Hydra v2 Nearly Doubles Glacier Drop Claim Throughput in IOG Test

IOG Compares Two Hydra Versions

Input Output reported that Hydra v2 achieved approximately 1.9 times the claim throughput of version 0.22.4 in a Glacier Drop benchmark published October 22.

The company recorded 79 claims per second on the newer software, compared with 42 on the earlier release. Total processing time for the 24,576-claim workload fell from 590.4 seconds to 339.1 seconds.

The test was conducted by the team that operated the Hydra Head during Midnight’s 2025 Glacier Drop, rather than the Hydra core developers. The team alternated three runs of each version on the same host, with individual results remaining within 3% of their respective version’s median.

IOG identified the newer implementation as Hydra v2 without specifying a benchmark release tag.

Each Claim Executes Three Plutus Scripts

The workload consisted of transactions built by the team’s claim-processing pipeline, using actual scripts and signatures over generated allocations.

Each claim executed three Plutus scripts. The benchmark therefore measured a workflow with contract validation, giving developers a comparison relevant to that application rather than a simple transfer test.

The result applies to this particular workload and configuration. Applications with different contracts, transaction structures, or participant arrangements can have different performance characteristics.

Hydra is Cardano’s layer 2 protocol for processing transactions within shared environments called Heads. Participants agree on updates outside the main chain, while the protocol provides a path to settle funds on Cardano. The benchmark measures processing within that environment, not additional Cardano mainnet capacity.

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Deposits and Withdrawals Change Head Operations

The report also describes how Hydra v2 changes the management of funds.

A Head can open without an initial balance and receive deposits afterward. Participants can also withdraw funds to Cardano while the Head remains operational, reducing the need to close an entire session when its available balance changes.

For a recurring distribution service, this supports replenishing funds and processing further claims within an existing Head.

The Glacier Drop comparison brings those operational changes together with a measured reduction in processing time. A workflow previously run on version 0.22.4 completed the same claim set more than four minutes sooner on the newer implementation.