Cardano Achieves Decentralized Governance Milestone with Van Rossem Hard Fork

Cardano has made history by successfully ratifying its first decentralized governance proposal. The van Rossem hard fork, named after a community contributor who passed away in early 2026, was ratified on July 13 through the network's Voltaire on-chain governance framework.

The upgrade will advance Cardano to Protocol Version 11 and introduce new built-in functions to the Plutus smart contract platform. Smart contract execution costs are also being reduced, which could help attract more applications to the ecosystem.

The hard fork was initiated, debated, and ratified entirely through decentralized governance, marking a significant milestone for the Cardano community. This process demonstrates that a blockchain can upgrade itself without relying on a small group of core developers.

Input Output, the Cardano Foundation, and Emurgo all participated in the technical and procedural logistics of the hard fork. The Plutus cost model was ratified with 68.57% approval from Delegated Representatives (DReps), showing that a meaningful minority of DReps dissented.

The van Rossem hard fork is designed to lay groundwork for Cardano's next major developmental phase, the Dijkstra era, which promises to bring significant scalability improvements through Leios, a scaling solution.