Charles Hoskinson: Cardano Could Be 60 Times Faster by Year-End Through Scaling Roadmap

Cardano’s 2026 scaling roadmap returned to the center of ecosystem discussion after a video clip from a recent interview with David Gokhshtein circulated across X and YouTube. In the clip, Hoskinson said: “At the end of the year, we’ll be 60 times faster, and we have a beautiful strategy for how on a dApp-by-dApp basis, there’s infinite scale with Hydra, and how we can invite in all of these other networks using partner chains.”

The wording places the 60 times target inside a combined scaling strategy, rather than attributing it to a single upgrade. Leios addresses Cardano’s Layer 1 throughput, Hydra supports application-specific scaling, and partner chains extend the network’s interoperability model. The update is relevant now because Leios has moved from research and proposal work into public testnet validation.

Leios Moves Cardano Throughput Into Public Testing

Ouroboros Leios is a Cardano consensus upgrade designed to increase throughput while preserving the security properties of Ouroboros Praos. The public Leios testnet, called Musashi Dojo, gives stake pool operators, developers and infrastructure teams a live environment to test the new model before a future mainnet release candidate.

CIP-0164 describes Leios as a high-throughput protocol that adds supplementary blocks alongside the regular Praos chain. These Endorser Blocks reference additional transactions that would otherwise wait for future standard blocks. Before the transactions become part of the permanent ledger, the blocks go through committee validation for correctness and data availability.

Cardano.org has described Leios as a phased rollout intended to scale throughput capacity by 10x to 65x. That official range gives technical context to Hoskinson’s 60 times comment, while keeping the current status precise. Leios is in public testing, not live as a mainnet throughput upgrade.

Hydra Adds dApp-Level Scaling Outside the Main Chain

Hydra has a separate role from Leios. Leios targets Layer 1 throughput, while Hydra is a Layer 2 protocol that allows applications to process selected activity in separate execution environments. A Hydra Head can operate as an off-chain ledger between participants, giving a specific application faster transaction flow and lower latency before settlement connects back to Cardano.

Hoskinson’s reference to “infinite scale with Hydra” was tied to a dApp-by-dApp model. That means Hydra is not being positioned as a global Layer 1 throughput increase. It gives individual applications a way to move high-frequency or repeated actions into faster local environments when the use case supports that structure.

This matters for application categories where every action does not need to be processed directly on the main chain. Games, voting systems, micropayments, AI agent workflows, event tools and other high-frequency use cases can use Hydra-style execution while still maintaining a connection to Cardano’s settlement layer.

Partner Chains Extend the Scaling Model Beyond One Execution Layer

Hoskinson also connected the roadmap to partner chains, which add a third layer to the scaling strategy. Partner chains are not a replacement for Leios or Hydra. Their role is to allow specialized networks and external ecosystems to connect with Cardano’s infrastructure, security assumptions and economic model without forcing every use case into the same Layer 1 environment.

The roadmap therefore separates three infrastructure problems. Leios increases base protocol capacity. Hydra gives applications faster execution spaces. Partner chains expand the number of connected networks and use cases that can interact with the Cardano ecosystem.

The next operational phase is now centered on testing and preparation. SPOs can use Musashi Dojo to prepare for Leios-enabled node behavior. Wallet and indexer teams need to evaluate how higher throughput and new block structures affect data tracking. dApp developers can plan around a stack where base-layer throughput, Hydra execution and partner chain connectivity each serve a different function.

Hoskinson’s 60 times comment gives Cardano’s scaling roadmap a clear public target, but the implementation path remains multi-layered. Leios is being tested for Layer 1 capacity, Hydra is positioned for application-level execution, and partner chains are designed to widen the network surface while keeping the ADA economy connected to additional infrastructure and use cases.