Cardano is inviting the community to consider the next major upgrade:
The “Useboros Leios” Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) is currently available in the Cardano Foundation repository.
On August 27th, Nicolas “Berewt” Biri, Director of Software Architecture at Input Output, announced the release of Leis CIP. It’s too early to celebrate the upgrade, but he says the submission is an important milestone and the team wants to ensure that the community agrees to it first.
So here we know that there is a published and submitted CIP for Leios. More than ever, it’s time for Feedback.https://t.co/s3acahbfyk
It may be too early to celebrate as we want to make sure the community agrees to it first, but it is a big milestone.-Nicolas `Berewt` One (@berewt) August 27, 2025
Design and trade-off review
Bili said the team is reviewing design choices and trade-offs. The coverage area includes detailed LEIOS variants, implementation materials (formal specifications and mini-protocols), trade-offs, potential positive effects on script budgets, and resistance to attacks.
He added that the team had planned to submit PR by the end of August. The draft includes feedback on failed transactions and is intended to have minimal impact on DAPP.
Communities discuss security, speed, and decentralization
Not all community members are confident that Cardano can achieve higher throughput without compromising.
One user questioned whether the network needs to make the same trade-offs as Solana to achieve speed. Bili replied that Cardano deliberately avoided the path and chose a balance that did not sacrifice decentralization or security.
Do you compromise on how different it is from Solana? All these days were pointed to them, and now we say we need to compromise. Does Solana understand and resolve this issue?
-AR (@ashishranjan04) August 28, 2025
He added that Cardano’s security model limits the optimization of certain speeds. This means that to match the speed of Solana, it will need to reduce decentralization, reliability, or cost-effectiveness. So far, the Cardano community has not been willing to embrace that approach.
The community has approved $71 million in funding for the upgrade
Earlier this month, the Cardano community approved 96 million ADA (approximately $71 million) to fund a one-year core upgrade.
The proposal was passed with 74% approval, marking the first time that Treasury funds were directly allocated to core development.
These moves have put Cardano on a major step towards high-throughput, scalable and community-driven development.
