July 7th 2021 - The Algorand Foundation is excited to update the community on the progress of the Community Governance referendum. As detailed here, the voting requirement for ratification of the referendum proposal was 90% network adoption. This >90% network adoption level was achieved just before the weekend (on network round 14769258) and the community governance proposal is now considered to have been ratified by the network. We’d like to thank all the node runners of the network for displaying their clear enthusiasm for Community Governance by ratifying the proposal so quickly.
This now means that the first Algorand Community Governance period will begin on October 1st 2021. This is a unique and significant step in the decentralization of the Algorand network and the empowerment of the wider Algorand and Algo holding community. As outlined in the detailed Governance Proposal, responsibility for decision making on the 3.2Bn Algo AERP (Algorand Ecosystem Resource Pool) will now move into the hands of the global community of Algo holders. From October 1st, Governance rewards will launch, rewarding Algo holders who make a commitment to support the Algorand ecosystem and participate in voting.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of this shift to Community Governance for a Proof-of-Stake blockchain network such as Algorand. To have achieved Community Governance in just over 2 years is a testament to the rapidly growing and maturing Algorand ecosystem. By entrusting decision making on the full 3.2Bn AERP to the Algo holding community, the Algorand network has taken a radical step toward full decentralization.
Over the next 3 months, the Algorand Foundation will work with the community to finalize preparations for the roll-out of Community Governance including instructions on how to participate in voting, the timing of the Algo commitment process and how to claim rewards, etc. We will provide an update on progress towards the Governance launch every 2 to 3 weeks to ensure the community is fully informed.
From a consensus and network version upgrade perspective, the network has a one week buffer period before the new code will be executed. This means that consensus and the feature upgrades of the new version will be live on network round 14909258, which will be Friday 9th July 2021.
