IOG votes in the Interim Constitutional Commitee election

The elections for the interim Constitutional Committee have been taking place over the last week or so. Kudos to all of you picking up those Voltaire governance shovels and contributing towards another important step in Cardano governance!

We felt it important that IOG voted. And we wanted to vote as wisely and fairly as possible. When choosing a candidate, it’s critical to understand their experience and proficiency across several areas. So to make an informed choice, IOG employed various evaluation methodologies.

Exact science is very hard to apply here. However, to land upon its chosen candidates as objectively as possible, IOG deployed a methodology that analyzed candidates using aggregated data from multiple public inputs. Namely:

1. Registration questionnaire
2. X-Space
3. Public information via social media
4. Supplemental questionnaire on voting and credential management

Again, it's not an exact science. But by taking this approach, we hope to have removed as much subjectivity as possible, while helping add our support to a selection of strong candidates playing a key role in the Voltaire bootstrapping phase.

We waited to publish our votes (and share the results of our analysis) until voting had closed and results were audited. For transparency, the results of our analysis were as follows:

1. The Cardano Atlantic Council
2. Cardano Japan
3. Lloyd Duhon
4. Joshua Stone
5. Eastern Cardano Council
6. Johnny Kelly

Further, IOG voted with 24.4m ada. Thank you to every candidate who took part.

Here’s more on those skills we evaluated for each candidate.

Operations

We believe candidate should have a deep understanding of the committee's core purpose, the resources at its disposal, and the processes it follows.

• Purpose: knowing the committee's objectives, mission, and how it fits within the broader governance system.
• Resources: familiarity with the tools and technology available to the committee.
• Processes: awareness of standard operating procedures, workflows, and best practices that ensure smooth and effective operations.
• Credential management: security is paramount in managing credentials.
• Key generation: understand how to create secure cryptographic keys to protect sensitive information.
• Storage: know best practices for storing keys securely to prevent unauthorized access.
• Rotation: be skilled in rotating keys regularly to minimize the risk of breaches and maintain robust security.

Constitutional review and deliberation

Ensuring governance actions align with the constitution will require:

• Legal analysis: evaluating the constitutionality of proposed actions and policies.
• Constitutionality review: assessing whether actions comply with the Cardano Constitution, safeguarding against potential legal challenges.
• Deliberation: engaging in thoughtful discussion and analysis to support sound decision-making.

Voting

We believe that voting is a critical aspect of governance, and a candidate should be proficient in:

• On-chain voting: understanding the technical mechanics of casting votes on a blockchain to ensure transparency and integrity.
• Transaction metadata: producing vote metadata to justify the rationale for voting transparently.
• CC portal and tools: using relevant tools and portals to facilitate and manage the voting process efficiently.

Communications

We believe that transparent communication is key to building trust and legitimacy.

• Publishing rationale: clearly articulating the reasons behind votes and decisions for public understanding.
• Open deliberation: fostering an environment where deliberations are open and transparent, ensuring stakeholders can observe and understand the decision-making process.
• Institutional legitimacy: promoting practices that enhance the credibility and legitimacy of the governance institution.

The elections saw a strong field of candidates, and choosing wasn’t easy. Evaluating candidates against these criteria formed a very valuable part of our consideration. We hope to have played our part in recognizing individuals who are truly capable of advancing qualified and thoughtful governance for Cardano.