Cardano van Rossem hard fork activates July 18 with Plutus upgrades
In brief
- Van Rossem hard fork activates July 18, 2026 at 21:44:51 UTC, slot height 192,844,800
- Protocol Version 11 upgrade boosts Plutus performance and improves ledger consistency
- Governance ratification passed all voting groups on July 13 at Epoch 643 boundary
- Lays foundation for Dijkstra era hard fork introducing Ouroboros Leios
What van Rossem Delivers
The van Rossem hard fork includes Plutus improvements and Plutus Cost Model enhancements, along with enhanced primitives, VRF key uniqueness, and updated reference input rules. These changes address performance bottlenecks and strengthen the foundation for smart contract execution on Cardano.
Intersect, a member-based entity in the Cardano ecosystem, has highlighted an ongoing countdown to the van Rossem hard fork enactment. The upgrade represents a critical stepping stone in Cardano's roadmap, one that doesn't require a full era transition yet delivers meaningful protocol improvements.
The Road Ahead
Van Rossem lays the foundation for the next upgrade—the Dijkstra era hard fork, which will introduce Ouroboros Leios to Cardano. This sequencing allows the ecosystem to test and refine Plutus before the more ambitious Leios rollout.
Work continues on the Leios testnet, with the release of two prototype builds: prototype-2026w27a and prototype-2026w28. Separately, the Cardano Foundation joined x402 as an Associate Member under the Linux Foundation, signaling deeper alignment with open-source infrastructure standards.
