Welcome to Intersect’s update #105

Contributors: Bosko M, Hard Fork Working Group  

Cardano Upgrades 

The performance and testing team have identified a possible cause for the performance and memory issue in 10.7.0 pre-release. Therefore, the 10.7.0 pre-release will not be promoted to a mainnet ready release. We will prepare a 10.7.1 to include fixes for this issue and an issue in consensus that is causing occasional failures. 

Cardano Node 10.7.1

• Pre-release is available now – 10.7.0-pre-release
  •  Performance and memory issues fixes will be included in the version 10.7.1 
• The ecosystem is encouraged to start testing 10.7.0 pre-release and integrating against this node version – now is the time
• Be aware, due to changes in storage shape, a full resync of network is required for this release

Plutus Cost Model Changes 

As part of this upgrade, all Plutus cost models will be updated. This is to add costing for new Plutus builtins (see full scope description) and enable Plutus builtin consistency across all Plutus versions.

Further alterations to the cost model have been newly proposed by the Parameters Committee, in conjunction with the IO Plutus team (see forum post). Proposing to increase the CPU cost coefficients for several core integer arithmetic operations in Plutus V3, specifically divideInteger, modInteger, quotientInteger, and remainderInteger, all jumping from 549 to 960 CPU units (roughly a 75% increase). Additionally, the cost curve for equalsByteString is being altered across Plutus V1, V2, and V3.

The key ecosystem concern is that any on-chain scripts currently operating near their CPU execution budget that rely heavily on these integer operations could begin failing after the update (this is likely a very rare case), since the same logic may now cost more to execute.

While the Parameter Committee believes it's very unlikely that live contracts will actually break, they're urging all smart contract developers to proactively test their scripts against the new cost model on the Preview network.

The governance action to update the Preview testnet cost model is planned for within the next seven days.

As with all Cost model changes, it is highly recommended that tooling dynamically pulls the latest cost model from on-chain to avoid issues with script data hash mismatches.

Contributor: Ian H, Intersect

Recently closed governance actions

No governance actions have closed since the last Weekly Update. 

Live governance actions*

1. Cardano Budget Process Framework (facilitated by Intersect)

Type: Info Action ℹ️
Expires: 4th Apr 2026 (Epoch 623) 🗓️
Progress Report:

• CC votes: 4 🟢 | 1 🔴 | 0 ⚪️ | 2 ⏳
• DRep votes: 65.00% / 51%
• SPO votes: Not counted but the ledger allows a vote (6.15%)

Thresholds: Info Action will run until 4th April 2026, proposal seeks >51% DRep active voting stake support to proceed with the process
More Info: Proposal | Vote Progress

2. Dingo: a Production-Grade Block Producer in Go by Blink Labs

Type: Treasury Withdrawal 💰
Expires: 9th Apr 2026 (Epoch 624) 🗓️
Progress Report:

• CC votes: 4 🟢 | 0 🔴 | 0 ⚪️ | 3 ⏳
• DRep votes: 31.99% / 67%

Thresholds: 5/7 CC members, 67% DRep active voting stake
More Info: Proposal | Vote Progress

3. Cardano Defi Liquidity Budget - Withdrawal 1

Type: Treasury Withdrawal 💰
Expires: 9th Apr 2026 (Epoch 624) 🗓️
Progress Report:

• CC votes: 4 🟢 | 0 🔴 | 0 ⚪️ | 3 ⏳
• DRep votes: 43.50% / 67%

Thresholds: 5/7 CC members, 67% DRep active voting stake
More Info: Proposal | Vote Progress

4. Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund

Type: Treasury Withdrawal 💰
Expires: 14th Apr 2026 (Epoch 625) 🗓️
Progress Report:

• CC votes: 5 🟢 | 0 🔴 | 0 ⚪️ | 2 ⏳
• DRep votes: 40.71% / 67%

Thresholds: 5/7 CC members, 67% DRep active voting stake
More Info: Proposal | Vote Progress

5. Approve Cardano Foundation as New Managing Entity of Project Catalyst

Type: Info Action ℹ️
Expires: 19th Apr 2026 (Epoch 626) 🗓️
Progress Report:

• CC votes: 3 🟢 | 0 🔴 | 1 ⚪️ | 3 ⏳
• DRep votes: 63.21% / 50%
• SPO votes: Not counted but the ledger allows a vote (5.58%)

Thresholds: Info Action will run until 19th April 2026, proposal seeks >50% DRep active voting stake support to proceed with the process
More Info: Proposal | Vote Progress

