📣 We’re happy to report that today IOG and the Cardano Foundation have submitted an update proposal to hard fork the Cardano Pre-Production Environment. This environment matches mainnet configuration and will allow the community to continue final-stage integration/upgrade testing before the final countdown to the Vasil upgrade on Mainnet on September 22nd.

👉 For your reference, here are the key dates:

-September 19th - Mainnet update proposal needs to be submitted by this date to trigger HFC event on 22nd
-September 22nd - Mainnet HFC event (era transitions from Alonzo -> Babbage)
-September 27th - Plutus V2 Cost Model available on Mainnet

With over 95% of testnet blocks being created by the Vasil node (1.35.3), the top Cardano DApps tested and confirmed ready, and top exchanges continuing to make good progress on their updates (now over 55% by liquidity), we are confident we are still on track and will be able to proceed with triggering the hard fork at the appropriate time.

Thanks to all of the community who have helped us reach this point!

Thank you for your ongoing support! 🙏

Hello 👋

📣 Reminder that IO ScotFest will begin shortly. Be sure to tune in live on Twitter, Youtube or LinkedIn! Links below:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6996927632785207296/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8rT05tORYk

Hello! 👋

It’s been a great (and extremely busy) year for the Cardano ecosystem, with Consensus2022, the Vasil upgrade, new community events, project launches, and so much more - there really is a lot to celebrate. 🥳

With this in mind, over the next few weeks the IOG team will be slowing down and taking some time off to enjoy the holiday season and reflect on what has been achieved so far.

If you have any questions or concerns for IOG during this period, please reach out to one of the team in Discord, and for any node related issues, please log them in GitHub here: https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node.

Thank you for your ongoing support, this year wouldn’t have been possible without you 🙏

Enjoy the holidays! 🎄

Hi @here! 👋

As IOG, Emurgo, and the Cardano Foundation prepare for the Protocol Version 8 upgrade, we wanted to reach out to you as a valued member of the Cardano community to verify that a target release of early February would work for you and your teams. As always, we are committed to ensuring that SPOs, DApp developers, and exchanges have the time they need for updating their node versions, testing, and any integration work.

With over 70% of blocks already being produced by a node that supports Protocol Version 8 (node version 1.35.4), we wanted to gauge your own readiness as we prepare for the first release of the new year.

We’ve put together a brief survey to collect for your feedback; so, based on your current testing readiness, please indicate your preferred timeline for the upgrade below, and state a reason for your choice.

https://input-output.typeform.com/to/KmJwNDcH

We’ll be closing this poll on Friday, January 6th at 1 p.m. UTC, and will use your feedback as an input into setting a final date. This collaborative effort will help ensure a smooth and seamless upgrade process, so we encourage you to also follow our channels for future updates and announcements, including our Telegram, Discord, and Twitter channels.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support 🙏

Hi everyone! Today IOG launches its custom sidechains toolkit ⛓🧰

We released a blog explaining (http://bit.ly/3GCxwqh), and we are opening a channel for community discussion in our Discord, #ask-sidechains. Join here: https://discord.gg/inputoutput

Hey @here! 👋

The next Cardano upgrade targeted for February will bring new built-in functions to Plutus, the smart contract programming language for the Cardano blockchain, to support ECDSA and Schnorr cryptographic signatures to make it easier for developers to build cross-chain applications.

Different blockchains use different cryptographic signature methods, such as ECDSA and Schnorr signatures, which are used in Bitcoin and Ethereum, among others.

Cardano uses the Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA) with elliptic curve Curve25519 as its base curve (Ed25519) which is fast, secure and small in size, but not compatible with ECDSA and Schnorr.

This upgrade will bring greater interoperability and secure cross-chain DApp development to Cardano, making it easier for developers to work with other blockchains. 👏

👀 Read more in IOG’s latest blog post here: https://www.essentialcardano.io/article/new-cardano-cryptographic-primitives-will-bring-greater-interoperability-and-secure-cross-chain-dapp-development

👉 DApp Call in Discord happening now: https://discord.com/events/826816523368005654/1080893542823628840

In this call, you'll hear from Lars Brünjes, Director of Education at Input Output, and CTO at GeniusYield, about the latest iteration of the Plutus Pioneer Program, updates on Genius Yield, and more! There'll also be a Q&A session at the end for you to ask any questions you have.

