Cardano Signs the First Hard Fork in Its History Fully Governed On-Chain

The evolution of blockchains now depends as much on their governance as on their technical advances. In this context, Cardano has just reached an important milestone with the activation of the Van Rossem update, presented as the first hard fork in its history wholly validated by an on-chain governance process. This evolution, deployed without network interruption, brings several improvements aimed at developers, strengthens the security of the protocol, and prepares the next technical developments of the ecosystem.

Cardano Reaches a New Milestone With a Hard Fork Validated by On-Chain Governance

On July 18, 2026, Cardano activated the Van Rossem hard fork, evolving the network to version 11 of its protocol. The deployment took place without any reported incidents and is part of the continuity of the Conway era. Unlike a complete overhaul of the network’s institutional functioning, this evolution modifies several internal components of the ledger while preserving the existing governance architecture.

This hard fork is particularly notable for its adoption method. For the first time, all stages, from the proposal to the activation, relied on the on-chain governance system. Delegates approved the proposal at 77.63%, well above the required 60% threshold. Staking pool operators also gave their approval with 52.7% of the votes, while the Constitutional Committee approved the update with six favorable votes.

The various votes concluded on July 13, five days before the official activation. This procedure marks an important evolution in how the network now makes decisions, since major updates no longer depend on centralized coordination ensured by input/output but on a vote directly recorded on the blockchain.

Technical Improvements Aimed at Developers and Smart Contracts

With this evolution, Cardano integrates five improvement proposals (CIP) aimed at strengthening the network’s performance and enriching the tools available to developers. The goal is to reduce the execution cost of Plutus smart contracts, speed up several processes on the blockchain, and integrate new cryptographic capabilities directly into the protocol.

The five improvements introduced are as follows:

• CIP-133: adds multi-scalar multiplication on the BLS12-381 cryptographic curve, allowing the verification of a large number of digital signatures simultaneously.
• CIP-138: Introduces a native array type to store and manipulate on-chain data more efficiently.
• CIP-153: optimizes the management of multi-asset tokens to improve their processing on the network.
• CIP-132: Speeds up list handling through the new dropList function.
• CIP-109: integrates modular exponentiation used in some advanced cryptographic operations.

These evolutions respond to the needs expressed by decentralized application developers. They notably enable more efficient execution of smart contracts while simplifying certain operations that previously required off-chain computations. Teams working on zero-knowledge proofs, multi-signature wallets, or compliance tools now have functionalities directly integrated into the protocol.

At the same time, these optimizations enhance the overall performance of the Plutus environment. According to developers, they reduce script execution costs while accelerating their processing. This evolution also prepares the network to host more complex applications without changing the governance function introduced with this update.

Enhanced Security and a Network Better Prepared for Future Volumes

Beyond performance, Cardano also strengthens several mechanisms related to ledger security. Node operators must now comply with a new rule concerning verifiable random function keys, better known as VRF.

Each staking pool must now use a unique VRF key associated with its own identity. This measure prevents the reuse of the same key across multiple pools and thus removes a potential vulnerability that could be exploited in attacks targeting the network. This evolution helps reinforce the overall integrity of the blockchain’s operation.

The hard fork also improves ledger consistency rules to maintain perfect synchronization between nodes, even as transaction volumes increase. Before activation, Intersect MBO, responsible for coordinating the working group dedicated to this update, monitored the readiness level of staking pools as well as that of exchange platforms. Both categories of actors showed a high level of participation before the final deployment.

Investors Accumulate While the Network Already Prepares Its Next Evolution

After activation, Cardano saw the ADA price evolve in a relatively calm market. The token was established at 0.16462 dollars, down 0.88% over twenty-four hours. At the same time, the trading volume dropped by 54.81% to reach 179.93 million dollars, reflecting limited short-term investor reaction.

On-chain data published by Santiment show, however, a different dynamic among the largest holders. Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA raised their reserves to their highest level since 2023. Together, they now control more than a quarter of the circulating supply, while holders of smaller volumes reduced their positions during the same period.

The hard fork also represents a necessary technical step before the arrival of Ouroboros Leios. This future evolution of consensus, currently tested until 2026, aims to significantly increase the network’s throughput with a declared goal of more than 1,000 transactions per second.

Developers working with Aiken and other Plutus-compatible languages can already exploit the new integrated features, while the Lace wallet has published a compatible version. Pool operators must now use an updated version of the software to stay synchronized with the network.

The next few weeks will mainly allow observing whether these technical evolutions promote increased activity on the blockchain. Indicators related to total value locked, number of transactions, and deployment of new decentralized applications should offer a first measurement of the real adoption of the improvements introduced by Van Rossem.