Cardano hands core development to 3 independent teams in decentralization push

Cardano developer Input Output will transfer control of its Haskell node, Plutus platform and Daedalus wallet to outside specialist firms starting in August, the company said Friday.

"This is the final stage of the Voltaire era — full decentralization of node and reference blueprint development," Charles Hoskinson, founder and chief executive officer of Input Output, said.

Se7en Labs, a development agency with a Solana infrastructure background, and Teragone, the cryptographic research team behind Cardano's Mithril protocol, will assume responsibility for core components. At least three independent node implementations in Haskell, Rust and Go will run in parallel under community oversight from Intersect and Pragma. The transition runs through 2027.

The handover comes one day before the Van Rossem hard fork activates on July 18 at 21:44 UTC, taking Cardano to Protocol Version 11 and introducing new Plutus built-in functions designed to cut smart contract execution costs. For Input Output, the shift closes a chapter — the company will focus on research and new ventures through IO Labs and IO Ventures, leaving the community to prove whether a decentralized engineering model can move faster than the one it is replacing.

ADA traded near $0.165 on Friday, up about 2%, with a market capitalization of $6 billion. Open interest in ADA futures stood at $193 million, with a long-to-short ratio of 2.84, indicating most traders are betting on a price increase, according to Coinglass data.

The network's total value locked sits at $70 million, compared with more than $4 billion each on rival chains Tron and Solana, DefiLlama data shows. ADA remains nearly 95% below its September 2021 record of $3.10.

What the decentralization means for builders

The shift reduces Cardano's reliance on Input Output, the company founded by Hoskinson that built the network. Specialist firms will maintain formal specifications subject to community review and voting under the CIP-1694 governance framework ratified in 2024.

Hoskinson acknowledged the network has faced setbacks. "Even Cardano has to go through growing pains that are very uncomfortable," he said in a video earlier this year. "Bones have to be broken. Growth spurts have to happen."

The new motto of the blockchain is "Built by many, owned by all."

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