Charles Hoskinson Responds to Failed Summit Vote With Hybrid Rollup Proposal for Cardano and Midnight City

Cardano Summit Vote Sparks Search for a New Format

The discussion comes only days after the Cardano Summit 2026 treasury proposal failed to secure the level of DRep support required for approval. The result became one of the most closely watched governance decisions since the launch of Voltaire era treasury voting.

Rather than pushing for a revised version of the same proposal, Hoskinson acknowledged the community's message and suggested that the ecosystem should rethink how flagship Cardano events are organized.

In a newly released video, he argued that hosting a standalone summit primarily for existing Cardano participants may no longer be the most effective use of resources, particularly in an expensive location such as Singapore. Instead, he proposed exploring a different model that could reach a larger audience while connecting Cardano more directly to the broader crypto industry.

Midnight City and TOKEN2049 Form the Core of the Proposal

Hoskinson's idea centers on combining two event layers into a single experience.

The first layer would be a virtual Cardano summit hosted inside Midnight City.

According to Hoskinson, the platform is evolving into a digital environment capable of hosting projects, livestreams, community spaces, hackathons and ecosystem showcases. Cardano dApps, DeFi platforms, NFT projects and other ecosystem participants could have dedicated areas where users interact directly with products and communities.

The second layer would be a large Cardano presence at TOKEN2049, one of the biggest crypto conferences in the world. Hoskinson suggested bringing together Midnight, Intersect and Cardano ecosystem projects under a larger shared footprint featuring a stage, exhibition area, hackathon, investor events and community gatherings. He argued that the scale of TOKEN2049 could provide significantly more visibility than a traditional standalone summit.

The proposal would also connect both environments through live broadcasts, allowing virtual participants inside Midnight City to engage with activities happening in Singapore in real time.

More Than a Conference, A New Cardano Event Model

One of the most notable aspects of the proposal is that it extends beyond the idea of a conference. Hoskinson described opportunities to showcase Leios development progress, present new developer tooling, bring Cardano builders together, organize investor meetings and host governance discussions involving major DReps.

He also framed the concept as a reusable model. If successful, the same approach could potentially be embedded into future industry events such as Consensus, Web Summit or other large international conferences, creating a repeatable framework for Cardano ecosystem engagement.

The failed Summit vote did not end Cardano’s event debate. It forced the ecosystem to define what a summit should actually do. Hoskinson’s Hybrid Rollup idea now turns that question into a practical governance test, whether Cardano can fund an event model built for global reach, builder visibility and participation beyond the conference floor.