The Cardano blockchain is accelerating toward its next major protocol update, signaling swift progress within the ecosystem. Intersect, the membership-based organization coordinating governance within Cardano, announced that the governance proposal to launch the van Rossem hard fork was submitted to the mainnet last week. This move marks the official launch of Cardano’s on-chain decision-making process for the upgrade.
Status of the Governance Vote
According to the latest data, the proposal has received 62.76% approval from Delegated Representatives (DReps), surpassing the required 60% threshold for this voting group. However, support from Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) currently stands at 31.59%, falling short of the 51% required to finalize the proposal in that category. Meanwhile, only one vote has been cast so far by the Constitutional Committee, with decisions from the remaining six members still pending.
Intersect highlighted that, based on current voting trends, the proposal could be approved on the mainnet within the next two epochs.
The proposal was introduced to the Cardano mainnet during epoch 637, on June 16. According to the governance timeline, the most likely dates for approval are June 28 or July 3. Should the vote pass, the hard fork implementation could go live on July 3 or July 8, depending on the final outcome and technical readiness.
Progress on Ecosystem Readiness
Intersect also reported notable progress this week regarding overall ecosystem preparedness. The proportion of stake pool operators running node version 11, essential for the new block structure, rose slightly to 87% for the forthcoming epoch 639, indicating stable block production. Liquidity-focused readiness also climbed, reaching 77.37%, after several leading exchanges signaled they are prepared for the transition.
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AAPLServing as a core entity in the Cardano ecosystem, Intersect is a membership-based organization that coordinates governance and technical transitions. Its role bridges the gap between community-driven decision-making and the project’s technical infrastructure.
Developments in Leios, Mithril, and RealFi
Significant progress was also made on scalability and infrastructure projects within Cardano. The public Musashi Dojo testnet, supporting the Ouroboros Leios scaling solution, was deployed this week. Leios, initially introduced by Input Output Research a year ago, has matured into a live public testnet prototype, moving closer to production.
Glossary: DRep stands for delegated representative within Cardano’s governance structure, authorized to vote on behalf of the community. SPO refers to a stake pool operator, who manages block production and the technical maintenance of the network.
The Mithril project, enhancing Cardano’s cryptographic efficiency and scalability, is also entering a new phase. Responsibility for its future development will now be assumed by Teragone and will proceed with coordination from Intersect, aiming to ensure technical continuity and expanded cryptographic expertise.
In parallel, RealFi Phase 1 Testnet is scheduled for launch on July 6. This marks the public debut of a new stablecoin infrastructure on Cardano, an important milestone for building next-generation decentralized finance solutions on the blockchain.
