Call for proposals: fundamental research in blockchain technology to advance the Cardano ecosystem
Input | Output Research launches its 2026 call for proposals under Cardano Vision – a multi-year effort to advance the foundational science behind the Cardano ecosystem
17 November 2025 3 mins read
Summary:
- Input | Output Research (IOR) is pleased to announce the launch of its call for proposals under Cardano Vision – a multi-year research initiative advancing Cardano’s leadership in blockchain science.
- The program invites proposals from academics, research groups, and consortia across priority thematic areas, with a focus on rigorous, evidence-based research that…
Strengthening Cardano's foundations: Q3 2025 progress report
From scalability and interoperability to oversight and assurance, IOE teams are focused on strengthening Cardano’s foundations while ensuring transparency and accountability
29 October 2025 8 mins read
Summary:
- Q3 2025 saw steady progress across IOE projects, with a strong focus on scalability, assurance, and community collaboration
- UTXO-HD reached key integration milestones for efficient ledger storage, while Leios advanced through its first CIP and ecosystem prototypes
- Plutus Core v.1.50.0.0 delivered major tooling and performance updates, and the Cardano High Assurance team…
Scaling Cardano applications with Hydra
Hydra v1 is out, marking a significant step toward scalable, low-latency Cardano applications ready for real-world deployment
27 October 2025 6 mins read
Summary:
- Hydra v1 marks a significant milestone: the protocol is now production-ready
- It enables low-latency, off-chain transaction processing while maintaining Cardano’s security guarantees
- The latest release introduces a feature-complete Hydra Head protocol and major stability, interoperability, and API improvements
- It’s now validated through real-world use in Midnight’s Glacier…
Leios monthly spotlight: September highlights
Leios reaches a major milestone as the project transitions from research to engineering, outlining the path toward specifications, conformance, and a public testnet
23 October 2025 5 mins read
Summary:
- Leios has transitioned from Input | Output Research to Input | Output Engineering
- Clarifications and cost analyses are underway following constructive feedback for CIP-0164
- A simulator bug was identified and fixed, leading to improved results
- Impact analysis suggests minimal disruption to most Cardano ecosystem systems from the proposed design
- Blink Labs (Go) made progress…
Introducing Ouroboros Phalanx – breaking the economics of grinding attacks
Phalanx aims to enhance Ouroboros with stronger randomness generation, preventing grinding attacks and delivering faster, more reliable transaction settlement
22 October 2025 9 mins read
Summary:
- Ouroboros Phalanx strengthens Cardano’s consensus foundation by addressing a subtle but important vulnerability in randomness generation known as grinding attacks
- By introducing verifiable delay functions (VDFs) and extending how randomness is built across epochs, Phalanx makes such attacks exponentially more costly and practically infeasible
- This upgrade not only…