Cardano Prepares Protocol Version 11 Hard Fork with Plutus and Security Upgrades

1. Cardano prepares an intra-era hard fork to Protocol Version 11 with targeted upgrades.
2. The proposal focuses on Plutus performance, governance rules, and node-level security.
3. Community review and working-group oversight will decide the final rollout timeline.

Cardano is moving toward another major technical step as community member Dave highlighted the proposal of an intra-era hard fork to Protocol Version 11. The plan introduces a fresh round of upgrades to the network without switching to a new ledger era.

It aims to deliver tighter security, stronger smart contract features, and clearer on-chain governance, while maintaining the same transaction structure users already understand. The proposal has now reached the public review stage, supported by Intersect and the Hard Fork Working Group.

Hard Fork Proposal Update 2 Opens

Intersect confirmed that Hard Fork Proposal Update 2 is officially open, marking the start of a structured community process. The proposal lays out improvements across three areas: Plutus scripting capability, ledger consistency, and node-level protections. These adjustments come from ongoing treasury-funded development and are now ready for broad examination.

Cardano plans a coordinated mainnet hard fork to implement Haskell node improvements, remaining within the Conway era to ease integration for wallets, nodes, and developers. The Hard Fork Working Group, previously involved in Chang and Plomin upgrades, will gather ecosystem feedback, assess risks, and guide the rollout, meeting twice monthly and open to all.

Plutus and Ledger Enhancements

A significant aspect of the plan involves the Plutus environment. All the built-in functions will be compatible with Plutus versions V1, V2, & V3. This improves the development of items without the need for changing the scripting versions.

There will be improved performance due to the support for case expressions for the Bool, Integer, and Data types in the UPLC. This aims to overcome the long-standing bottleneck in the script logic.

Some of the main proposals in the Cardano ecosystem include support for a type for arrays, improved multiple asset support, fast list ops, modular exponentiation code, and multi-scalar multiplication. They implement more functionality on-chain.

There have been some improvements in the Ledger. These include enhanced security to ensure unique VRF keys. There have also been corrections in the Plutus rules for V1/V2. Additionally, governance voting logic has been moved to the Ledger.

Cardano Plutus Environment Enhancements

They will keep the community abreast of the developments as the technical teams flesh out the finer points. The plans may develop in reaction to community feedback. The work group will handle the necessary coordination until the networks are ready to roll. Those who use the Cardano network can follow the development of the plan into a reality.

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