FAQs
ADA Price Volatility
What happens if I am not able to complete my proposal due to lack of funds, caused by ADA price volatility?
As a proposal owner under Intersects administration, we would encourage you to come forward for a discussion, each vendor and proposal is different and has unique circumstances.
Intersect does not hold contingencies on behalf of the treasury or DReps, so cannot guarantee additional funds unilaterally, however we are keen to understand the unique challenges faced, at the very least so improvement can be suggested for subsequent budget cycles.
Why were proposals submitted in the 2025 budget cycle asked to provide a USD equivalent and/or spot rate?
Proposal owners were asked to provide a spot rate or fiat cost for proposals to make comparison between proposals for DReps easier. Unfortunately this provides no guarantee in the treasury withdrawal action mechanism for any shortfall in these rates or conversions.
What happens if the price of ADA increases?
Any upside seen in the ADA price is at the prerogative of the vendor. Treasury withdrawals, unless explicitly stated as part of their withdrawal terms, are in ADA, not ADA at a rate or of equivalent fiat value. Vendors may choose to return excess funds to the treasury, Intersect can support the advertisement and amplification of any such action.
Is there professional financial management of treasury ADA?
Professional financial management of treasury ADA by Intersect, to account for potential volatility, received significant negative feedback in the lead up to the 2025 budget cycle so was not pursued or included as a service offered by Intersect.
Administration Fee
What is the new Administration Fee and why is it being introduced?
A 3% administration fee will be applied to treasury withdrawals that Intersect administers from 2026 onward. It is being introduced to ensure administration services are available year‑round and can scale with the volume of funded work, rather than relying on a fixed annual budget.
Does this Administration fee reduce the amount I receive as a vendor?
The fee is deducted from the approved treasury withdrawal before disbursement.
The administration fee supports the operational services required to deliver your project successfully. This includes milestone oversight and verification, third‑party technical spot check reviews, vendor coordination, transparent reporting, maintenance of dashboards and tracking tools, continuous improvement work, and the full procurement, contracting, and smart contract disbursement process. These activities ensure a consistent and reliable service for all funded teams across the ecosystem.
Does this apply to my existing contract?
The fee applies to treasury withdrawals administered from 2026 onward. Contract‑specific details will be communicated during onboarding or contract updates.
Will this change how I plan or deliver my milestones?
Your delivery process remains the same. The fee simply ensures the operational support behind it is consistently available. Please reach out to your Delivery Assurance contact for clarification.
Assets
Can I receive payment in Stablecoins or any other asset?
During 2025 and leading into 2026, ada was the only asset option avialable to vendors. As od 1st June 2026, Intersect now offers an optional stablecoin conversion service for vendors who wish to receive their smart contract payments in stablecoins rather than ADA. This service is designed to give vendors a way to hedge against ADA price volatility, but it is optional. The default, and primary, approach remains ADA-first.
Contracts
What is the operational difference between a Work Package and a milestone?
Work Packages group related activities or deliverables within a proposal (useful for vendors with multiple work streams). Milestones are the specific, verifiable outputs inside a Work Package that trigger milestone evidence and payment.
Can milestones inside the same Work Package be paid independently?
Yes. Milestones can be executed and funded independently and out of order unless a milestone is dependency on another milestone’s completion.
If I need multiple initiatives to run in parallel, should they be separate Work Packages
You can either place them as independent milestones (with no dependencies) in the same Work Package or put them in separate Work Packages.
How are payments handled under Intersect administration - upfront or milestone-based?
Payments are provisioned strictly on a milestone basis. Each milestone ties to a payment amount and release condition; funds unlock according to the smart-contract payment schedule.
How do I withdraw funds once a milestone payment unlocks?
Once funds become available, connect with the same wallet used to sign the smart contract and withdraw.
Delegating
Can a Smart Contract be delegated to a DRep?
No, smart contracts cannot delegate to a DRep. Smart Contracts are aligned with constitutional requirements for treasury funds, they can only be delegated to abstain.
Can a Smart Contract receive staking rewards?
No, a smart contract cannot receive staking rewards. SPO delegation is excluded in the smart contract code, any attempt to delegate would fail. Which can be seen here: https://github.com/SundaeSwap-finance/treasury-contracts/blob/main/validators/treasury.ak#L108
Third Party Assurance
What happens if my Third Party Assurer is no longer able to review the milestones?
Where practically possible Intersect asks that all vendors provide Third Party Assurance of the work. You may choose another Third Party Assurer throughout the duration of the contract, if aligned with the Delivery Assurance team.
Who is an appropriate Third Party Assurer?
Considering the range of proposals under administration there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The Third Party Assurer must be someone who is technically competent to properly review and attest that the work has been completed as per the acceptance criteria in the contract, this could be an individual or someone on behalf of an organisation.
Whoever you decide to be your Third Party Assurer must be informed and agree to do this. Technical or software based proposals must comply with Intersects Technical Review Policy. Proposals which affect the core node must also consult the Cardano constitution for additional guardrails. Intersects Delivery Assurance team may look for community verified success for any project.
Some of the things we will look for are:
Are there open feedback loops with the community?
Open issue and bug tracking, are these being acted upon in a timely manner?
Are proposals being developed openly through test-nets or through prototyping, so progress can be verified?
Have these prototypes and test-net versions had adoption and use?
Does documentation exist?
Has the community been used to help set or confirm direction (involvement in and use of Cardano Improvement Proposals, Cardano Problem Statements and other forums)?
Are there open public communications between the vendors and community?
There are instances where Intersect will accept community based evidence, where a vendor can demonstrate that the community has been intrinsically involved in verifying the quality of the deliverables, such as the bullet points above.
Wallets
What wallet requirements do I need to be able to withdraw payments?
The wallet and credentials used to withdraw funds from the PSSC vendor smart contracts will incur a standard transaction fee and need enough collateral to guarantee the withdrawal transaction. Attempting to withdraw a matured milestone payment using a wallet with 0 (zero) ADA will fail.
Issue with Yoroi
There is currently a known issue with Yoroi wallet and compatibility with these smart contracts. Yoroi wallet refuses to sign a transaction for which you are a required signer, but not a participant via the inputs; this means that any vendors using Yoroi will be unable to sign the transactions required for smart contracts until such time this is resolved. Vendors are asked to provide alternatives to Yoroi for the current smart contract deployments. The Yoroi team are aware of this issue and working on a fix.
I have an issue submitting a Transaction
Please ensure your Ledger firmware is up to date, as outdated firmware may prevent you from submitting transactions. The Administration Portal is fully CIP-30 compliant.
If you have any suggestions or feedback that you would like to provide to Intersect, please contact us at operational-services@intersectmbo.org.
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