A governance action to initiate the “van Rossem” hard fork has been submitted on the Cardano mainnet. This move officially begins the on-chain process to upgrade the network to Protocol Version 11.
The proposal was submitted on June 16 during Epoch 637. It follows weeks of testing and preparation on Cardano’s Preview and Preprod test networks.
What the Upgrade Does
This is an intra-era hard fork, not a transition to a new major era. Such upgrades allow the network to introduce improvements while minimizing disruption for wallets, exchanges, and decentralized applications.
The van Rossem upgrade is designed to add new features and lay the groundwork for the next major era in Cardano’s roadmap: Dijkstra. That future phase is expected to bring Leios, a scaling design aimed at achieving higher throughput, to the mainnet.
Previous testnet work focused on updating the Plutus Cost Model and ensuring hard fork readiness. A mainnet update to the Plutus Cost Model was ratified in late May and scheduled for enactment on June 18.
A Community Tribute
The hard fork is named in memory of Max van Rossem, a Cardano community member who died in October 2025. He was described by Intersect as a developer, stake pool operator, and builder within the ecosystem.
The naming itself was decided by governance. A prior action to name Protocol Version 11 after van Rossem received 83.62% support from Delegated Representatives (DReps) and was backed by 4.44 billion ADA.
What Happens Next?
The hard fork initiation proposal now requires ratification by the network’s governance bodies, including DReps and the Constitutional Committee. Possible ratification dates span from June 23 to July 18.
If ratified quickly, the hard fork could be enacted as early as June 28. The final possible enactment date is July 23. The governance action itself is set to expire on July 18, creating a defined window for the process to complete.
This process serves as another live test of Cardano’s on-chain governance system, which has recently been under scrutiny due to disputes over research funding and treasury spending.
Based on reporting from crypto.news.