This milestone edition brings the latest on preparations for the van Rossem network upgrade, and spotlights on vendor Input Output Research (IOR) and enterprise member Wada – the Cardano community sponsor across several African countries.

As always, we round up the latest governance actions and community news.

Cardano hard fork update

SanchoNet has been upgraded to the newly released Cardano node, allowing Protocol Version 11 features to be tested.

Updated Plutus cost models are being readied for roll out across networks, with the cost model update hitting SanchoNet this week.

Cardano Node 10.6.2

• Release available for two weeks: 10.6.2
• Containing hard fork functionality that can be tested on SanchoNet
• The 10.6.2 release is not intended to be the mainnet hard fork candidate release. Version 10.7 will have further improvements. making it the target for hard fork

Cardano Node 10.7.0

• Target release within one to two weeks
• Mainnet hard-fork-ready candidate release – expected integration point for ecosystem tooling
• Will be used to fork Preview, PreProd and then Mainnet
• Dependent on performance results and integration testing, further minor releases may follow.

Plutus cost models and script data hash

As part of this upgrade, all Plutus cost models will be updated. This is to add costing for new Plutus builtins (see full scope description), as well as to enable Plutus builtin consistency across all Plutus versions.

Currently Intersect’s Parameters Committee is reviewing the final cost model values. These changes will be enacted, pending approval via governance actions across all networks.

Cost model changes can affect on-chain smart contract execution, so it is highly recommended that tooling dynamically pulls the latest cost model from on-chain to avoid issues with script data hash mismatches.

Meeting cadence and communications

From next week, the Hard Fork working group will meet weekly to maintain momentum as integration nears completion.

To further increase reach, the group will begin to hold regular X spaces. Further details to be shared.

Keep informed

Join the dedicated Upgrade Discord channel at #wg-hard-fork (on the Intersect Discord server). This channel is monitored by the working group, with updates being shared and questions answered. Alternatively, you can reach out to hard-fork@intersectmbo.org

 The hard fork working group meetings are in the shared Luma Calendar. The Cardano Upgrades GitBook contains important hard fork context, working group policies, readiness tracking, and working group meeting minutes. 

Smart contracts and delivery assurance

This week, our vendor spotlight goes to Input Output Research (IOR), who have a project being administered by Intersect: Cardano Vision & Work Programme 2025 which was completed in January 2026.

The confirmed milestones include:

• Research outputs across consensus, tokenomics, interoperability, and privacy
• Protocol designs such as Peras and Leios
• Technology validation streams testing solutions before deployment
• Prototype implementations and formal analyses

These Vision and Work programmes were signed off with the completion of two final year reports:

• Foundational Research Final Report: Conducting fundamental research in areas like consensus, cryptography, and programming languages, with deliverables including research papers and supporting technical artifacts.

Technology Validation Final Report: Providing rapid prototyping, formal verification, conformance testing, effective tooling and technical specifications for implementation. 

Civics

The Civics Committee convened on February 26, 2026, to finalize the 2026/27 budget initiatives, define the committee’s role in ecosystem-wide governance coordination and
solidify the Constitutional Committee (CC) election timeline:

The committee met with Simo Simovic from the steering committee to align on a budget strategy that prioritizes DRep participation, governance research, and community workshops for the Constitutional Amendment Process (CAP). While maintaining a soft cap of 1 million ada, the group emphasized cost-efficiency by proposing side-events at existing community gatherings and using grant-based models for regional outreach.

A significant portion of the session focused on Situation Awareness, with members agreeing to act as a communication hub to prevent clashing governance actions. By tracking technical roadmaps for hard forks and parameter updates, the committee aims to provide the community with the clarity needed to avoid overlapping proposals. Additionally, the CC election schedule (above) was officially set, with registration slated to open on May 1, followed by a month-long voting period from June 13.

The meeting concluded with updates on the development of a public educational resource database and the rollout of the 2026 committee member stipend process, marking a transition from high-level brainstorming to active operational execution.

 Open Source 

A new working group is here! For the next few weeks, the Open Source Committee (OSC), Cardano Product Committee (CPC), Cardano Foundation, and our Developer Advocates will be focusing on improvements to the developer experience on Cardano.

Developer Experience Innovation WG: https://luma.com/hjhrf0wg

You are welcome to join as a listener. If you wish to join the conversation please email oso@intersectmbo.org or open-source-committee@intersectmbo.org.
Additionally, you may place an issue on Dev Portal or DevEX with the following title “DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE INNOVATION: XXX”, replacing XXX with the issue summary, such as ‘proposed solution’ or ‘Devex problem’. 

Membership and Community

Did you miss our February Town Hall?

No worries — you can catch the full recording on our YouTube.

Stay updated on committee elections, governance updates, ecosystem highlights, and what’s next for Intersect.

Watch now 👇

https://www.youtube.com/live/4gsGhKQE4ys?si=4a-ChAfE7Deye8AG


Don’t miss our next MCC Open Office Hours 👇

Join us live on X Spaces next Monday and be part of the conversation around membership, community, and governance.

https://x.com/i/spaces/1kvJpMMRMWVxE?s=20

Come ask questions. Share ideas. Get involved.

Enterprise Spotlight: Wada 

Wada is making waves in the web3 space by providing individuals, enterprises, and organizations innovative tools that allow them to participate in the blockchain space in meaningful ways. It calls Africa home and considers itself an international organization with local footprints.

Wada acts as a resource network for unlocking the potential of Africa and the diaspora with distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, and automation. These tools help foster community participation in meaningful ways that have a positive socioeconomic impact.

One of its big initiatives is equipping local developers and entrepreneurs to build decentralized applications and businesses of the future. It is dedicated to upholding the pillars of infrastructure, education, and innovation.

Wada provides the support and education needed to effect meaningful socioeconomic changes for communities.

Participants are supported as they learn about and employ decentralized methods in the governance and economies of their communities.

Check out the Wada Blog for news and updates: https://wada.org/blog/ 

Governance actions

Status: The Amaru Treasury Withdrawal 2026 was submitted February 23. No governance action expired or was enacted since last week's update.

Active Governance actions

1. Net Change Limit (Epoch 613–713)
Goal: Establish a 300M ada treasury withdrawal cap through July 2027. This constitutional "guardrail" is a prerequisite for any future treasury movements.

Expires: March 10

DRep status: 33%

Threshold: >50% DRep active voting stake

2. Amaru Treasury Withdrawal 2026
Goal: This governance action requests a 2026 treasury withdrawal (₳10,142,000) to fund Amaru, an open source, Rust based, fully interoperable block producing Cardano node, with milestones across 2026 to improve node diversity, accessibility, and network robustness. It also commits to transparent administration with public reporting, audits, and returning any unspent funds to the Cardano treasury.

Expires: March 10

DRep status: 16%

CC Status: 1 ⚪ (KtorZ), 1 ✅ (Cardano Curia), 5 ⏳ Pending

Threshold: 5/7 CC members + 67% DRep approval

 

That’s it for this week’s update. Thank you for reading. To learn more about Intersect’s work, explore our Knowledge Base, which provides detailed information on governance structures, committees, and funding. Additionally, visit the Intersect website for the latest news, updates, and roadmap information.

Join the conversation on Discord, and follow us on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn to engage with fellow members, working groups, and the broader community.

Your voice helps shape the future of Cardano governance.