Cardano Activates Van Rossem Hard Fork on Mainnet

Cardano's Van Rossem hard fork has gone live on mainnet, upgrading the network to Protocol Version 11 and marking another significant step towards fully decentralized governance.

The upgrade, which occurred at Epoch 644 on July 18, requires node operators to run Cardano Node v11.0.1 or later and is a major milestone in Cardano's ongoing efforts to put its governance system to the test.

Unlike traditional hard forks, which are typically handled through core-development processes, the Van Rossem upgrade was enacted entirely through Cardano's on-chain governance framework.

This marks an important shift towards more formalized and decentralized decision-making within the network, which has been a key promise of Cardano's Voltaire era. The success of this process will be crucial in proving that major blockchain upgrades can be coordinated without sacrificing stability.