Plutus V3

Regarding governance protocol parameter update action

b2a591ac219ce6dcca5847e0248015209c7cb0436aa6bd6863d0c1f152a60bc5#0

Summary

The Intersect Constitutional Council votes the action to be Constitutional.

rationaleStatement

Rationale:

Understanding of facts

The proposal is of the Protocol Parameter Update Governance Action type. It is a proposal to update the Plutus V3 Cost Model to enable new Plutus primitives in Protocol Version 10. It is the Intersect Constitutional Council’s understanding that the proposal has been recommended by the Intersect Parameter Committee (see https://forum.cardano.org/t/oct-10-2024-voltaire-era-parameter-committee-intermediate-state/137361) and subsequently ratified unanimously by the Intersect Technical Steering Committee. The Parameter Update states that existing on-chain settings will not be changed by this action and that the proposed changes only apply to the enabling of new primitives that will become available following the next hard fork, without this update, the new primitives will not be available for use.

The format of the proposal

The Protocol Parameter Update (b2a591ac219ce6dcca5847e0248015209c7cb0436aa6bd6863d0c1f152a60bc5#0) is a resubmission of a previous Protocol Parameter Update action (51f495aa23f4b3b3aa90afde4a0e67823bb7ac4ac65f5ffbb138373b863f2f74#0). As a result of the previous action containing a submission error, the on-chain / off-chain metadata was intentionally broken to discourage any votes in favour of the proposal.

This updated submission is a thorough proposal that now satisfies the requirements laid out in Article III Section 6 paragraphs 1-3. It is “written in a standardised and legible format with a URL and hash linked to documented off-chain content”. The on-chain /off-chain versions of the proposal match (unlike the previously broken proposal) and as per the Interim Constitution, the Intersect Constitutional Council agrees that the Protocol Parameter Change governance action has “undergone sufficient technical review and scrutiny” in conjunction with “addressing any expected impacts on the Cardano Blockchain ecosystem”. The content of the proposal

The Protocol Parameter Update action states that this proposal does not make any changes to existing chain parameter settings but proposes additions to the already existing Plutus V3 Cost Model in order to make new primitives available for use in Protocol Version 10. It should be noted that this proposal is also dependent on the next hard fork as a result. While this proposal may be ratified prior to the next hard fork, the primitives only become available following the change to Protocol Version 10. The proposal also acknowledges that the affected parameters cannot be checked by the automated guardrails script and provides a consistency statement pertaining to the relevant parameters (PCM-01, PCM-02 and PCM-03). A reversion plan has also been provided as part of the proposal, in the event of any unforeseen negative consequences. The changes made as a result of this proposal passing can be reverted by reinstating the previous Plutus Cost Model values and omitting any settings for the new primitives. Such a simple reversion plan can be seen as indicative of the low-risk nature of this particular Protocol Parameter Update action. Multiple supporting links have been provided at the end of the governance action.

Technical review While the Intersect Constitutional Council would usually prefer to seek out external expert opinion on technical proposals such as this one, the multiple supporting links provided in this instance have been deemed to provide enough corroborating sources to make a sufficient cross-referenced analysis of the proposal’s security and viability.

A small note on independence

While the governance action in question has been submitted by the Technical Steering Committee at Intersect, the Intersect Constitutional Council is an independent body consisting of community members separate from Intersect employees. Following on from internal discussions during the early months of its formation, the Council continues to evaluate and assert its independence during its weekly meetings. As such, the Intersect Constitutional Council is comfortable providing a Constitutional verdict on this action rather than merely abstaining with the intention of appearing neutral.

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counterargumentDiscussion

conclusion

The Intersect Constitutional Council votes the action to be Constitutional.

Conclusion

internalVote

"internalVote": {

"constitutional": 6,

"unconstitutional": 0,

"abstain": 0,

"didNotVote": 0

}

References