Cardano SPO Vote Fails to Secure Mandate for k=1000

Cardano’s on-chain poll on increasing the k parameter ended on October 21 at the start of epoch 663.

Approximately 210.5 million ADA explicitly supported the proposal, well below the level required to establish a mandate from stake pool operators. The k parameter therefore remains at 500, and the current pool saturation level has not changed.

Only 2.2% of SPO Stake Voted Yes

The final count recorded 26 pools voting Yes, 48 voting No and one pool abstaining. Overall SPO turnout was approximately 9.8% of the registered voting stake.

Under the method defined in the governance action, Yes votes needed to represent more than 50% of the applicable active SPO stake. Explicit Abstain votes were excluded, while registered stake that did not vote remained in the denominator and reduced the Yes share.

Alongside approximately 210.5 million ADA supporting the proposal, about 1.91 billion ADA explicitly voted against it. A further 7.37 billion ADA of registered SPO stake did not participate and was treated as default No under the calculation, although no ballot was cast by those operators.

DReps could also vote and publish rationales, but their decisions did not determine whether an SPO mandate existed. The final DRep count included 44 Yes votes, 38 No votes and 49 abstentions.

What Raising Cardano’s k Parameter Would Change

The k parameter, also known as stakePoolTargetNum or nOpt, defines Cardano’s target number of fully saturated stake pools. It does not limit how many pools may operate or guarantee that each pool is controlled by a separate operator.

At k=500, the indicative saturation point is approximately 0.2% of delegated stake, or around 75 million ADA under current conditions. Raising the parameter to 1,000 would reduce that level to approximately 0.1%, or about 37.5 million ADA per pool.

Stake above the saturation point can still contribute to block production, but it does not generate additional maximum rewards for the pool. A lower threshold could therefore encourage delegators to move ADA away from saturated pools.

The change would not increase the total reward pool. It would alter how rewards are distributed across pools. Supporters argued that the lower saturation point could spread delegation more widely, while critics noted that large operators, exchanges and institutions can create additional pool identities. A higher k value would therefore not automatically result in more independent operators.

[NEWSBREAK]

Info Action Leaves k at 500

The poll was submitted as an Info Action and could not directly change Cardano’s protocol parameters. The 50% threshold was not enforced automatically by the protocol. It was the proposal’s published method for determining whether enough SPO support existed to advance a separate parameter change action.

Because that threshold was not reached, the outcome does not establish a mandate to raise k to 1,000. The proposal also specifies that the result cannot be interpreted as support for a different increase. Another value would require its own explicit approval process.

Cardano previously considered k=1000 in a 2023 SPO poll that also included changes to the minimum pool cost. Options containing k=1000 received a majority by pool count but not by delegated stake, leaving no clear standalone position on the parameter.

Any future attempt to change k would require a new protocol parameter governance action and the applicable approvals. Following the conclusion of this poll, k remains at 500 and Cardano’s existing pool saturation and staking reward rules remain in effect.