The future of GovTool: Why it matters and what comes next

Cardano has entered a new chapter, a new dawn. With the implementation of CIP-1694 and the dawn of the Voltaire era, the community now has the power to shape the network’s future through on-chain governance. But power without access is meaningless. Participation in governance depends not just on protocol, but on accessibility.

GovTool was created to make Cardano’s governance system truly accessible and for the benefit of the public. It offers a simple, open source, non-commercial experience that empowers anyone in the ecosystem to participate directly. In the most recent budget round, however, the proposal to continue funding its active development did not receive enough support from the DReps. In this post, we’ll explore what GovTool is, why that decision matters, and what comes next.

Why Cardano needs a tool like GovTool

Cardano’s governance model aims to be decentralized, transparent, and community-driven. But to achieve that vision, it must also be inclusive. Most ada holders are not blockchain engineers or protocol experts. Without an easy way to engage, their voices risk being excluded from the decision-making process.

GovTool fills this gap. It enables ada holders to register as Delegated Representatives (DReps), view and delegate to a DRep, view all proposed Governance Actions, vote on proposals, submit new Governance Actions, and review results, all through a clean and intuitive interface. More than that, it’s community-owned, fully open-source, and deliberately non-commercial. Its purpose is to serve the ecosystem, not profit from it. It provides the broader Cardano community with:

• Reduced technical barriers - no need for CLI knowledge or custom wallet scripts to participate in governance.

• Encouraging broader participation - gives non-technical users a way to register, delegate, vote, and propose with confidence.

• Strengthening governance legitimacy - the more inclusive the participation, the stronger and more credible the outcomes.

• Preventing fragmentation - provides a single, unified experience across governance functions, rather than scattering them across third-party tools.

• Enabling safe experimentation - the platform supports users in practicing before taking actions on the mainnet by providing access to the Cardano preview and pre-prod networks.

• A basis for community development – by exposing stable APIs, the platform provides an easy way for developers to create their user interfaces or integrate governance into their applications.

Without a neutral, public-good platform like GovTool, we risk fragmenting participation or worse, privatizing it. And when governance participation becomes a product rather than a right, decentralization begins to break down.

What GovTool offers

GovTool is often mistakenly seen as simply a user interface, but it plays a much deeper role. It functions as both a practical interface and an enabler of broader participation, acting as a connective layer between tools and networks across Cardano governance.

Users can engage with the entire governance process through GovTool, from registering as a DRep or Direct Voter to delegating voting power, submitting proposals, casting votes, and tracking outcomes. The experience is intentionally designed to lower technical barriers and make participation straightforward at every stage.

Beyond the user-facing features, GovTool offers open APIs that are actively utilized by projects across the ecosystem, not only to integrate with the governance process but also as a flexible foundation for innovation. These APIs enable community developers to build upon GovTool, extend its capabilities, fork it entirely, or create entirely new interfaces for governance participation, thereby lowering the barrier to entry for both toolmakers and users.

It supports governance activity on Preview, Preprod, and Mainnet, enabling users to safely test and practice actions before committing them on-chain. This multi-network compatibility has been vital for onboarding new participants and supporting safe, iterative engagement. With an open design system, transparent analytics, and a maintained testing framework, GovTool is far more than a frontend. It’s a foundational platform that underpins Cardano’s move toward inclusive, accessible, and robust decentralized governance.

A community-built foundation

GovTool was not built by a single entity or developed with commercial interests in mind. It was created by a distributed group of contributors and coordinated through the Governance Tools Working Group. This community-led approach has allowed GovTool to grow in lockstep with the governance process itself, from early experiments on SanchoNet to full-featured proposal submission and voting support on mainnet.

At every stage, the focus has been on serving the community. Feedback has directly informed improvements to clarity, usability, and feature coverage. Recent updates have included enhanced proposal browsing, more detailed governance outcome displays, and expanded support for constitutional amendments, motions of no confidence, and budget proposals, all shaped by real user needs.

Why the funding vote didn’t pass

In the latest budget cycle, GovTool’s funding proposal was not approved by the DReps. Some found the original budget too high. Others were unaware of the tool’s deeper value or misunderstood its scope. A few raised concerns about the user experience or questioned whether a single tool should be responsible for such a significant portion of the governance process.

These concerns were heard – and they’re being acted on.

A revised proposal is now in development, featuring a tighter scope, reduced costs, and a more precise articulation of its value to both users and builders within the ecosystem. The goal is to maintain and improve what already works while addressing concerns and building trust.

The risk of losing GovTool

It’s important to clarify: GovTool will not vanish immediately without funding. As open-source software, it will remain available. But without active maintenance, it will fall behind, especially as the Cardano protocol continues to evolve. Bug fixes, new feature support, and critical integrations will stall, and we will have to rely on individual contributors acting as volunteers to keep the project moving forward.

More seriously, other projects that rely on GovTool’s APIs and backend infrastructure may lose key functionality. DReps and Direct Voters could find themselves forced to rely on more fragmented, less open tools. New users, who might otherwise have joined the governance process, could be discouraged by technical barriers or inconsistencies between platforms.

A unified experience matters. It lowers the barrier to entry, builds trust, and helps drive broader participation. Fragmentation, by contrast, risks making Cardano governance something only a few can engage in meaningfully.

Where we go from here

The teams behind GovTool are not giving up. A new proposal is being drafted that significantly reduces the original funding request while still securing the future of the tool.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll be hosting open forums, gathering feedback, publishing testimonials from ecosystem projects that rely on GovTool, and implementing updates that directly address user concerns. The revised proposal will reflect both the lessons of the last vote and the values of the Cardano community.

To ensure continuity while the community considers the new proposal, Intersect has committed to keeping GovTool available and functional through the end of 2025. This temporary bridge will give the ecosystem the time it needs to evaluate and support a long-term solution.

The next vote will not be a repeat, it will be a reboot!

How you can help

If you believe in open, inclusive, decentralized governance, your support matters. You can help GovTool continue to serve the Cardano community by:

• Sharing this blog with your peers and networks

• Joining upcoming discussions and X Spaces

• Helping correct misconceptions when you hear them

• Supporting the revised proposal when it is submitted.

+ If you’re a DRep, your vote has an impact. If you’re a builder, your voice helps shape the message. And if you’re an ada holder, this is your governance too - make sure your DRep intends to vote according to your wishes.

Govtool – Cardano’s governance enabler

GovTool is more than a tool; it provides a core foundation component for how Cardano governs itself. It ensures that governance remains in the hands of the many, not the few. It invites collaboration, encourages transparency, and reduces barriers to meaningful participation.

Whether you're a voter, a developer, a builder, or simply someone who cares about Cardano’s future, GovTool is part of your story.

With your support, we can maintain an open governance approach, ensuring the continuity of decentralized governance on Cardano.