Cardano activates Van Rossem hard fork as 77% of delegates back on-chain governance

Cardano's Van Rossem upgrade marks the first hard fork in crypto history approved entirely through on-chain governance, with 77.6% of delegated representatives voting in favor.

Cardano activated the Van Rossem hard fork on July 18, upgrading to Protocol Version 11 in the first fully on-chain governed fork in its history.

"This upgrade was ratified on-chain by delegated community reps before activation — governance by the community, not by decree," Cardano DRep Jason Appleton said on X.

More than 77% of delegated representatives and 52% of stake pool operators approved the upgrade, with the Constitutional Committee voting 6-0-0-1. The transition caused only a 10-minute block gap with no user disruption. The five Cardano Improvement Proposals target lower Plutus smart contract costs, new cryptographic functions including BLS12-381 multi-scalar multiplication, and stronger node security through unique VRF key requirements for each staking pool.

The upgrade positions Cardano for Ouroboros Leios, a consensus upgrade targeting more than 1,000 transactions per second in testing later this year. Whether the technical milestone translates into sustained price gains depends on developer activity and total value locked growth, analysts said.

ADA traded near $0.166 on July 19, up about 1.2% in 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. The muted price reaction mirrors patterns from previous Cardano hard forks, where initial excitement gave way to consolidation absent real ecosystem growth.

Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA have accumulated more than 25.6 billion tokens, their highest level since February 2023, Santiment data shows. That cohort now controls more than a quarter of the circulating supply, while smaller holders reduced positions over the same period.

The upgrade also arrives alongside a broader decentralization push. Input Output will hand over core infrastructure, including the Plutus platform and Daedalus wallet, to external firms starting in August, further reducing the development arm's control over the network.

Unlike previous era-changing forks such as the Alonzo upgrade that introduced smart contracts in 2021, Van Rossem is an intra-era upgrade within the Conway governance framework. It delivers immediate efficiency gains for developers without overhauling the network's institutional structure. The five CIPs include on-chain array types, multi-asset value handling optimizations, accelerated list operations, and a built-in modular exponentiation function — changes designed to reduce execution costs for decentralized applications.

Intersect, the organization coordinating Cardano's development, framed the event as proof of maturing decentralized governance. More than 77% of DReps and 52% of SPOs backed the proposal before activation, marking a shift from developer-led upgrades to community-driven decision-making recorded directly on the blockchain.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.