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!
If you are interested in receiving the Community Digest in the future directly via email, please sign-up here!
In this edition of the Community Digest, we highlight:
-
State of the Cardano Developer Ecosystem Survey: The Cardano Foundation’s 2026 survey invites developers and builders to share feedback on Cardano’s tools, libraries, documentation and resources. Responses will be recorded on-chain, with the survey open until November 30.
-
Leios & Dijkstra Testnet: Input Output outlined a staged rollout for Leios, targeting 3–5x current throughput initially, with later parameter updates aiming for 10–15x. The public Dijkstra testnet is now open to SPOs.
-
IOG Research: Five new papers explore cross-chain security, consensus, post-quantum cryptography, privacy-preserving governance and the long-term economics of Proof-of-Stake networks.
-
CIP Updates: New proposals cover regulatable stablecoins and post-quantum signature verification, while two proposals have been completed, including CIP-0204 on holder answers to governance actions.
-
Ecosystem Highlights: Cardano PRIME announced its first nine funded teams, Midnight expanded its privacy ambitions across other networks, and Cardano Dev Skills v2 is in development.
-
Spotlight on Cardano Content Creators: Catch up on explainers about nodes, stake pools and scaling, a closer look at bringing Bitcoin into Cardano DeFi through Bifrost, and practical guides to Cardano wallets and Midnight.
-
Community Learning & Developer Engagement: Sessions explore automated payments with x402, the new Cardano Research Exchange, and a hands-on Hydra technical workshop.
-
Cardano Foundation Updates: 5am.earth’s agricultural data project has registered 100,000 farms in India on Cardano. The Foundation also shared its response to the EU’s MiCA consultation, announced a Cardano Academy collaboration with the University of Nicosia, and published a case study on blockchain-backed police evidence management.
-
Intersect & Governance Updates: Intersect returned 115,172 ada in unspent funds to the Cardano treasury, shared updates on Dijkstra readiness and the upcoming Node Diversity Workshop, and highlighted three active treasury withdrawal proposals, including the ₳22 million Cardano Strategic Copper Reserve.
All this and more in today’s Digest.
CTA: State of the Cardano Developer Ecosystem Survey
Heads Up Cardano Builders! The Cardano Foundation has now opened the 2026 State of the Cardano Developer Ecosystem survey. Here is an opportunity to share your experience and help shape the developer tooling and resources you rely on daily.
Whether you’re developing DApps, writing smart contracts, running a stake pool or working with Cardano in another capacity, the survey looks to gather feedback on everything from libraries and SDKs to documentation and developer tooling. And the good thing about this is that it only takes around 15 minutes to complete and is available in nine languages. Pretty neat, right?!
There’s also something new this year: survey responses will be permanently recorded on-chain and linked to an Info Action. Yes, you read that correctly! “survey responses will be permanently recorded on-chain”. Note that the survey will remain open until 30 November 2026.
So if you’re building on Cardano, take a few minutes to share your experience. The feedback really does help decide future engineering priorities, and who better to contribute than the people working with these tools firsthand? Have your say at devsurvey.cardano.org.
Leios Is Coming: A Staged Rollout, and the Public Dijkstra Testnet Is Open
Input Output recently shared a detailed look at how Leios will make its way to Cardano mainnet. The Dijkstra hard fork is the starting point, with capacity increasing in stages as mainnet performance is tested and validated. The initial target is 3–5 times today’s throughput, with later parameter updates aiming for 10–15 times.
The rollout involves five steps, from constitutional guardrails and the hard fork to SPO registration of BLS voting keys, mainnet load testing and capacity increases. Endorser blocks and committee voting will help Cardano handle higher transaction demand without slowing regular transactions.
And if you’re curious to dig deeper into the details, then perhaps its good to note that the public Dijkstra testnet is officially up and running on node version 11.1.3, featuring accelerated one-day epochs alongside access to the Kleioscan explorer. Stake pool operators can jump in and begin onboarding by leveraging the setup configurations available directly within the Cardano Book.
Read the full Leios rollout overview and Intersect’s Dijkstra testnet update for the details.
IOG Research: Five New Papers Published in October
IOG researchers published five new papers this October, covering topics ranging from cross-chain security and consensus mechanics to post-quantum cryptography, privacy-preserving governance and the long-term economics of Proof-of-Stake networks.
The research explores how blockchain bridges can be formally tested for security, how GHOST consensus behaves under adversarial conditions, and how cryptographic key sharing can remain secure without relying on the irreversible deletion of old key shares. Another paper looks at privacy-preserving opinion aggregation, with potential applications in on-chain polls and decentralised governance. The fifth examines how PoS networks can maintain economic security as token reserves decline and transaction fees take on a greater role.
Five different research questions, each touching on challenges that matter for the long-term security, scalability and sustainability of blockchain systems.
Explore the individual papers and their findings via the IOG Research Library.
Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIP) Updates
This week, Robert Phair’s snapshot is all about future-proofing Cardano. Regulatable stablecoins and quantum-resistant smart contracts are on the table, governance metadata is getting a best practice guide, and two proposals have been completed.
New Proposals
(CPS draft) Standardisation of Regulatable Stablecoins - so far tracking 2 problem statement submissions — one focusing on compliance concerns across jurisdictions, and one prefacing technical solutions for discovery of new programmable token features.
CIP-0206 candidate: Post-Quantum Signature Verification Builtins - another submitted potential signature scheme to provide quantum resistance at the level of Plutus smart contracts.
Active Review
(issue) Interaction & discoverability of governance metadata schemes - evolving the need for a “best practice” document explaining how the layered metadata & property schemas for Cardano’s on-chain governance components are extended and interpreted.
Completed
- CIP-0204 | Holder Answers on Governance Actions
- CPS-0037 | Application and transaction friction in minUTxO implementation
Cardanians: Weekly Ecosystem Updates
Cardanians. Cardano Newsletter #146 went out on 26 October as a nine-post thread on X. Three teasers: Cardano PRIME announced its first nine funded teams in the 12-month, ₳120M DeFi program; Midnight’s “Nightmode” extends privacy features to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron; and Cardano Dev Skills v2 is in development with support for Claude, Codex and Cursor.
Cardano Newsletter: Weekly Cardano Digest #149
Lucas Macchiavelli released Weekly Cardano Digest #149 on October 19. Highlights include Intersect returning unspent operational budget, the on-chain registration of 100,000 Indian agricultural plots using Cardano metadata, and the latest Project Catalyst pilot selecting 12 projects for a 2 million ada fund. Read the complete issue on the Weekly Cardano Digest #149 Page. .
Spotlight on Cardano Content Creators
This week, there’s quite a lot to catch up on across the Cardano content scene. From wallet guides and Midnight tutorials to Bitcoin integrations and the next steps for Cardano DeFi. Definitely a nice mix of content this time around.
The Cardano Record continued its Crypto from Zero series with two new explainers. Episode #7, Who Runs Cardano? Nodes, Relays and Stake Pools Explained, published on 22 October, breaks down the different roles keeping the network running. Episode #8 followed on 24 October with How Blockchains Scale: Cardano’s Block Limits, Leios and Hydra, taking a closer look at the approaches being explored to scale Cardano. A good pairing if you’re keen to brush up on the basics and then dig a little deeper.
Over at Builders Bench, Cardano Ambassador Peter Bui, better known as astroboysoup, sat down with FluidTokens to explore Bifrost. The interview looks at how Bifrost aims to bring Bitcoin into Cardano DeFi, including its approach to Bitcoin security and a walkthrough of the testnet. Definitely one for those curious about where Bitcoin and Cardano could meet beyond the usual conversations.
Choosing a wallet shouldn’t require a research project of its own, and @Mb_you_know has put together a beginner’s guide to choosing a Cardano wallet. It compares options such as Lace, Eternl and Vespr, giving newcomers a starting point for figuring out which wallet works best for them.
For the Midnight crowd, Gero Wallet shared a tutorial on generating DUST and sending NIGHT. It walks through the practical steps involved, making it a useful resource for anyone looking to get familiar with the process rather than just reading about it.
Last but certainly not least, Cardano Prime hosted a live session on Cardano DeFi and the founders working towards $200 million in TVL on 27 October. Joining were teams from its first cohort - all working across DEX infrastructure, lending, automated liquidity, bridges, real-world assets and on-chain payments. What makes this session interesting is the fact that you now get to hear directly from the teams about what they’re building and the gaps they’re trying to address. After all, growing TVL is one thing; building the infrastructure and user experience that give people a reason to stick around is another. Definitely Worth a watch.
Community Learning & Developer Engagement
A bit of everything for those looking to learn something new across the Cardano ecosystem. This week’s selection covers automated payments, research, scaling and developer tooling. Some useful sessions to catch up on, whether you’re building on Cardano or simply curious about what’s happening under the hood.
x402: Build, Pay, Automate with Thomas Kammerlocher: What happens when software and AI agents can pay for services without someone having to approve every transaction? In this developer session, Thomas Kammerlocher breaks down the x402 payment protocol and how it can be used with Cardano to enable automated, on-chain payments. The session explores how services can request payments through standard HTTP responses and how this could open the door to new kinds of autonomous workflows. Watch the full session on YouTube or on X.
Cardano Research Exchange #1: The Cardano Foundation recently launched the Research Exchange. The aim is to create a space where researchers and anyone contributing to Cardano research can present their work, engage directly with the Cardano Community, exchange ideas, and receive live feedback to help challenge, refine, and further develop their research. The first session introduced research initiatives at the Foundation, including mathematical and economic modelling around staking incentives and minimum pool parameters. Catch the full session on YouTube and on X.
