Cardano has finally launched its much-anticipated Chang Hard Fork. This development pushes the blockchain to the next level of decentralization, where the community gets to make decisions regarding the network.

As the hard fork is now live, ADA holders will get the power to vote on development proposals and also elect governance representatives.

The name “Chang” was inspired by Phil Inje Chang, the visionary behind Voltaire at IOHK. The new governance model removes the ability of the Cardano Foundation, Input Output Global (IOHK) and Emurgo to solely decide on hard fork or any other major upgrade implementation.

Cardano ecosystem will have three key bodies

The new Cardano governance model will have three key bodies. These are the constitutional committee, delegate representatives and stake pool operators.

The implementation of the hard fork is happening in two phases. The first phase is now live, which introduced the constitutional committee. This body holds the responsibility of overseeing the governance transition.

The second phase will launch in around 90 days. This will see the complete implementation of the new governance bodies.

Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, shared his excitement about the major milestone. In a video shared on X, Hoskinson spoke about Cardano’s journey and how it reached this position.

‟Now we are here today…a day where the entire ecosystem, the community, every holder of ADA stands shoulder to shoulder as equals and they all have a say in the future.”

– Charles Hoskinson

ADA price drops almost 3% after the hard for launch

Despite the major hard fork launch, the price of ADA hasn’t shown a positive trajectory. According to CoinGecko data, Cardano is down by almost 3% in the last 24 hours.

The major milestone has rather proven to be a sell-the-news event. ADA is ranked as the 12th largest crypto by market cap. ADA is also down by over 13% in the last seven days. Much of the downward trajectory is primarily because of the overall market condition.

Bitcoin has dropped to the $57,000 level while Ethereum is hovering around the $2,400 level. The global crypto market cap is also down by 1.88% and stands at $2.02 trillion.