1. Plutus Cost Model Adjustments (Critical Warning)
New benchmarking from the Plutus team has revealed the need for upward adjustments to certain cost parameters.
- C11 Parameter: Proposed increase from 543 to 960.
- Equals Byte String: CPU settings are being adjusted across Plutus V1, V2, and V3.
- Risk to Existing Scripts: This is the first time cost parameters have been revised upwards. This creates a risk for existing smart contracts that may have hardcoded transaction costs or pre-calculated budgets.
- Action Plan: The committee will launch a “strong notification” campaign via the Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and Intersect. Direct outreach to high-volume dApp teams like is planned. Here the comms: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hGgyzqxxw31slX40xYQ_0mdk_AdqrALYgFUmu6KaOPE/edit?tab=t.0
- Review Period: To allow developers to adapt, the committee will hold the final vote for at least one month to allow for community feedback.
2. Constitutional Committee (CC) Size Reduction
The Civics Committee has officially recommended reducing the minimum CC size from 7 to 5 .
- Governance Logic: While the goal is still to seat 7 members in future elections, the lower minimum provides an operational buffer against immediate “freezing” of governance if a member resigns.
- Sequencing: Based on technical advice, this change will likely be implemented after the Van Rossem hard fork and the accompanying Plutus cost model updates to avoid complicating the protocol upgrade path.
3. Incentives and MinPoolCost
The committee reaffirmed its support for Ryan (Cerkoryn)’s proposal to reduce the MinPoolCost.
- Target: 75 ADA (down from 170 ADA).
- Consensus: There is general comfort with this figure. While some members expressed a long-term interest in reducing the cost to zero, it was noted that such a move would require more significant changes to other protocol parameters (like the $a0$ pledge influence) to remain secure.
4. Memory Units: Measuring Success
The committee discussed how to quantify the value of the recent 17% increase in memory units.
- The Metric: Success will be measured by the number of transactions that specifically requested and paid for memory units exceeding the previous limit. This “economic demand” data will serve as the justification for any further increases in Part Two of the rollout.
5. Postponed Topics
- Transaction Fee (TXV) Reduction: This discussion is currently on hold. No formal Parameter Change Proposal (PCP) has been filed, and the committee noted that any reduction would require adjusting existing security guardrails.