In an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) question session Live from Wyoming, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson provided an update on Cardano’s progress and the upcoming Chang hard fork. Speaking from his ranch, he outlined the efforts underway and the milestones achieved in what has been a significant journey for the blockchain platform.
Cardano Chang hard fork is almost ready
Hoskinson began by reflecting on the challenges and achievements of the past few years. “It’s been a very long few years,” he acknowledged, noting that despite some “blockages,” the ecosystem has managed to overcome these obstacles, particularly in governance. The completion of all elements of CIP 1694 was highlighted as a crucial achievement, taking about two years to complete but essential to advancing Cardano’s infrastructure.
The heart of Hoskinson’s update was the announcement that node 9.0, which is critical to the Chang hard fork, is nearly complete. “What’s exciting about node 9.0 is that it’s the Chang hard fork, “It’s basically there,” he said. This update to node 9.0 follows version 8.2.2 and has been refined for compatibility and stability. According to Hoskinson, the new node has been tagged for release and should be deployed by next week. He added cautiously: “Monday or Tuesday will be the signal for the upgrade if nothing is discovered – knock on wood.”
The Chang hard fork represents a pivotal moment for Cardano, as it will initiate the transition to the The Age of Voltairea development phase with a strong focus on governance. Hoskinson expressed excitement about reaching this milestone, which has been “two years in the making.” Reaching a network node density of around 70% will trigger the hard fork, marking the beginning of new governance capabilities and broader community engagement in decision-making processes.
Discussing the future beyond the Chang hard fork, Hoskinson explained the complexities involved in moving forward, particularly in the Basho era, which concerns network scalability and optimization. He noted that this phase also requires substantial community input to balance various tradeoffs between on-chain and off-chain data management and other technical decisions such as on-chain sharding and transaction processing changes.
“Basho is a very multidimensional thing and it requires a lot of discussion about the direction and the tradeoffs that people want: do they want more off-chain or on-chain traffic, do they want some type of on-chain sharding, do they want protocols like Leios if any and the tradeoff between them, (…) do they want to make adjustments to how transactions are processed, tiered fees, those types of things, no one can unilaterally make those decisions for the thousands of people who rely on Cardano for their DAPs and for their ecosystem,” Hoskinson explained.
He also discussed upcoming roadmap milestones, including Plutus V3, HydraLeios and Mithil, presenting them as serious candidates for the next governance vote. This vote will essentially ratify the end state of Basho and how resources should be allocated, emphasizing the shift to a fully community-driven development model.
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Reflecting on the journey, Hoskinson said, “It’s been almost 10 years and when you look back, we’ve gone from a static, federated system to a dynamic, decentralized system with best-in-class staking, to a really compelling smart contract platform, best-in-class governance and (…) the best strategy and overall plan.” He praised the community’s growth and increasing control over the roadmap, which he sees as evidence of Cardano’s maturation into a leading blockchain platform.
Despite some audio and visual technical difficulties due to poor internet connection at his location, Hoskinson promised to continue the conversation from his office on Monday, ensuring that any questions or unresolved discussions could be addressed promptly.
At press time, ADA stock was trading at $0.377.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
