Established by a group of leading technical contributors to the Cardano ecosystem, CDEC is a non-exclusive group that values diverse contributions. Over recent months, more than 80 Cardano development organizations have discussed their potential contribution and participation of the cooperative.
The founding participants include:
And this is just the start. Over recent months, CDEC has approached more than 80 Cardano development organizations to discuss involvement with CDEC. The intent is to grow CDEC over time, including teams delivering key ecosystem infrastructure and open-source tools. CDEC will announce further participants over the weeks ahead as more contributors join.
Together, CDEC aims to provide a cooperative approach to advancing Cardano’s technical roadmap while fostering innovation and aligning with the community's vision, supporting each other as we navigate and contribute to Cardano’s new governance processes while ensuring accountability to the community that shapes its future.
As projects and companies deeply invested in advancing Cardano’s technical development, we are committed to aligning our efforts with the broader community’s needs and vision. The principles of transparency and accountability drive collaboration that benefits the entire Cardano ecosystem.
Our mission and objectives:
Enhance supplier diversity: expanding the number and diversity of contributors strengthens Cardano’s resilience and robustness. We promote openness and transparency through participation in Intersect’s fair tender procedures, promoting equal opportunities for all. Our goal is to foster healthy competition within the ecosystem, thereby creating a more inclusive and dynamic environment.
Promote technical knowledge sharing and growth: by encouraging participants to bring resources, expertise, and innovative ideas to the table, we aim to address key challenges in Cardano’s core infrastructure and ecosystem tooling. We plan to support new contributors by facilitating mentorship opportunities and public knowledge transfer to create an environment where more developers can contribute meaningfully to Cardano’s advancement.
Advocate for sustainable funding: we plan to advocate to DReps and Intersect to provide funding opportunities from the Cardano treasury for core development and critical ecosystem infrastructure projects and tooling. Additionally, we plan to explore support options to help contributors map paths to sustainable funding strategies, ensuring the continuity and prioritization of enhancements that drive value to the Cardano ecosystem.
Support strategic research: we aim to develop and socialize strategic research across thematic areas to tackle critical issues, drive technological advancements, and enhance Cardano’s capabilities, adoption, and global impact.
In the spirit of broad collaboration across the Cardano ecosystem, CDEC operates in close alignment with Intersect and the community. Our operational framework is built on collaboration, governance, and structured processes to ensure effective and accountable progress.
Collaboration with Intersect, DReps, and broader community objectives
CDEC plans to engage with and advise relevant Intersect committees, working groups, and DReps to support and complement their initiatives.
CDEC will not participate in decision-making within Intersect's governance structure. However, CDEC participants may independently participate in, lead, or establish new initiatives within Intersect's committee and working group structures.
We plan to contribute to Cardano’s product strategies and advocate for sustainable funding opportunities that align with the community’s long-term goals. We intend to work with other ecosystem participants, facilitating cohesive progress towards shared objectives.
CDEC governance and decision-making
CDEC is in the process of adding new contributors and developing governance structures that prioritize fairness, transparency, and accountability. We are dedicated to fostering opportunities for contributors to work together and ensuring alignment with Cardano’s decentralized principles. Our collaboration with Intersect will aid in upholding high standards of integrity. As our governance, oversight, and decision-making processes take shape, we will provide updates to maintain clarity and transparency for all stakeholders.
CDEC is dedicated to enhancing the Cardano ecosystem through a variety of strategic initiatives. Our key contributions may include:
- Supporting Cardano core infrastructure
Ensuring the blockchain’s resilience and continuity by accelerating the development of strategic roadmap milestones while maintaining high performance and security standards.
- Advancing the Cardano Improvement Proposal process
Actively engaging with the CIP process to support new editors and contributors, streamlining proposal improvements, and fostering a collaborative environment for ecosystem development.
- Promoting client & contributor diversity
Enhancing network resilience by encouraging diverse architectures and innovative development approaches, thereby strengthening the overall robustness of the Cardano network.
- Fostering adjacent technologies
Helping participants prioritize the development of essential tools, APIs, programming languages, and other foundational technologies to empower developers and expand Cardano’s capabilities.
- Guiding and supporting new participants
Assisting new contributors in navigating governance and technical development processes, facilitating their understanding of the ecosystem’s roadmap, and providing resources for effective collaboration.
- Driving strategic research and product strategy
Providing a platform to allow participants to collaborate with relevant committees to deliver and socialize research and innovation workstreams, and to promote state-of-the-art engineering solutions to support technological advancements. Additionally, we will facilitate opportunities for participating in various global product strategy/development workshops that should bring together leading minds to collectively ideate and determine future technical enhancements for Cardano for 2026 and beyond.
Predictability with accountability
The Cardano treasury serves as a flexible funding layer that supports ecosystem growth and technology development. While Catalyst funding is vital for pilot projects and seed initiatives, there is a clear need for sustainable, longer-term funding solutions to ensure the continuity of essential initiatives.
As described by Intersect, its annual budget process is designed to support long-term strategies for key technical and non-technical projects and initiatives, enabling larger and more complex efforts that exceed Catalyst's scope. Funding opportunities and priorities will be determined by community consensus and priorities. This model should provide predictable funding for prioritized initiatives and growth while holding funding recipients accountable for their successful delivery.
In 2025, CDEC will encourage opportunities for participants to connect with Intersect and DReps to actively pursue funding opportunities. CDEC will promote opportunities for some of the leading technical contributors in the ecosystem to collaborate where they deem beneficial.
CDEC Funding
Currently, the administration and facilitation of CDEC are carried out on a voluntary basis by its participants, and CDEC does not plan to seek funding for its operations as a group. However, it may seek minimal funding for logistical or administrative support in the future, if necessary. Any such funding would be pursued with transparency and in collaboration with the community.
Many CDEC participants intend to seek funding from the Cardano Treasury to support their technical development contributions. These efforts will align with Intersect’s Committee and Working Group initiatives and funding processes. CDEC will provide guidance to participants to assure that their funding requests are designed to advance broader ecosystem goals and comply with Intersect’s governance and accountability standards. Funding sought by participants will be for the specific projects and initiatives being proposed by such participants. Such funds will not go towards any of CDEC’s administrative or operational expenses.