Cardano's May Hard Fork Upgrade: A Turning Point for DeFi Activity

Cardano is on the cusp of a significant upgrade with its upcoming hard fork on May 29. The Van Rossem protocol version 11 (V11) will bring substantial changes to Cardano's scripting environment, cryptographic primitives, and stake-pool security model.

The update aims to enhance the usability of Cardano's smart contracts by making all built-in functions available across Plutus V1, V2, and V3. This means developers can write more efficient scripts that reduce execution costs, making it easier for users to run and deploy contracts.

Another key feature of V11 is the addition of BLS12-381 multi-scalar multiplication (MSM), a curve widely used in zero-knowledge proofs, SNARK systems, and cryptographic signature schemes. This will provide Cardano with better infrastructure for applications that rely on expensive elliptic-curve operations.

The upgrade also includes new built-ins such as modular exponentiation, list handling, and optimized multi-asset value operations, which will further improve script performance and reduce execution costs.