IOG, the primary developers of the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, have transferred control of a network node written in Haskell 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
“The protocol and governance of Cardano are already decentralized. Now its development is decentralized too,” stated IOG.
Project founder Charles Hoskinson described this event as the "final stage of the Voltaire era." He noted that since 2024, IOG and its partners have been carefully overseeing the power transfer process.
The complete transition of control is expected to be finalized by 2027. The plan involves several independent companies supporting at least three implementations of Cardano using Haskell, Rust, and Go stacks.
This transfer of rights occurred just before the activation of the Van Rossem hard fork, which will be applied to the main network 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 reacted positively to the news, rising nearly 4% in one day to $0.16.
15-minute chart of ADA/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView.It’s worth noting that in June, the Cardano Foundation canceled the Cardano Summit 2026 in Singapore after a treasury funding proposal failed to gain the necessary support in an on-chain vote.