6. Pebble + Gerolamo - HLabs 2026 Budget

Type: Treasury Withdrawal 💰
Expires: 29th Apr 2026 (Epoch 628) 🗓️
Progress Report:

• CC votes: 2 🟢 | 0 🔴 | 0 ⚪️ | 5 ⏳
• DRep votes: 12.39% / 67%

Thresholds: 5/7 CC members, 67% DRep active voting stake
More Info: Proposal | Vote Progress

*data from 2026-04-02 0830 UTC

Contributors: Budget committee, Larisa McF, Intersect 

Intersect administration services update

Intersect has published an updated overview of its administration services for 2026, outlining how approved treasury-funded work is supported from governance approval through to project completion.

The administration function exists to provide the operational bridge between governance decisions and delivery. This includes drafting legal contracts, setting up smart contracts, overseeing milestone reviews, supporting vendors, verifying deliverables, and maintaining public reporting so the community can follow progress over time. Knowledge base pages will be updated over the next week to provide full details of these services and how the community can access them.

Since the service was established in August 2025, Intersect has administered more than 325 million ada in treasury funding across 45 projects, while maintaining milestone tracking, quality assurance, and transparent reporting throughout project lifecycles.

Explore the Knowledge Base pages as they’re refreshed to understand how funded work is managed, monitored, and reported across the ecosystem, or read the full blog in the meantime.

Contributors: Growth and marketing committee, Terence M, Larisa McF, Intersect 

Cardano’s Dune integration is now live!

To mark the launch, the Pentad has built a showcase Cardano Overview Dashboard acting as an entry point for Cardano analytics.

We are excited to announce that, as of now, community members can also create their own dashboards; querying chain data, building custom visualisations, and publishing them publicly.

Full documentation is available at docs.dune.com.

Further data is being added in the coming weeks, including DRep delegation distribution, Treasury fund flows, and stake pool metadata. Further dashboards covering governance health are also on the roadmap. We'd encourage the community to start exploring, build your own dashboards, and share feedback - what metrics matter most to you?

What dashboards would you like to see next?

The Critical Integrations program continues moving from approved proposal to real-world delivery, bringing long-standing infrastructure gaps in Cardano closer to resolution.

Approved in late 2025 with more than 80% DRep support, the program was developed collaboratively by the Pentad: Input Output Group (IOG), Cardano Foundation, EMURGO, Intersect, and Midnight Foundation. The goal is to strengthen Cardano’s competitiveness in DeFi, institutional adoption, and interoperability by delivering core infrastructure across stablecoins, oracle data, analytics, custody, and cross-chain connectivity.

Here’s a snapshot of the current status:

USDCx launched on Cardano mainnet on February 27, becoming the network’s first tier-one stablecoin. Since launch, more than 15 million USDCx has been minted, growing Cardano’s stablecoin supply and improving the liquidity available for lending, trading, and payments.

Pyth Network, the first confirmed oracle provider under the program, is also progressing well. Smart contracts are code complete, audits are underway, and the integration is currently targeting an early Q2 launch. Once live, Cardano builders will be able to access institutional-grade price data to support DeFi applications such as lending, stablecoins, and derivatives.

LayerZero, announced earlier this year, represents the largest cross-chain connectivity expansion in Cardano’s history. The integration connects Cardano to more than 160 blockchains, enabling new opportunities for cross-chain assets, liquidity, and applications. Given the differences of Cardano's EUTXO model compared to account based, the team is taking a considered approach to the architecture and design of the integration, ensuring it is built to the highest standard.

Intersect continues to act as administrator for the Critical Integrations budget, supporting contracts, delivery coordination, and operational oversight across Pentad members.

Contributors: Abhik N, Intersect, Lara B, Intersect, Ian H, Intersect, Valeria D, Intersect, Ryan W, Intersect, Fred T, Intersect

The Intersect Committee Elections officially launched on Monday, March 30. The candidate application phase is now open and will run until April 17. Don't miss your opportunity to get involved and be part of shaping the committees. If you’re interested in contributing to Cardano’s governance, this is your chance.

This week, Intersect has launched a dedicated series of X spaces to support the committee elections cycle of April 2026. The first session was a kick-off X Space covering the election timeline, key dates, and the improvements that have been implemented based on the community’s feedback from last year.

