The next hard fork of the Cardano network, known as Van Rossem and introducing smart contract execution and security improvements for node operators, is scheduled to go to a governance vote on May 29th. This was stated on May 18th by Cardanians, an on-chain analytical account in the Cardano ecosystem, but they also warned that the vote would depend on Van Rossem’s progress on the test network.
he Hard fork has been active on preview testnet since May 8tha public testnet where developers validate that their code works before pushing it to mainnet.
As of May 18th, 21% of block generation and 30% of nodes on mainnet They are already working with changes and compatible softwareThis was revealed by the Intersect MBO team (the organization that coordinates Cardano’s technical development), citing data from network monitoring service Pool Tools.
However, acceptance in PreProd, another test network that reproduces the base layer conditions and is the last step before the main network, Pending due to compatibility issues with Ogmiosan interface that allows external applications to communicate with Cardano nodes. If this interface does not work properly, parts of your application ecosystem will no longer work after the change.
Hard Fork Working Group (a technical coordination group that brings together teams from Intersect, Input Output, and other ecosystem actors) We recommend that you do not proceed further until this point is resolved. Cardanian explains that the team at Input Output, the research and development company that built Cardano’s basic protocol, is working with the community on a solution.
What improvements does the Van Rossem hard fork bring to Cardano?
According to Kardanian, this update Reduce smart contract cost and execution time (a program on which decentralized financial applications are built), which strengthens the security of the nodes.
The Essential Cardano website reports that the Plutus team (Cardano’s smart contract platform) has reduced the cost of running existing scripts on mainnet by more than 10% on average. If production continued, this reduction would be lower fees for users According to the same source, the number of applications built on the network.
Van Rossem also adds support for BLS12-381 in Cardano. Mathematical curves that allow construction of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofsa mechanism to verify information without disclosing it. It is used in privacy and scalability protocols, but is presumed to be vulnerable to quantum computing.
First governance-driven hard fork
Van Rossem is the first fully loaded Cardano hard fork. decentralized governance system As reported by CriptoNoticias, it was triggered in February 2025 when the network constitution was ratified on-chain after being approved by 95% of delegates at a constitutional convention in December 2024.
To enable protocol changes at the main layer, Must receive favorable votes from three institutions in the system: Delegated Representatives (DReps), Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) (maintaining nodes that process transactions), and a Constitutional Committee to verify that proposals are constitutionally compliant.
The hard fork is named after the late Max van Rossem of the ecosystem, who participated in the drafting of Article 8 of the Cardano Constitution and the selection process of the first community-elected Constitutional Committee.
Cardano Treasury moves and other proposals
In parallel with the Van Rossem fork, the Intersect organization released the CCI V1 program closure report on May 15th. The program executed 70 million ADA tokens worth approximately $16.8 million, Cardano’s native currency, approved by the community to fund financial infrastructure.
Four of the five planned integrations have been delivered or are in final stages. According to Intersect, institutional detention via the fifth Fireblocks will be considered in CCI V2.
Finally, Ecosystem is working to improve scalability with funding from the Treasury: The proposal, called Leios, aims to increase the amount of transactions that the network can process. The Hydra initiative allows transactions to be settled off the main chain. Mithril aims to speed up node synchronization with fewer resources.
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