Cardano Activates First Hard Fork Through Onchain Governance

Cardano has successfully activated its first hard fork entirely through onchain governance. The van Rossem upgrade, which took effect at 21:44:51 UTC on July 18, 2026, marks a significant milestone in the network's decentralized governance model.

The upgrade moved the blockchain to Protocol Version 11 while keeping it within the existing Conway ledger era, making it an intra-era hard fork. The final approval and execution of the upgrade were determined entirely through Cardano's onchain governance system, which includes delegated representatives (DReps), stake pool operators, and the Constitutional Committee.

The process required formal approval from all three bodies, with 77.63% support from DReps, 52.7% support from stake pool operators, and six Constitutional Committee members voting that the action was constitutional. This demonstrates Cardano's ability to authorize technically significant network changes without relying on an offchain decision by a central development company.

The upgrade introduces targeted improvements to Cardano's Plutus smart-contract platform, ledger consistency, and node security, including expanded built-in functions for Plutus V1, V2, and V3, as well as more efficient case expressions and native capabilities such as arrays and modular exponentiation.