Cardano Completes Van Rees Hard Fork, Upgrades Mainnet to Version 11
Summary
- Cardano completed the Van Rees hard fork and upgraded its mainnet to version 11, laying the groundwork for lower smart-contract execution costs and broader scalability improvements.
- The upgrade includes Plutus improvements, enhancements to the Plutus cost model, and lays the foundation for the introduction of Ouroboros Leios.
- The Van Rees hard fork was the first in Cardano's history to be approved through a governance vote, and unlike earlier upgrades, it was activated through the network's community governance process.
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Cardano has completed the Van Rees hard fork, upgrading its mainnet to version 11. The upgrade is designed to lower smart-contract execution costs and lay the groundwork for broader scalability improvements.
Cointelegraph reported on July 20 that on-chain data platform Cardanoscan confirmed the Cardano network moved from protocol version 10 in epoch 643 to version 11 in epoch 644.
Input Output, the engineering company that designed and developed the Cardano blockchain, wrote in a weekly development report that the upgrade includes Plutus improvements and enhancements to the Plutus cost model. It also lays the foundation for the Dijkstra-era hard fork, the next step toward introducing Ouroboros Leios to Cardano.
Ouroboros Leios is a proposal to improve the scalability of Ouroboros, Cardano's proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. It aims to significantly increase the number of transactions the network can process per second while maintaining security. The rollout is slated for late 2026.
The Van Rees hard fork is also notable because it is the first in Cardano's history to be approved through a governance vote. Previous upgrades were led by Input Output, but this one was activated through the network's community governance process.
Suehyeon Lee
shlee@bloomingbit.ioI'm reporter Suehyeon Lee, your Web3 Moderator.