Intersect's Hard Fork Working Group has formally proposed naming Cardano's upcoming Protocol Version 11 upgrade the "van Rossem Hard Fork." The name honors Max van Rossem, a deeply committed and influential Decentralized Representative (DRep) who played a pivotal role in Cardano's governance development.
The proposal continues a long-standing tradition of naming Cardano hard forks after impactful community figures, following Shelley, Allegra, Mary, Alonzo, Vasil, Valentine, Chang, and Plomin. Van Rossem was instrumental in the development of Cardano's constitution, serving as a co-lead of the Constitutional Committee Election Working Group and representing the Dutch community at the Constitutional Convention in Buenos Aires. He was also the founder of AdaMoments, a project for preserving personal histories on-chain.
Technically, this milestone is classified as an "intra-era hard fork," meaning it will introduce significant improvements without requiring a migration to a new ledger era, easing adoption for network operators. The upgrade, expected in 2026, will focus on enhancing Plutus performance for smart contracts, ensuring ledger consistency, and raising node security. Specific updates include improvements to reference input rules, the uniqueness of the VRF key, and Plutus primitives.
On the governance and financial front, a Net Change Limit (NCL) of 350 million ADA has been proposed for treasury spending during this development cycle, ensuring sustainable use of funds. The community is currently voting on the proposed name via a poll on GovTool that runs from January 13 to February 14, 2026. As of the report, eight DReps have voted YES, representing 1.57% (91.24M ADA) of the total stake. The final decision will be reviewed and ratified by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC).
This upgrade is part of the broader progress toward implementing Ouroboros Leios on the mainnet, which aims to position Cardano to handle higher transaction volumes with greater efficiency.
