Intersect Plan Would Let Cardano Budget Stewards Seek Treasury Funds

Intersect's proposed 2027 Cardano treasury process would give designated organizations a role in shaping domain strategies and budgets, while allowing them to seek funding in those areas and leaving spending decisions to delegated representatives (DReps).

The plan divides the budget into seven domains. Intersect would steward Core Development and Maintenance, Applied Research, and Governance Coordination. PRAGMA would oversee Developer Support, while the Cardano Foundation would oversee Marketing, Analysis & Events and Adoption & Ecosystem Growth. Open Contributions would have no designated steward.

Stewards would outline strategies, recommend budget caps in U.S. dollars and establish how funding requests are gathered and assessed. They could submit their own requests or help other applicants prepare theirs.

A steward would have no guaranteed funding from its domain, but would not be barred from applying. The plan calls for transparent disclosure and suitable safeguards when a steward seeks funds, without specifying those protections. A shared public code of conduct is also planned.

DReps would retain decisions on annual objectives, domain budgets, steward appointments and treasury withdrawals. The process could not be enforced directly on-chain, so it would depend on DReps’ commitment to follow it.

The Open Contributions allocation remains unquantified: the plan sets neither a dollar amount nor a guaranteed share of the Net Change Limit (NCL), which caps the amount or percentage of ADA that may be withdrawn from Cardano’s treasury during a period. The planned NCL action would include a reasonable allowance for Open Contributions. The proposal says an allowance for Open Contributions would be developed alongside the other budgets. DRep SIPO proposed setting aside a dedicated NCL share for Open Contributions.

The tentative schedule sets Nov. 10 as the target for submitting an initial concept information action, with a goal of at least 51% DRep support. A later round, planned for December 2026 or January 2027, would seek at least 60% support for each domain action and 51% for the NCL action. These are proposed targets, not vote results.

The process would be a trial for 2027 only if approved. It would not release treasury funds by itself; withdrawals would still need separate on-chain governance actions within the NCL. The first step is the tentative Nov. 10 submission.