Pentad over time

Cardano's decentralized budget is funded in layers like a cake, from core governance institutions up to research and commercialization.

The priorities in order are the integrity of Cardano and making lawful holders whole, then the pentad's integrity, then preserving useful partnerships.

The pentad already serves as an implicit interim executive with special negotiating powers, and its remit could expand until new structures fork in.

Power broker middlemen between protocols and exchanges force compromises through backroom deals with centralized entities, and the pentad is running out of juice.

critical Says the pentad is running out of juice.

The Pentad is not inclusive, just five members doing finite, well scoped jobs like getting Circle, LayerZero, and Pyth into Cardano.

The Pentad secured LayerZero, Circle, and other long-requested integrations but was harshly criticized, and a committed stablecoin mint by another entity never happened.

Decentralizing requires bringing new blood in so differences become pragmatic compromises, as with Catalyst, the node diversity workshop, Intersect, and the Pentad.

Urges people to vote for the coming proposals and become Midnight ambassadors, since the Pentad only happened because the Midnight Foundation and Emurgo's Phil reconnected everyone.

Nested transactions are being built so fees can be paid in Night, and the Pentad was formed to get Midnight cheap LayerZero, Circle, Tether, and Oracle integrations.

Internally JJ, Dave De Ninno, Jerry Moroney, and others are preparing to call people about an index and inclusion criteria, write smart contracts, approach Pentad members for round two, and lock in value quickly to create a floor.

The team is turning the whiteboard into a formal Pentad proposal and an index as one unibus utility proposal, and hopes Builder Fest in Argentina yields a single unified infrastructure proposal instead of teams going it alone.

Recalls being furious over the ADA voucher when a Pentad organization stayed silent though it knew no money was stolen, but the community told him to work together, and 84 days later Circle was live with Phil making USDCX better.

Fragmented independent bidding cannot beat an all-of-ecosystem strategy, and points to the Pentad signing Circle where USDCX went from signature to running on the network in 84 days versus four years of decentralized bickering.

supportive Praises the Pentad's unified strategy over four years of decentralized bickering.

Intersect offers a members-based vote and the Pentad a delegated executive function, warning that mindsets of no one making money, total-community review, or not spending at low prices guarantee a loss like Algorand, Tezos, and EOS.

The treasury can gradually divest the index and repurchase ADA so the investment pays back in one to three years, building a diverse, competitive, better-governed utility layer, his 30,000-foot Pentad V2 proposal.

He will propose the next Pentad in coming months, and the ecosystem must debate then decide, because in a world of federated bank chains and threats to ban non-custodial wallets, losing this fight loses freedoms.

Pentad V1 built the roads: highways to Circle and soon LayerZero, tier one oracles, analytics recognition, and custodians, so Midnight could list on tier one exchanges as the first Cardano native asset.

A video does not commit the Pentad since he is one of five voices, and every member must absorb the 40 million dollar shortfall between the 58 million intent and today's 18 million value.

To win over VCs, Cardano must show it invests in itself and speaks with a unified voice, which the Pentad did by turning a 4 year deal into a live network integration in 84 days.

Pentad V2 should strategically invest in Cardano DApps that will not survive 12 to 24 months without it, via a weighted index the treasury owns, funding listings, roadmaps, and integrations.

The Pentad was a reset on delegated executive authority, delivering USDCX 84 days after signing with Circle, already the number one stablecoin on Cardano, plus LayerZero, Pyth, and Dune Analytics.

Everyone in the Pentad is at a loss, with the CF, Midnight Foundation, IOG, Emurgo, and Intersect facing out-of-pocket costs and multi-year liabilities, while IOG is not even a signer yet its leadership still expects reimbursement.

Iagon had a Fireblocks relationship and negotiated independently of the Pentad for a different integration, then asked to be reimbursed despite not being in the governance proposal.

The Pentad bundled a Midnight and a Cardano side to negotiate better prices, but at today's funding the Cardano integrations cost more than the value given, so the Midnight Foundation pays over 10 million out of pocket for its own integrations.

Gives an update on the Pentad amid Twitter talk of reimbursements, noting ADA was 83 cents when it started, making 70 million ADA worth 58 million dollars, now about 18 million.

The Pentad is doing well, with the Intersect board visiting IO offices to discuss 2026 goals, and fruitful CCI negotiations on tier one bridges and stablecoins.

supportive Says the Pentad is doing well, citing fruitful CCI negotiations.

Rallies the Cardano army, XRP nation, Bitcoiners, and Ethereum people to set aside grievances, noting the pentad now works together.

Closes noting the Pentad proposal is voluntary and he will keep closing integration deals, with announcements coming from Abu Dhabi Finance Week.

Midnight sits in the Pentad as the largest, best capitalized Cardano project that knows the asset and listing experience, voicing Snek and Hosky DeFi.

Input Output is restructuring internally into a single Cardano business unit to interface with the Pentad.

Each Pentad member's strength: Emurgo in Asia, Intersect as the members organization, Midnight as the commercial arm, and wants Pragma represented too.

Proposes the Pentad collectively bargain with expensive infrastructure providers so they cannot divide and conquer the ecosystem.

After the fork incident they created a Pentad of five entities: the Cardano Foundation, Emurgo, Input Output, the Midnight Foundation, and Intersect.

Introduces the Pentad series of whiteboard videos on how to achieve growth for the Cardano ecosystem in 2026.