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Cardano has released the first mainnet node capable of passing the Chang 2 inter-era hard fork. This new update, dubbed Cardano Node 10.11, contains several improvements to the governance system, including support for Stake Pool Operators' (SPO) delegation to predefined voting options and auto-abstain DRep votes.

What to expect in second phase of Chang hard fork

According to an X post by Intersect, Cardano noted that the new update is taking the Layer-1 blockchain out of the technical bootstrapping phase and into full on-chain governance. This is a follow-up of the Chang hard fork upgrade designed to push Cardano into full decentralized governance.

It utilizes CIP-1694, which will terminate the current bootstrap governance phase. Notably, this decentralized governance began on Sept. 1 following the implementation of the first Chang hard fork upgrade. Alongside the latest node release are several improvements to the governance system. This includes support for SPO delegation to predefined voting options.

There is also allowance for new Plutus primitives defined in CIP-0122, CIP-0123 and CIP-0127. The other improvements found alongside the Cardano Node 10.11 update involve the ledger, CLI, API and networking code bases.

Here comes Cardano's Chang 2

In anticipation of this Chang 2, two days ago, Cardano node v10 was prereleased for testing. This phase requires five governance actions to be successfully enacted on-chain. During this bootstrap phase of governance, the Interim Constitution Committee (ICC) and SPOs are required to vote accordingly.

DReps are exempted from the voting exercise during the hard fork process. Their input is only required after Chang #2 is enacted. After the bootstrap phase, the decision to upgrade will rest on the shoulders of SPOs. This category would need to meet the required threshold in addition to “Yes” votes from ICC. An upgrade cannot follow until then.

This second phase of the Chang hard fork upgrade is scheduled for November.