Cardano News

The May 02, 2025, development report highlights the pre-release of Node v.10.4.1 with a production-ready UTXO-HD backend and consensus team advancements in testing models. Lace wallet v.1.22 launched, introducing Firefox browser support and Bitcoin integration (beta). Smart contract updates included strictness analysis for UPLC and PIR. The ecosystem saw continued growth in projects and DRep participation, with TapTools launching the Cardano Builder DAO and Metera mainnet going live.

The Cardano Foundation's blog post "Blockchain for Sustainability" explores how blockchain technology can enhance ecological and humanitarian efforts. It details applications in improving supply chain transparency, such as verifying ethically sourced products like fair-trade coffee. The post also covers promoting circular economy models by tracking product lifecycles and recycled content, exemplified by projects like Plastiks on Cardano. Furthermore, it discusses blockchain's role in the renewable energy sector through peer-to-peer energy trading and supporting microgrids, fostering verifiable and transparent sustainable practices.

The April 28, 2025, Cardano Community Digest highlights an explanation of how Bitcoin can interact with Cardano using zero-knowledge cryptography without custodians. It recaps BuilderFest #2 in Vietnam and covers recent Roundtable Talks discussing Interim Constitutional Committee learnings, development priorities, and stablecoin liquidity. Updates include LidoNation's blog on decentralized storage, EMURGO's guidance on budget voting, and Intersect's news on governance developments and upcoming committee elections.

The April 25, 2025, development report highlights core technology updates, including ledger team work preparing for future eras and the pre-release of node v.10.3.1 focusing on performance improvements and lightweight checkpointing support. Ecosystem growth continued, and key updates include DRep delegation going live on Yoroi Wallet, Kinka minting its first XNK tokens on Cardano, a new EMURGO partnership announcement, and the launch of ChadSwap.

EMURGO has published a guide to help ada holders navigate the process of voting on Cardano budget proposals. This resource explains the mechanism for community participation in allocating treasury funds, a key aspect of Cardano's decentralized governance. The guide aims to clarify the steps involved, empowering users to make informed decisions and contribute to shaping the ecosystem's future development and project funding through the established budget process.

The April 18, 2025, development report highlights core technology advancements, including consensus team progress on Genesis testing and collaboration with the Ouroboros Phalanx team. Networking focused on transaction submission features, while performance benchmarked node v.10.3.1. The Plutus team delivered several improvements to Plinth, enhancing the smart contract compiler and libraries. Work also continued across scaling solutions, wallet development, and governance features.

Input Output Global (IOG) published an update on Ouroboros Leios, presented as a major redesign of Cardano's consensus protocol aimed at significantly increasing transaction throughput and scalability. The post explains how Leios utilizes a novel concurrent structure with specialized block types (input, endorsement, ranking) to enable parallel processing while preserving the security and decentralization of Ouroboros Praos. Currently in the research and development phase, Leios is positioned as a transformative upgrade for Cardano's long-term capacity.

A Roundtable Talk on April 15, 2025, reflected on the learnings from the Interim Constitutional Committee (iCC) following its eight-month term. The discussion reviewed the iCC's crucial role in upholding the Cardano Constitution since the Chang Hard Fork in September 2024. This session provided insights into the committee's foundational experiences and challenges, setting the stage for the new elections scheduled for May 2025.

The April 14, 2025, Cardano Community Digest highlights Peter Bui’s latest Cardano News Update, addressing staking wallet issues and Iagon’s new decentralized compute and storage integrations. It previews Roundtable Talk #11 on April 15, where representatives from various councils will discuss experiences and lessons from the Interim Constitutional Committees. The Cexplorer blog offers a deep dive into Midgard versus Ethereum Rollups, emphasizing Midgard’s UTxO model for scalability and conflict resolution. Additionally, Intersect MBO announces that voting for the Constitutional Committee elections will commence on April 16.

The April 11, 2025, blog post from IOG introduces Ouroboros Peras, an upgrade to the Ouroboros Praos protocol aimed at accelerating transaction settlement on Cardano. Peras reduces settlement times to around two minutes, increasing confidence in transaction finality. It introduces a voting-based chain selection process and certificate system to reach rapid consensus while maintaining security and decentralization. This advancement supports Cardano’s scalability and responsiveness to network demands.