Cardano activates van Rossem hard fork

Written by Felix Ngstaff editorReviewed by Yohan Yunstaff editorWritten by Felix Ngstaff editorReviewed by Yohan Yunstaff editorCardano activates van Rossem hard forkLatest NewsPublishedJul 20, 2026<!–>

The upgrade reduces smart contract execution costs while laying the groundwork for Ouroboros Leios, a major scalability upgrade expected later this year.

–>

Cardano has activated its van Rossem hard fork as of Saturday, upgrading the Cardano mainnet to version 11, which is expected to lower smart contract execution costs and lay the groundwork for Ouroboros Leios, a major scalability upgrade for the protocol. 

Onchain data from Cardanoscan shows the network moved from Protocol Version 10 in epoch 643 to Version 11 in epoch 644.

“As well as Plutus improvements and Plutus Cost Model enhancements, this upgrade lays the foundation for the next upgrade, the Dijkstra era hard fork, which will introduce Ouroboros Leios to Cardano,” Input Output wrote in a weekly development report on Friday.

Related: Cardano Foundation cancels annual conference after failed funding vote

Ouroboros Leios is a scaling proposal for the Ouroboros proof-of-stake consensus used by Cardano, expected to launch in late 2026. Its goal is to drastically increase transactions per second without weakening Ouroboros’ security guarantees. 

The van Rossem upgrade is also the first governance-driven hard fork in Cardano’s history, unlike previous upgrades that were coordinated by Input Output, the engineering company that designed and built the Cardano blockchain. 

Subscribe to daily byte-sized crypto news from Cointelegraph

Subscribe Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

• Cardano
• Hard Fork
• Blockchain

More on the subject

<!–>[–>20 minutes agoYohan YunNews Brief<!–>[–>

<!–>[–>Jul 16, 2026Nate Kostar<!–>[–>

<!–>[–>Jul 16, 2026Yohan YunNews Brief

<!–>[–>20 minutes agoYohan YunNews Brief<!–>[–>

<!–>[–>Jul 16, 2026Nate Kostar<!–>[–>

<!–>[–>Jul 16, 2026Yohan YunNews Brief