Welcome to the Cardano Community Digest!
Published by the Cardano Foundation Community Team every two weeks, this Digest will provide you with news, updates and events about the project and ecosystem!
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In this edition of the Community Digest, we explore the growing excitement around Ouroboros Leios, with Pi Lanningham’s detailed insights and Matthew Capps hosting a live X Space deep dive on Leios’ design and long-term impact. We highlight Martin Lang’s release of cardano-signer 1.25.0 with improved signing and key generation features, Rick McCracken’s June SPO call notes including Cardano Node updates and scaling news, plus an extensive recap of Azteca 2025 bringing together over 400 Cardano community members in Mexico. Also featured are IOG’s blog on node diversity and modular design, a spotlight on Cardano France’s FRADA stake pool, and EMURGO’s May newsletter unveiling CEO Phillip Pon’s vision for Real-World Asset tokenization. All this and more in today’s Digest.
Additionally, we’d like to inform you that Blog | Cardano serves as a central hub, routing ecosystem information directly to you. Community members can contribute by providing their own updates. For more information on how to contribute, visit cardano.org/docs.
Ouroboros Leios in Focus: What the Community is Saying About Leios
In recent weeks, there’s been a lot of discussion about Ouroboros Leios. It’s a major redesign of Cardano’s consensus protocol, aimed at boosting scalability and transaction throughput. Many see it as the “next leap” for Cardano, pushing the network far beyond current limits.
Pi Lanningham shared a detailed post explaining the design, performance, and trade-offs behind Leios. He highlights the importance of scalability, transparency, and community input to keep Cardano on a sustainable path. Read his full post here.
For a clear look at how prototyping is going, check out Pi’s conversation with community dev Andrew Westberg on the NerdOut YouTube channel. The conversation also touched on the economic motivation behind Leios. According to Pi, currently, stake pool operators (SPOs) are paid mostly from the reserves set aside at the launch of the network—but those reserves are gradually depleting. If Cardano is going to be self-sustaining, it needs to generate enough fees through higher transaction volume, which he believes Leios can help achieve. Watch the video here.
Matthew Capps from IOG also hosted an X Space titled Leios Deep Dive, featuring Pi and others. They discussed the broader context of Leios and why it matters for Cardano’s long-term future. Listen to the recording here.
CeXplorer recently published a great breakdown of what makes Leios different and why it might be a game-changer for blockchain scalability. Check out the article here.
Martin Lang: New release: cardano-signer 1.25.0
Martin Lang, Cardano Ambassador and operator of the ATADA stake pool, well known for his SPO scripts, recently released version 1.25.0 of cardano-signer. The new update brings a wide range of improvements. Two that stand out: a more robust CIP-8/30 verification function, and smarter handling of the protected_header, now only re-encoded to CBOR hex when needed.
Another handy update—generating pool keys via --path pool or --path 1853H/1815H/0H/0H now includes extended Bech32 keys in the --json-extended output, like: “secretKeyBech”: “pool_xsk1…” and “publicKeyBech”: “pool_vk1…”.
To give more context on what cardano-signer actually does, we reached out to Martin. Here’s how he explained it:
“Cardano-Signer was created in 2022 out of the need for a multifunction tool to sign and verify all kinds of data. You can sign with a secret key and verify with a public key. It supports Catalyst registration (CIP-36), Calidus pool key info, and governance metadata (CIP-100/108/119). One of the core functions is data signing using CIP-8—something recently showcased with the Ekklesia voting platform.
You can even generate Payment, Stake, Pool, Calidus, or DRep keys from Shelley or Ledger/Trezor hardware wallet mnemonics. And with 1.25.0, CIP-8 witness signing for governance metadata is now also supported.”
Rick McCracken: Cardano SPO call notes June 5
On June 5th, IOG hosted another monthly SPO call. Community member and DIGI stake pool operator Rick McCracken shared a detailed breakdown. Highlights include the release of Cardano Node 10.4.1 with UTXO-HD, cutting memory use from 16GB to 4GB — great for edge nodes and db-sync setups. Node 10.5.0 is in the works with improved peer syncing and GHC updates. The TSC is proposing a phased increase to memory execution units, with strong feedback from dApp devs. Rick also recaps the latest on Leios, scaling potential, and ecosystem updates from NuNet and Midnight. Check out his X post for the full summary.
For a cardano-node 10.4.1 UTXO-HD in-memory backend tutorial, here is a short video provided by IOG Academy (part 2 of the tutorial can be viewed here)
Recap, Azteca 2025: Cardano Community Events in México
Azteca 2025 brought the Cardano Community in Mexico together with over 400 attendees across two vibrant days in Puebla and Tlaxcala. From inspiring talks and practical workshops to powerful panels on governance and adoption, the event showcased Latin America’s growing role in the Cardano ecosystem. Over 150 new wallets were created live, marking a major step in onboarding. Organized by Community (Mexico and Latam) backed by Project Catalyst and supported by Cardano Foundation, IOG, and Intersect, Azteca 2025 proved the region is ready to lead. The recap also features a video highlighting key moments from the event. For the full story, check out the recap on the Cardano Forum.
Additionally, there is a recap of Cardano Night – Special Meetup in Da Nang, Vietnam on June 8, 2025, from Cardano Ambassador Ha Nguyen, which can be read here. The event was held as part of Super Vietnam 2025, the biggest Blockchain & AI week in Vietnam. It was organized by Cardano Ambassadors Ha Nguyen and Mie Tran, representing the Cardano Vietnam Community, with support from the Cardano Foundation (Ambassador Program – Impact Pot) and Project Catalyst.
