Beyond MVG Project: February 2026 progress report

The Beyond MVG team successfully concludes Milestone 2, delivering a comprehensive collection of community insights and on-chain data correlation.

Author: The Beyond MVG team

Summary:

• The Beyond MVG team has completed its second major phase, focusing on the "who" and "what" of Cardano governance by engaging directly with the people running the ecosystem.

• Representative data-collection targets have been met, gathering feedback from DReps, SPOs, CC members, and community projects.

• Qualitative insights from surveys, community workshops, and interviews have been merged with year-long on-chain data (Epochs 537-609) to provide a validated "State of Governance" report outline.

Building on the foundational research from Milestone 1, the Beyond Minimum Viable Governance (Beyond MVG) project has now completed its collection and aggregation phase. This milestone was critical for transforming our measurement framework into actionable data through direct community engagement.

To ensure total transparency, we have collated the Workshop, Surveys, and Interviews results, providing a record of the community's input during this phase.

Data Collection Achievement

We have successfully reached our representative data sample goals across all key stakeholder groups:

Stakeholder Group	Participation Target Met
DReps	25+
SPOs	10
CC Members	5
Community Projects	10
Gov Tooling Providers	3

To achieve this, the project utilized multiple community hubs—including the DRep Newsletter, DRep Forum, and Intersect MBO channels—alongside professional networks like LinkedIn to ensure every corner of the ecosystem could contribute.

Timeline of Activities

Milestone 2 has been formally submitted to Intersect, with all acceptance criteria verified.

February 2026

• Community Workshops: A highlight of this milestone was the series of workshops held on January 27th, 29th, 31st, and February 18th, 2026. These sessions captured nuanced, personal experiences that hard data alone cannot reflect.

• On-Chain Correlation: We gathered data for each of the metrics laid out in the governance measurement framework.  The data maps governance behaviors over one-year to validate anecdotal feedback with technical evidence.

• Refined Report Outline: Utilizing structured survey forms and feedback from our X Space, we have synthesized a final "State of Governance" report outline grounded in validated stakeholder priorities.

You can review the work completed so far:

• Framework Documents: Review the Research and Governance Measurement Framework and Governance Metrics Manual

• Workshop, Surveys, and Interview Results: View the summary of what the community shared here.

• Report Outline: Review the community-driven revisions to the "State of Governance" report outline here.

Looking Ahead: Milestones 3 & 4

The analysis of the data gathered will be completed and published as part of Milestone 3. This will directly inform the final recommendations for the "State of Governance" report, ensuring they are data-driven and rooted in ecosystem experiences. Once the analysis is completed, the team will be hosting another set of collaborative workshops in April to share the analysis with the ecosystem to discuss and refine the top recommendations for improving Cardano’s governance.

Get involved

While this milestone has concluded, feedback remains the primary driver for the future of Cardano's governance. 

You can find all active documents and participation links here:

• Participation Links

We continue to value input at any stage of the project as we move into the data analysis phase.

Disclaimer: Project timelines and deliverables are subject to change based on community feedback and technical feasibility.