Cardano Triggers Hard Fork With First Community-Voted Upgrade
In briefCardano activated the Van Rossem hard fork on July 18, reaching protocol version 11 with zero downtime.Its the networks first major upgrade ratified entirely through on-chain community governance, without any centralized company directing the process.The fork lowers Plutus smart contract execution costs and bundles five technical improvements, including new cryptographic tools and a security fix requiring every stake pool to use a unique cryptographic key. Cardano has hard forked, implementing the Van Rossem upgrade over the weekend and transitioning the network to protocol version 11. It‘s not the first time Cardano has executed a hard fork—but it is the first time it’s done so without the intervention of the blockchains founding development company, Input Output. That makes how it happened at least as important as what the upgrade does. A hard fork—a permanent, mandatory update to a blockchains core rules, applied simultaneously across every computer running the network—is a pretty serious deal. Throughout Cardano‘s history, it’s been Input Output thats decided on these kinds of network changes. Van Rossem, which sets the stage for improved scalability and lower costs on the network, is the first major Cardano upgrade ratified entirely through on-chain governance, meaning elected community members, server operators, and an oversight committee