Hydra Technical Workshop: Curious about how Hydra works beyond the theory? This technical workshop with the Hydra engineering team gets into the practical side of Cardano scaling, covering Hydra Heads, state channels, the interaction with Layer 1 and how to set up a local environment for dApp development. A useful one for developers who want to get their hands dirty and explore how Hydra could fit into their applications. Watch the workshop and Q&A on YouTube or check out theX version.
Updates from the Cardano Foundation
**The Cardano Foundation has put out a handful of updates in the last ten days, spanning its stance on EU crypto regulation, new Cardano Academy partnerships with universities, and Cardano-backed projects tracking farmland in India and police evidence in Uttar Pradesh.
**
On October 21, the Foundation announced that 100,000 farms in India are now registered on Cardano through 5am.earth’s agricultural data project. As outlined in the Syngenta Foundation India case study, the project gives each farm a digital identity tied to satellite-verified land boundaries, so banks, insurers and agribusinesses can check records independently. That is a big jump from roughly 15,000 farms reported in June. crypto
An X Space has also been scheduled for October 28th at 14:00 UTC. Use the following link to join live, or re-listen at a later moment
The same day, also on October 21st, the Foundation published its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on MiCA. The post argues that more regulation does not necessarily mean better regulation, and focuses on keeping a clear boundary between MiCAR and existing financial-services rules such as MiFID II. cardanofoundation
On October 22, the Foundation announced a new Cardano Academy collaboration with the University of Nicosia. According to the announcement on X, the Academy will teach Cardano fundamentals and the eUTxO model in the university’s online blockchain course, and the Foundation is sponsoring 25 places in the advanced track. Registration closes on November 2, and the course starts on February 8, 2027. crypto
Finally, on October 26, the Foundation shared a new case study from Uttar Pradesh. Every scan and lab result is hashed on-chain, live on active cases. The TrivolveTech FMS case study explains how the system was built to remove the case identifier that makes evidence tampering possible.
Intersect MBO Updates
In its Weekly Update #134, “Receipts”, Intersect shared that it had executed the SweepTreasury function on mainnet for the first time, returning 115,172 ada in unspent funds from its 2025 Treasury Reserve Smart Contract to the Cardano treasury. You can find the announcement on X. The newsletter also covers the latest CAP updates and upcoming workshops.
Executive Director Jack Briggs discussed the idea of “one member, one vote” in a recording from TOKEN2049, while Intersect shared an interview with Cardano Foundation’s Josi, recorded at the Intersect booth.
On the governance front, Update 39 covers the opening of the Dijkstra testnet to SPOs and shares details about the upcoming Node Diversity Workshop.
As of 22 October, three treasury withdrawal actions were live: the Cardano Strategic Copper Reserve, requesting ₳22 million for RWA tokenization, and the AURORA and Trivolve Tech PFMS proposals. The Copper Reserve action closes on 15 November, while the other two close on 20 November.
The Cardano Strategic Copper Reserve proposal was also the focus of the 27 October episode of Governance Hour, where Toto Finance’s CEO sat down with Nicolas Cerny, Governance Lead at the Cardano Foundation, to take a closer look at the proposal and its ₳22 million treasury request. If you missed the live discussion, you can catch the recording on YouTube or X.
Cardano Forum Top 10 Referred Topics
Topics that have received the most clicks from external sources. (last 10 Days)
Developers Office Hours #84: Meet Mesmo (23 October)
- Beyond treasury votes: How to verify Cardano’s public funding?
- Cardano Weekly: Opportunities & Participation #6 | October 19, 2026
- Governance data shows rising participation but concentrated power
- Free ADA supply tracker: how much new ADA comes out
- Peras Weekly Update | 16 October 2026
- Governance Hour #12 | Cardano Strategic Copper Reserve | ₳22M RWA Tokenization (27 October)
- Introducing CryptoRich Stake Pool [CRICH]
- The C Research Framework for a chain
- Cardano Academy Go to College: university collaboration map and opportunities for Indonesia
Upcoming Community Events
- 29-10: Roundtable Talk, CIP-113: What Programmable Tokens Mean for Regulated Assets (14:00 UTC). Teams working on regulatory requirements discuss practical applications and where the gaps still are. Luma
- 29-10: CAP Review (15:00 UTC, Google Meet). Editors work through the live proposals in the open, including the fourth drafts of CAP-12 and CAP-3. Luma
- 29-10: Cardano Vision 26: Light Client Technical Workshop (15:00 UTC). Input Output Research on light client designs, their security trade-offs and the path to production. Luma
- 30-10: Developer Office Hours #85: CIP-113, hands on (15:00 UTC). How to build with the new programmable token standard. Calendar
- 12-11: Node Diversity Workshop, London (12-13 November). Organized by the Amaru team; invitations open until 5 November. Agenda
For more weekly events, visit Cardano Events
Many thanks and greetings from the Community Team!
Version française du Digest du 28 octobre 2026