The next hard fork of the Cardano network, known as Van Rossem and which introduces improvements in the execution of smart contracts and the security of node operators, would have its governance vote on May 29. This was stated on May 18 from Cardanians, an on-chain analysis account of the Cardano ecosystem, although they also warned that the vote is subject to Van Rossem’s progress in the test networks.
He hard fork has been active since May 8 on the Preview testneta public testnet where developers verify that code works before pushing it to the mainnet.
As of May 18, 21% of block production and 30% of nodes on the mainnet They already operate with software compatible with the change, according to the Intersect MBO team (the organization that coordinates the technical development of Cardano) citing data from PoolTool, a network monitoring service.
However, ratification in PreProd, another test network that replicates the conditions of the base layer and is the last step before the main network, It is pending due to compatibility problems with Ogmiosan interface that allows external applications to communicate with Cardano nodes. Without this interface working correctly, a part of the application ecosystem would not be able to operate after the change.
The Hard Fork Working Group (the technical coordination group that brings together teams from Intersect, Input Output and other ecosystem actors) recommends not moving forward until this point is resolved. Teams from Input Output, the research and development company that built Cardano’s base protocol, are working on solutions together with the community, as explained by Cardanians.
What improvements does the Van Rossem hard fork introduce in Cardano?
According to Cardanians, the update reduces the cost and execution time of smart contracts (programs on which decentralized finance applications are built) and tightens the security of the nodes.
The Plutus team (Cardano’s smart contract platform) reported average savings of over 10% on the costs of running existing scripts on the mainnet, according to a report from the Essential Cardano website. If production continues, this reduction would imply lower commissions for users of applications built on the network, according to the same source.
Van Rossem also adds support for Cardano BLS12-381, a mathematical curve that allows constructing zero-knowledge proofs (ZK)mechanisms that verify information without revealing it, used in privacy and scalability protocols, although estimated to be vulnerable to quantum computing.
The first governance-driven hard fork
Van Rossem is the first Cardano hard fork powered entirely by the decentralized governance system activated in February 2025, when the network’s Constitution was ratified on-chain after being approved by 95% of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention of December 2024, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
For the protocol change to take effect at the main layer, must receive favorable votes from the three bodies of the system: the delegated representatives (DReps), the stake pool operators (SPOs) (who maintain the nodes that process the transactions) and the Constitutional Committee, which verifies that the proposals comply with the Constitution.
The hard fork is named after Max van Rossem, a late ecosystem contributor who participated in the drafting of Article VIII of the Cardano Constitution and the process of electing the first community-elected Constitutional Committee.
Movements in the Cardano treasury and other proposals
In parallel to the Van Rossem fork, the Intersect organization published on May 15 the CCI V1 program closure reportwhich executed 70 million ADA tokens, Cardano’s native currency, equivalent to approximately $16.8 million, approved by the community to fund financial infrastructure.
Four of the five planned integrations were delivered or are in the final stage; the fifth, institutional custody via Fireblocks, will go to review in CCI V2, according to Intersect.
Finally, ecosystem works on treasury-funded scalability improvements: The proposal called Leios aims to increase the volume of transactions that the network can process; the Hydra initiative allows transactions to be settled off the main chain; and Mithril seeks to make nodes synchronize faster with fewer resources.