June, 2026 (tentative)
Epochtbdvan Rossem
Inter-era upgrade delivering cleaner ledger rules, VRF key uniqueness, Plutus smart contract performance improvements and new cryptographic built-ins
Conway Era
What hard forks were implemented, and what functionalities did they introduce?
Hard forks in Cardano do not signify division and differences within the ecosystem. On the contrary, they define a specific and collectively agreed-upon exact time (slot) when all nodes switch from the current era to a new one, applying new functions, validation rules, or parameter values. All stake pool operators need to install the upgrade, and they also have a say and must agree to it. A Cardano hard fork is, therefore, not a separation but a precise collective evolution.
Inter-era upgrade delivering cleaner ledger rules, VRF key uniqueness, Plutus smart contract performance improvements and new cryptographic built-ins
Introducing the second batch of decentralized governance features of CIP-1694. Enabling the full set of governance actions and the DRep role.
Introducing the first batch of decentralized governance features of CIP-1694. Enabling only parameter changes and hard fork initiations.
Introduced further improvements to Plutus smart contract functionality and overall network performance.
Improved the scalability and performance of the network, named after Vasil Dabov, a Cardano community member.
Introduced smart contract capabilities using Plutus, enabling the deployment of decentralized applications (dApps).
Brought native token functionality to Cardano, allowing users to create and transact with custom tokens.
Added token locking capabilities, which was a prerequisite for the smart contract functionality.
Introduced staking and decentralization features, transitioning from a federated to a decentralized system.
The launch of the Cardano mainnet and introduction of the ada cryptocurrency.
Note that some hard forks, particularly Byron and Shelley, transitioned through a series of updates and may not have a single specific transaction id associated with them. For the others, the provided transaction ids correspond to significant parameter updates leading to the hard forks.