is:

Term Length

If ratified, the term length for Christina will be set to the same expiration epoch as Cardano Curia, which is set to expire at epoch 653. This ensures fairness and consistency with the original term length established for all participating candidates during the snap election process.

Conclusion

This proposal reinforces Cardano’s governance resilience while respecting prior outcomes. It is submitted in the spirit of Cardano’s permissionless governance model. Regardless of the outcome, its purpose is to ensure that questions of representation are resolved transparently and on-chain, by the community itself.