Cardano Activates First Community-Voted Hard Fork

Cardano has been shifting control of protocol changes from founding developer Input Output to token holders and network participants. The Chang hard fork introduced on-chain voting in 2024, and the Plomin upgrade in early 2025 gave ADA holders effective decision-making power. The Van Rossem fork is the clearest test yet of that framework: a major upgrade approved and activated through community governance, marking a significant step toward full decentralization.

Cardano activated Van Rossem on July 18 with no downtime, moving the mainnet to protocol version 11. Delegated representatives, or DReps, approved the proposal with 77.63% support, above the 60% threshold, while stake pool operators backed it with 52.7%, clearing the required 51%; the seven-member Constitutional Committee also signed off. The upgrade cuts Plutus smart-contract execution costs and packages five technical improvements, including new cryptographic tools and a fix requiring each stake pool to use a unique cryptographic key.