Cardano’s Voltaire Era Arrives: Chang Hard Fork Initiated with Node 9.1.0

• Cardano entered the Voltaire era with node 9.1.0 release.
• On-chain governance activated, empowering ADA holders.
• Chang hard fork imminent, advancing decentralization goals.

Cardano has officially entered its “Voltaire” era, a significant step towards achieving full decentralization and community governance.

Founder Charles Hoskinson announced the milestone on X (formerly Twitter), marking the completion of the network’s node 9.1.0 upgrade, which paves the way for the “Chang” hard fork and the implementation of key governance components.

The node 9.1.0 release was initially announced by Intersect, a member-based organization for Cardano. While Intersect acknowledged the release as a pivotal step toward bringing on-chain decision-making to Cardano, Hoskinson heralded it as the transition to the Voltaire era.

Earlier this month, Cardano released node 9.0.0, setting the stage for the Conway Ledger era. Key features of that upgrade included on-chain governance through SOP 1694, support for Plutus V1, support for Plutus script signature through SIP 69, and more.

During the upgrade announcement, Hoskinson stated that Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) would be responsible for independently testing the node and setting the upgrade date. He added that Cardano would move to the Chang era when a minimum of 70% of SPOs had upgraded. Commenting on the Chang hard fork’s potential to significantly impact the entire Cardano ecosystem, Intersect previously wrote:

“The Chang Upgrade affects the entire Cardano ecosystem, particularly Stake Pool Operators (SPOs), Exchanges, and Decentralized Applications (DApps). For the upgrade to proceed, the community must reach 70% of the SPOs upgraded and 85% of Exchange liquidity on the Chang mainnet candidate. This ensures a robust and coordinated transition to the new governance model.”

Notably, Cardano 9.1.0 boasts features that will enable the blockchain to undergo the imminent Chang hard fork. The new node includes multiple bug fixes and enhancements to the CLI and API. It also includes a “query treasury” command and the changes necessary to ensure compatibility with CIP69 and CIP119. One of the main changes in node 9.1.0 from the previous phase is the requirement of a Conway genesis file at startup.