Cardano Targets 2026 Mainnet for Dijkstra’s First Two Phases

With van Rossem complete, Cardano’s hard fork planning has moved to the initial Dijkstra release. Intersect Weekly Update #122 states that the rollout is expected to proceed through several phases, with the Haskell node team currently aiming to deliver Nested Transactions and Linear Leios to mainnet by the end of 2026. The timeframe is a development objective rather than a confirmed hard fork activation date.

Cardano Hard Fork Working Group Moves to Dijkstra

The Hard Fork Working Group coordinates the technical preparation of Cardano upgrades across node teams, Intersect committees and other ecosystem contributors. Following the van Rossem rollout, the group has redirected its work toward the Dijkstra era.

An initial roadmap was presented to Intersect’s Technical Steering Committee on July 29. The scope of the first hard fork was expected to be finalized on July 31, although the published update does not confirm that the process was completed or provide a final list of included features.

The working group will also move from two meetings per week to a weekly schedule as its activity shifts from coordinating the completed upgrade to longer-term Dijkstra planning.

Nested Transactions and Linear Leios Target 2026 Mainnet

Intersect identifies Nested Transactions and Linear Leios as the first two phases of the planned rollout.

Nested Transactions introduce a ledger-level model for batching partially complete transactions. Individual sub-transactions can be unbalanced or omit fees and collateral, provided that an aggregator combines them with a top-level transaction that satisfies those requirements for the complete batch.

The proposed design could support multi-party swaps, transaction fee sponsorship and applications in which users submit offers without approving every other participant included in the final batch.

Linear Leios extends Ouroboros Praos with additional transaction-processing capacity. Block producers create Endorser Blocks alongside Cardano’s regular Ranking Blocks, while stake-derived committees validate those blocks and produce certificates for their subsequent inclusion in the main chain.

The design aims to increase transaction throughput while retaining the security properties of Cardano’s existing Praos consensus system.

Peras and the Next Cardano Hard Fork Remain Open

Ouroboros Peras is listed as the next component of the initial Dijkstra roadmap, but Intersect has not published a mainnet delivery target for it. Peras adds stake-based voting that gives selected blocks additional weight, reducing the time required to reach strong settlement confidence under normal network conditions.

Constitutional updates required for the Dijkstra era are expected to follow the hard fork’s enactment, with community discussion beginning earlier. Intersect has also opened its Constitutional Amendment Portal for alpha testing, providing a structured environment for preparing and discussing proposed changes to the Cardano Constitution.

The name of the next hard fork also remains unresolved. The working group currently intends to use the name of Alexander Esgen, while a separate on-chain Info action proposes “von Bergen” in memory of Fabian von Bergen.

The first Dijkstra package still lacks a published final scope and settled name. Those details must be completed before the upgrade can be presented through Cardano’s formal hard fork governance process.