IOG Blog: Cardano Node’s Evolution Towards Diversity and Modular Design
IOG has recently published a blog covering the evolution of Cardano nodes and the need for a push toward greater diversity and modular design. As the network scales, introducing multiple node implementations is seen as critical for decentralization and resilience. Among other things, the blog outlines key improvements such as LSM trees for better memory management, updated SPO incentives, anti-grinding protections, and a tiered pricing model to ease congestion. For more details, check out the full blog here.
A Spotlight on Stake Pools: Cardano France [FRADA]
Recently, FRADA pool was featured in the latest “A Spotlight on Stake Pools.” Victor, the operator, explains how receiving the Cardano Foundation delegation in April 2023 allowed him to upgrade the pool’s setup with multiple relays and better security. With his IT security background, Victor has created tools like a security audit script and a KES rotation helper that make running a pool easier and safer. To learn more about Victor’s work and FRADA’s impact on Cardano, check out the full blog..
EMURGO May 2025 Newsletter
EMURGO’s May 2025 newsletter shared some important updates. They announced a move to allocate their Genesis ADA to smaller, independent DReps. The newsletter included an interview with EMURGO’s new CEO, Phillip Pon. He laid out a vision focused on Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization, which he believes could be a “$450 trillion breakthrough.”
They also highlighted five key RWA tokenization sectors to watch, like stablecoins and US Treasuries. The newsletter also reflected how active the Cardano community has been in voting on Treasury withdrawal mechanisms. For this and more check out the full newsletter here.
Cardano Reddit Top 10 Most Engaged Topics
Below are the most engaging topics on Reddit
- Why I Chose Cardano
- NASDAQ crypto index NCIUS Cardano integration approved by SEC
- Cardano and $1.6T Asset Manager Franklin Templeton Eye Policy-Driven Blockchain Push - Crypto News Flash
- Cardano (ADA) is establishing big wins in Europe! Join Gianna as she reveals how a major Bitcoin Treasury in Norway will be utilizing the Cardano blockchain.
- Cardano Unveils 39 Proposals Under New Budget Framework
- Cardano Breaks Through: Amaru Funded, SNEK Partners with IOG - Learn Cardano
- Cardano News: HUGE PARTNERSHIPS
$ADA $BTC Wins of the Week #28 - cattle daddy media - Cardano Foundation and UNHCR: Pioneering Blockchain for Humanitarian Impact (article)
- Cardano’s Secret Edge: The Metrics Nobody Talks About! - Late Game Crypto with Josh Noriega
- Building on Cardano? Join us in Berlin on 12 June!
Cardano Forum Top 10 Referred Topics
Topics that have received the most clicks from external sources. (last 10 Days)
- Should DReps Be Paid? A Conversation We Need to Have
- Joint workshop with node developers and Antithesis engineers
- Empowering the Future: From a 100,000‑Student Dream to Sandbox’25 – How Remostart and UCSCN Are Shaping Africa’s Blockchain Landscape
- Node Diversity Online Show & Tell Session #2
- How Can Cardano Solve This Business Problem?
- About evm compatibility & cardano
- [ECC-GA17-RATIONALE] 2025 Cardano Blockchain Ecosystem Budget - 7.5M ₳ for community builders
- [CF-GA14-RATIONALE] Cardano Blockchain Ecosystem Budget: Amaru Node Development 2025
- Feb 13, 2025 Voltaire era: Parameter committee intermediate state
- African Blockchain Community Cardano Francophone Meeting - Challenges & Solutions
Upcoming Community Events
- 06-12 Intersect MCC Meeting: Join in to stay up to date with Intersect’s MCC progression - link.
- 06-12 Christopher Greenwood: On Cardano Over Coffee: About the Guest: Apex Fusion: Advancing Cardano’s Vision, Bridging UTxO and EVM Communities Built by Cardano OGs - link
- 06-12 Product Committee: On Cardano Over Coffee: This is discuss the Product Comm 2030 vision roadmap and to talk about the workshops that have been done along with those that are upcoming - link
- 06-12 Maureen: On Cardano Over Coffee: The project is YAM. It is my stake pool on the Cardano network. It’s a small, fun pool that I started because I wanted to keep things light, honest, and a bit funny while supporting the network - link
- 06-12 Berlin Blockchain Week: Chain Reactions: How Startups Are Shaping Cardano - Venture Hub by the Cardano Foundation, in partnership with w3.hub Berlin and CryptoInvest Berlin, invites you to an exclusive evening. Learn more about the promising startups emerging from the Venture Hub program - link
- 06-13-14 Berlin Blockchain Week: Cardano Hackathon and Networking - We’re running a 24-hour hackathon during Berlin Blockchain Week that brings together people who are excited about Web3, AI, and blockchain. Come to meet interesting people, throw ideas around, join a team with complementary skills, or just check out what everyone’s building - link
- 06-14 Berlin Blockchain Week: Community Rave 001 -More than just a party. It’s the meeting point for those shaping the future of culture in the digital age—connecting Music, Art, Fashion, and Web3 - link
- Complete overview of the Berlin Blockchain Week events: Berlin Blockchain Week · Events Calendar
- 06-14 2025 Korea Cardano Community Townhall: CC Election & Quadratic Voting, w/ Cardano Ambassador Oscar Hong: For the June town hall, we’ll be introducing the upcoming Constitutional Committee (CC) elections and discussing the concept of Quadratic Voting, which is being considered to strengthen the separation of powers within governance - link
For an overview of weekly events, visit the Cardano Calendar
Many thanks and greetings from the Community Team!