For the first time, Cardano’s community has voted to directly fund the development of the blockchain’s core protocol, approving a treasury grant of over 96 million ADA, worth approximately $71 million, to Input Output Global (IOG).
The proposal, first put forward in early 2025, got the green light this week with 73.93% of the vote. The funds will go toward key technical upgrades aimed at making Cardano faster, easier for developers to build on, and more efficient overall.
Some of the key initiatives include:
- Ouroboros Leios, a consensus improvement to increase throughput
- Hydra, designed for real-time, low-cost transactions
- Mithril enhancements, which reduce node bootstrap times and enable lightweight clients
- Nested Transactions, a framework for more advanced smart contract logic
- Project Acropolis, a modular rebuild of the Cardano node for easier onboarding of new contributors
- General performance upgrades to improve sync speeds and reduce RAM and operational costs for stake pool operators
“This is a milestone moment for Cardano,” said Tim Harrison, EVP, Community & Ecosystem at IOE. “For the first time, core protocol development is being funded directly by the community. This vote of confidence empowers us to move forward with full transparency, shared responsibility, and a renewed commitment to building an open, resilient ecosystem.”
IOE isn’t getting all the money at once. The funds will be released incrementally and only when they deliver on specific goals. A community-run group called Intersect will be in charge of watching over the whole thing, with smart contracts and a review team making sure nothing goes off track.
To keep everything transparent, IOE has also promised to publish monthly progress updates, share their engineering timesheets, and release detailed budget reports every quarter.
“This is a vote of confidence in Cardano’s future and a model for how decentralized funding and delivery can work at scale,” said Ricky Rand, General Manager, IOE. “The real work begins now.”
Following the approval, Harrison urged DReps to continue voting on other pending proposals. One of them is Snek, a memecoin project seeking 5 million ADA for listing efforts on major platforms like Hyperliquid.
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