In September 2022 Input Output Global (IOG) introduced a new testing architecture for Cardano development, replacing the old single testnet model with a new two-level approach to better meet the needs of the Cardano technical community.

PREVIEW: With an epoch length of 1 day (compared to 5 days on mainnet) this long-term environment for early development is designed for devs to test the latest functionality (inc. new node versions). May be respun from time to time.
PRE-PRODUCTION: An environment that mirrors mainnet configuration, a long-term and stable environment for final-stage integration/upgrade testing. Will rarely be re-spun.

With these new environments now well established, we will shortly be deprecating the old Cardano testnet. While we don’t anticipate any disruption to developers – it has been closed to new deployments since September - we ask any ecosystem project still using the old testnet environment to migrate to either the preview or pre-prod environments before Monday, March 13th to avoid any service downtime.

For any questions or concerns, please reach out to one of the team in the ask-spo or builders-general channel in Discord.

Thanks for your continued support 🙏

🥑 I'm looking for a #DevRel Lead who is technically adept with a coding background while also being a good listener and strong communicator.

https://apply.workable.com/io-global/j/2C68C5F602/

@here starting now: https://discord.com/events/826816523368005654/1078333906991972472

Join us today in Discord for our April DApp Call https://discord.com/events/826816523368005654/1095771688668495993

The DApp call features Patrick Kolesar, Scrum Master for DApp Store & Lace, as a speaker. Patrik will be discussing the CIP72 initiative and its potential impact on the Cardano ecosystem.

CIP72 is a community-driven initiative aimed at creating a mechanism for DApp registration, discovery, and certification on Cardano. Patrik will be sharing insights on the inspiration behind the initiative and the issues it aims to address in the Cardano ecosystem. You will also find out how to get involved in the "Cardano Ecosystem Tools" initiative. 🥳

The event promises to be informative and engaging, so don't miss out! Mark your interest here https://discord.com/events/826816523368005654/1095771688668495993. We look forward to seeing you there! ❤️

IOG remains committed to the principles of open source and Cardano community collaboration, which will only strengthen in the age of Voltaire. For the past 12 months, in the spirit of transparency & collaborative development, the IOG Hydra and Mithril teams have been holding monthly open dev calls. Now, both the IOG Plutus and Consensus teams have established technical working groups under Intersect, following a similar approach. And you can get involved.

• First, the Plutus Working Group will hold its second meeting on Tuesday, June 11th, 14:00 UTC. The Plutus Technical Working Group focuses on the development and advancement of Plutus, which is the smart contract execution platform for Cardano. Plutus enables secure and reliable execution of decentralized applications (DApps) on the Cardano blockchain.
• Second, the Consensus team will host their first open meeting on Thursday, June 6th, 14:30 UTC, introducing UTXO-HD and the Peras workstream, to improve Cardano's settlement time, led by Arnaud (@dr_c0d3 on Twitter). Arnaud will also give a quick update on the Ouroboros Leios workstream as the team begins to move from the research phase into the prototyping and development phase.

To participate in these calls, sign-up to be a member of Intersect https://members.intersectmbo.org/registration and you’ll receive an invite to the Discord server in the welcome email, where you'll find meeting links. All are welcome!

For the latest on other developments from the IOG engineering teams, check out the weekly development report as of May 30, 2024 https://www.essentialcardano.io/development-update/weekly-development-report-as-of-2024-05-31

We'd like to thank Intersect for their support in facilitating these initiatives and promoting a more collaborative approach to Cardano's development. Also special mention to our Ouroboros-network team, who took the first step to help pilot this program in partnership with the open-source committee (OSC) and holding true to the open-source development outlined in Intersect’s Governance Policy.

Help spread the word by sharing with a friend or colleague who could contribute to Cardano's growth!

