Cardano activates van Rossem hard fork, first community‑governed upgrade

On July 18, Cardano’s mainnet moved to Protocol Version 11 after the van Rossem hard fork went live, marking the blockchain’s first upgrade approved entirely through on‑chain governance. The upgrade lowers Plutus smart‑contract execution costs and adds new cryptographic tools, while also laying the technical groundwork for the upcoming Ouroboros Leios scaling upgrade. Governance votes recorded 77.63% support from delegated representatives (DReps) and 52.7% from stake‑pool operators, just surpassing the required thresholds. The change was implemented without direct coordination from Input Output, the founding development firm, highlighting a shift toward community‑led decision‑making. Cardano’s price remained flat around $0.166, suggesting limited immediate market impact but signaling a longer‑term roadmap toward higher throughput.