IOG, the primary developers of the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, have transferred control of a Haskell-based network node to the community.
Cardano’s protocol and governance are already decentralized. Now its engineering is too.
“The last stage of the Voltaire era is full decentralization of node and reference blueprint development. Since 2024, IOG and its partners have carefully managed a process that will conclude… pic.twitter.com/zCCgu6ahco
— Input Output Group (@IOGroup) July 17, 2026
“Cardano’s protocol and governance are already decentralized. Now its development is too,” IOG stated.
Project founder Charles Hoskinson described the event as the “final stage of the Voltaire era.” He noted that since 2024, IOG and its partners have carefully curated the process of transferring authority.
The final transition of control is expected to be completed by 2027. The plan involves several independent companies maintaining at least three implementations of Cardano on Haskell, Rust, and Go stacks.
The transfer of rights occurred ahead of the Van Rossem hard fork activation. The update will be applied to the mainnet on the evening of July 18.
The upgrade was approved a week earlier, with 77.63% voting in favor. The hard fork will transition Cardano to protocol version 11 and introduce new Plutus features aimed at reducing smart contract execution costs.
ADA prices responded positively to the news, rising nearly 4% in a day to $0.16.
In June, the Cardano Foundation canceled the Cardano Summit 2026 in Singapore after a treasury-funded proposal failed to gain necessary support in an on-chain vote.
