Cardano developers are moving forward with the planned Dijkstra hard fork, as Intersect confirmed that the agreed technical scope and target dates remain unchanged. The upgrade will be delivered in two distinct phases, allowing the network to introduce several major capabilities gradually.
Phase 1 is targeted for late 2026 and includes Linear Leios and Nested Transactions. Linear Leios introduces Endorser Blocks that can reference additional transactions and have them certified by stake-based committees, aiming to increase throughput while retaining Cardano’s existing Praos security model. The first phase also includes new transaction and block serialization structures, PlutusV4 changes, and several protocol parameter additions. These changes will install the codec extensions and parameters required for Peras without activating Peras itself.
Phase 2 will introduce Ouroboros Peras through an intra-era hard fork planned for the second quarter of 2027. Peras adds a voting layer that allows committees of stake pool operators to vote on recent chain tips, enabling faster settlement than standard Praos chain-depth rules.
Cardano’s node infrastructure is also expanding through Amaru, an open-source Rust implementation developed as an alternative to the Haskell node. Amaru is already relay capable and can validate and synchronize with the Cardano blockchain tip. Developers are targeting November 2026 for Amaru to begin producing blocks on the mainnet, with internal milestones including a general block-producer release by September 30, a Dijkstra-compatible block producer by October 29, and a Leios-compatible release by November 26. Node diversity is expected to reduce Cardano’s reliance on a single software implementation.
Governance changes are also required before Dijkstra. Because Cardano’s Constitution prevents governance from modifying protocol parameters unless they are explicitly included in the Constitution’s Guardrails, Input Output plans one narrow constitutional amendment adding the relevant Dijkstra parameters and permitted ranges. The current target is to submit that governance action no later than Epoch 655, beginning September 11, 2026. Intersect’s Constitutional Amendment Portal is supporting community discussion, and four initial submissions had already been received by August 14.