Chang upgrade guide for dapps

Join us Thursday at 1pm UTC for our second dedicated walkthrough of the reference info dapps should use to prepare for the Chang Hard Fork, followed by a Q&A session. The agenda for this event is as follows:

1. Cost Model
2. Migrating a Dapp from Plutus V2 to Plutus V3
3. Q&A + Other reference info
4. Call To Action - signal your team's readiness

We anticipate that most people will be travelling for Rare Evo or unable to attend at short notice. That's ok! The call will be recorded and shared as a wrap-up summary of reference info for dapps to upgrade. If you have questions left over from the July 18th call, or just want a refresher, it's an open door 💪

🔹 Add the event to your calendar here: https://evt.to/eeomaiogw
🔹 Agenda details + important links here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D1OnjiDW2plyX-Qu63u0VVApunMNx3gkATI9a6IilvA/edit?usp=sharing

The target for mainnet hardfork is Tuesday 27th August, with a final go/no go decision scheduled for early Friday 23rd August. https://x.com/IntersectMBO/status/1825946121765896609

Chang dapp upgrade Q&A

Join IOE and Intersect's Hard Fork WG Thursday at 3pm UTC for a final dedicated walkthrough of the reference info dapps should use to prepare for the Chang Hard Fork, followed by a Q&A session. The agenda for this event is as follows:

1️⃣ Intro: 'Minimal Viable Chang' for DApps (15m)
- node upgrade
- cost model
- plutus v2 / v3
2️⃣ Structured Q&A (30m)
- testing and PreProd
- cost model support
- script support
- v3 and CIP-0069
3️⃣ Closing (15m)
- call for final questions / final comments
- CTA

We hope to see you there!

🔹 Add the event to your calendar here: https://evt.to/eeoisshgw
🔹 Details + important links here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D1OnjiDW2plyX-Qu63u0VVApunMNx3gkATI9a6IilvA/edit?usp=sharing

Greetings! 👋 re: Open office session and preprod fork.

The IO Engineering team, along with some other members of Intersect's Hard Fork Working Group (HFWG), are having an open office session, Monday 3-3:45pm UTC, to provide support and answer questions about upgrades for the Chang hard fork. Some additional reminders:

🔹 Mainnet hard fork target: September 1st. Intersect announced on Friday that based on consensus of the HFWG, the Mainnet hard fork target has been moved to September 1st.

🔹 Preprod forked-- We do recommend using Preview to test features before they get to Mainnet, but if you planned to test on Preprod instead, now is the time! 🙂

🔹 If you'd like to review the recording and notes from our past developer readiness walkthroughs, you can do that here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D1OnjiDW2plyX-Qu63u0VVApunMNx3gkATI9a6IilvA/edit?usp=sharing

Add Monday's open office session to your calendar here: https://evt.to/eeosdmahw

Chang technical Q&A

Join IO Engineering an other members of the HFWG Thursday at 2pm UTC for a final technical Q&A covering what to expect leading up to the hardfork, providing support, and reiterating what anyone not yet caught up with the rest of the ecosystem should do to prepare for the Chang Hard Fork.

ICYMI 👀 - Intersect's Hard Fork Working Group has set the hard fork date: September 1st.

The agenda for this event is as follows:

Network update (10m)
- HF lead up and event, what to expect
Review of upgrade info for devs (15m)
- costplan and reference scripts
- plutus v1/v2 // v3
- migrating from v2 to v3 + CIP 69
Structured Q&A (15m)
Closing (5m)

We hope to see anyone at this call who is catching up or is just interested in engaging with the HFWG— all systems go!
https://x.com/IntersectMBO/status/1828792949204832753

🔹 Add the event to your calendar here: https://evt.to/eehgiouiw
🔹 Info + links for devs here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D1OnjiDW2plyX-Qu63u0VVApunMNx3gkATI9a6IilvA/edit?usp=sharing

The Intersect Cardano Product Committee is running this survey with the aim to gather initial input which will help create a Cardano roadmap proposal. Please respond to it. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScBcVsUDfT1yTccitYGgupeNHe33AkuAbCREgeKbIjAht8AjA/viewform

Join us for the November SPO Call this coming Thursday, 15:00 UTC.

🔹 We'll be talking node 10.1.1, Chang #2 timelines, and ecosystem readiness.

🔹 We'll also hear updates from IO Engineering, the IO Partnerchains team, and Intersect's Parameters Committee.

You can join the call in discord, we'll be sending a reminder with a calendar link next week.

We look forward to speaking with you!

https://discord.gg/fWr3fnKnr8?event=1291679326940565575