Cardano, Solana highlight risks in on-chain governance

On Cardano, an Aug. 26 snapshot of the Update Constitutional Committee 2026 proposal showed 43% support from delegated representatives (DReps) against a required 67% threshold, and 15.1% support from stake pool operators versus a 51% requirement. Each group must clear its threshold independently; stronger performance by one group cannot offset a shortfall in the other.

Four committee terms are set to expire in epoch 799, and published materials identify Sept. 1 as the deadline to replace members. If the proposal fails, the constitutional committee would drop to three active members, below a five-member minimum reported for committee-dependent governance actions. That shortfall would not stop block production but would prevent the committee from ratifying actions that require its approval until membership is restored. Some project teams warned the disruption could affect timing of planned upgrades, including the Dijkstra update.

On Solana, validators may cast governance votes using the active stake delegated to them unless individual delegators override that choice. During an Aug. 26 snapshot of proposal SGP-0002, Validator Info showed about 104 million SOL represented in the tally: roughly 83.66 million For, 12.01 million Against and 8.32 million Abstain. Among votes that were not abstentions, support for the proposal was about 87.45%.

Validator Info listed 308 delegator voters who reassigned their voting weight; those overrides represented a small portion of the total stake in the tally. Delegators who do not act leave voting weight with their validators.

A publicly traded Solana treasury firm reported opposition to SGP-0002 and disclosed $2.512 million in staking revenue out of $2.526 million in total quarterly revenue, indicating staking accounted for about 99.4% of its reported income for the quarter. The proposal would accelerate disinflation, reducing projected issuance by about 18.9 million SOL over six years and bringing the protocol to a 1.5% terminal inflation rate in roughly 2.8 years instead of 5.7 years.

Public governance documents describe different passage rules. The Solana governance FAQ specifies a quorum requiring one-third of network stake to participate and two-thirds of participating stake to vote For. The proposal repository describes no participation quorum and requires two-thirds of For plus Against, excluding Abstain. Under the repository rule the Aug. 26 tally would meet the support threshold; under the FAQ test participation would fall short. The applicable rule for SGP-0002 remains unresolved.

The two networks apply delegation differently. Cardano requires separate approval from DReps and stake pool operators, creating two independent thresholds. Solana defaults votes to validators and allows delegators to remove their stake from a validator’s effective tally by overriding individual vote accounts.

Cardano must secure enough DRep and stake pool operator votes before the Sept. 1 deadline to avoid reduced committee capacity. Solana needs clarity on which governance rule governs SGP-0002 and on how much delegator override activity affects final outcomes.