Cardano Expands Engineering Decentralization With ICAN Group

Input Output is moving four Cardano engineering functions from IO Labs to ICAN Group, a London-based engineering and transformation firm led by Can Huzmeli.

The transition includes the existing teams, their leadership, and the technical knowledge built inside IO. Their work will continue without interruption and will be coordinated through Intersect.

The move follows earlier transfers involving Daedalus and Mithril, expanding the number of specialist organizations responsible for different parts of Cardano’s engineering stack.

Four Cardano Engineering Functions Move Together

The transition covers Platform Engineering, Quality Assurance, Cryptography, and Performance & Tracing.

Platform Engineering builds and operates internal platforms used by Cardano engineering teams, including site reliability engineering responsible for platform stability, availability, and reliability targets.

Quality Assurance handles testing designed to identify issues before they reach users. Cryptography covers engineering related to protecting value and data across the network, while Performance & Tracing measures and profiles system behavior to support performance and observability.

Input Output confirmed that the responsibilities are not moving in isolation.

The same teams and leadership will transfer together, keeping the engineers who already understand the systems responsible for their continued operation.

Huzmeli, the founder of ICAN Group, has led these four functions inside IO for the past three years. According to Input Output, he has 21 years of experience in software delivery and engineering leadership across Web3, fintech, biopharma and other technology sectors.

ICAN Group was founded in 2015 and operates as an engineering and transformation firm. Its activities also include ICAN Consultancy and the product ventures Ethscore and TroveTrade.

ICAN Follows the Daedalus and Mithril Transfers

The ICAN transition continues an engineering model that Cardano has already applied to other parts of its technology stack.

In June, responsibility for the Daedalus development roadmap moved to Se7en Labs, the team behind DripDropz. Daedalus is Cardano’s full-node desktop wallet, allowing users to independently validate the blockchain while managing transactions and staking.

Later that month, the Mithril development workstream moved to Teragone. Mithril is a stake-based signature protocol designed to provide certified blockchain snapshots and support faster, secure synchronization without requiring applications to process the complete chain history.

ICAN now extends that approach beyond individual products or protocols to four engineering functions that support multiple areas of Cardano development.

Input Output describes the broader model as a move toward specialist teams taking focused ownership of the parts of Cardano they know best. The ICAN transition will be coordinated openly through Intersect, although the announcement does not specify the financial or contractual structure behind that coordination.

Cardano Engineering Spreads Across More Specialist Teams

Input Output describes the ICAN transfer as part of a wider shift toward Cardano being built by multiple independent teams rather than relying on a single delivery organization.

The organizational changes during 2026 now cover different layers of development. Se7en Labs has taken responsibility for Daedalus, Teragone for the Mithril workstream, and ICAN Group is receiving four engineering functions that operate across the broader development environment.

IO Labs continues research, applied engineering, and production work across the Cardano stack, including the node, Plutus and Hydra. Input Output has also indicated that additional areas are expected to move toward specialist ownership over time.

The announcement does not disclose how the ICAN teams will be funded after the transfer or whether Input Output retains formal approval rights over their work. It does confirm that the teams, their leadership, and their existing responsibilities are moving together while coordination continues through Intersect.

Cardano’s engineering decentralization in 2026 has therefore moved beyond transferring responsibility for individual products. The ICAN transition relocates four shared engineering disciplines into a dedicated company while keeping the people who built and operated those functions attached to the systems they already know.