Cardano Governance Action Would Cut minPoolCost to 75 ADA and Expand Plutus Memory

Intersect submitted the governance action “Reduce minPoolCost to 75 ada and increase Plutus Memory Limits (Part 2)” on July 30, 2026, on behalf of the Parameter Committee after endorsement from the Technical Steering Committee. The proposal would reduce minPoolCost from 170 to 75 ADA and complete the planned cumulative 25 percent increase in Plutus script memory limits.

Cardano Proposal Reduces minPoolCost for Stake Pools

The first part of the action targets minPoolCost, a Cardano protocol parameter connected to the minimum fixed portion of stake pool rewards. The proposed change would lower the parameter from 170 to 75 ADA, following Parameter Committee work around PCP-006.

PCP-006 argues that the current value places proportionally greater pressure on smaller and growing stake pools. Because the fixed cost represents a larger share of rewards for pools producing fewer blocks per epoch, reducing it would lessen that relative impact on their delegators.

The proposal frames the reduction as an interim adjustment inside the existing rewards framework. Longer-term reward reform discussions, including the minPoolMargin approach described in CIP-23, remain separate from this parameter action.

Plutus Memory Increase Gives Developers More Room

The second part of the action focuses on Plutus, Cardano’s smart contract framework. It proposes to complete the second stage of a previously planned increase to Plutus script memory limits.

The Plutus part of the action would give smart contract developers more memory capacity at both transaction and block level. The proposed second-stage increase moves transaction memory from 16.5 million to 17.5 million units and block memory from 72 million to 77.5 million units, completing the 25 percent expansion previously outlined by the Parameter Committee.

Intersect’s earlier technical notice described the increase as a staged process designed to stay within Cardano’s constitutional guardrails. The notice also stated that benchmarking work showed sufficient headroom for the proposed increase while maintaining Praos timing guarantees.

Governance Vote Links SPO Economics and Smart Contract Capacity

The action now moves through Cardano’s on-chain governance process as a protocol parameter decision. If approved, it would update one economic parameter affecting stake pool reward dynamics and one technical capacity area affecting Plutus script execution.

For stake pool operators and delegators, the proposed minPoolCost reduction would reduce the relative impact of the fixed cost on pools producing fewer blocks. For developers, the Plutus memory increase would provide more room for applications using larger or more complex scripts within transactions and blocks.

The combined action places both changes inside a single governance decision.

Approval would lower the minimum fixed pool cost while completing a Plutus capacity expansion that has been moving through Cardano’s parameter governance process in stages.