On Tuesday, March 31 2026, we hosted a “Meet the Committees” spotlight, where representatives from the Open Source and Intersect Steering committees joined to share their experiences, what their committees are all about and why they’re worth getting involved in. More sessions are coming. Subscribe to the Intersect Elections Luma Calendar to stay in the loop.

You can find all relevant Committee X accounts here:

Budget, Civics, Growth & Marketing, Membership & Community, Open Source, Product, Technical Steering

What’s on next week:

Intersect committee elections

Subscribe to the Luma calendar 

1. X Space: Intersect Committee Elections '26 #2 : Get to know - MCC, GMC & TSC
   Tuesday, April 7 2026 at 1530 UTC

Virtual Hub: Meet the Committees – Open Source, TSC and Product Committee
Thursday, April 9 2026 at 1400 UTC
How to join the Virtual Hub guide on X

Exploring the 2026 Cardano Budget Process, Tokyo workshop

A budget process workshop hosted by Intersect, presented by Emurgo in Tokyo, Japan.

Wednesday, April 8 2026 | Luma calendar

Regular schedule

“Inside the van Rossem Upgrade: Weekly Community Q&A” X Space hosted by Intersect Technical Steering Committee
Thursday, April 9 2026 at 1430 UTC | Luma calendar 

 Governance workshop in Tokyo 

As the Cardano ecosystem approaches a critical juncture in its decentralized evolution, Intersect will host a governance workshop in Tokyo on April 8 during the TEAMZ Web3/AI Summit. As the member-based organization supporting Cardano’s governance framework, Intersect plays a central role in enabling informed participation and coordination across the ecosystem.

Titled “Shaping the 2026 Ecosystem Budget Together,” this session comes at a key moment as the community enters the 2026 budget cycle.

Japan has long been one of Cardano’s most important communities, holding a significant share of voting power and consistently contributing to the network’s stability, participation, and long-term orientation. They have played a defining role in Cardano’s journey from early adoption to sustained participation in staking and governance. This workshop is designed to support deeper engagement among Japanese DReps and community contributors, ensuring governance participants – particularly DReps – are informed, aligned, and prepared to contribute meaningfully to the global budget process.

The session will offer a practical, structured deep dive into the 2026 budget cycle, including the roadmap ahead, strategic alignment against long-term KPIs and Vision 2030, and a focused effort to identify and address barriers to broader participation.

At its core, this is a working session designed not just to inform, but to engage. The program will feature expert insights from Kris Kowalsky of the Budget Committee, as well as presentations from Frederik Gregaard (Cardano Foundation) and Phillip Pon (EMURGO).

This event also reflects a simple reality: Cardano’s future cannot be shaped effectively without Japan’s perspective.

By convening structured forums like this, Intersect continues to strengthen its role as a facilitator of globally coordinated governance grounded in local insight and dialogue.

We are stronger because of the Japanese community, and together, we will continue to shape Cardano’s future.

Enterprise Member Spotlight: Inversion 

Inversion builds custom software solutions to help its clients achieve goals and solve their problems, and with over a century of combined experience across various industries, the team has developed the deep technical skills and expertise needed to deliver high-quality solutions that exceed its clients’ expectations.

Inversion can support and step in as a development partner to meet the needs of a growing operation. Whether it’s to up-skill an existing team, ramp up quickly with a fully managed team, maintain a legacy system, or augment a team to meet targets, Inversion has a bespoke solution to fit client needs. Its commitment to the Cardano ecosystem goes beyond “blockchain-friendly” as the team is deeply familiar with the Cardano ecosystem, its unique features and capabilities, and they have built a number of successful solutions relating to Cardano.

Previous solutions include applications for minting, burning and managing non-fungible tokens (NFTs), staking and delegation, chain data monitoring and analytics, as well as web3 apps that integrate with the blockchain for a high-quality user experience.

“In addition to our technical expertise, we are also passionate about the ethos of the Cardano community and the values that drive the project. From a commitment to security and transparency, scientific research and review, a focus on sustainability and innovation, and inclusive accountability in governance, Cardano represents a powerful vision for the future of decentralization technologies and the role they can play in driving progress and improving the world’s systems, and ultimately people’s lives,” - Inversion.

Inversion is a passionate, active contributor to Cardano and a proud Intersect Enterprise Member.

That’s it for this week’s update. Thank you for reading. To learn more about Intersect’s work, explore our Knowledge Base, which provides detailed information on governance structures, committees, and funding.

Join the conversation on Discord, and follow us on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn to engage with fellow members, working groups, and the broader community.

Your voice helps shape the future of Cardano governance.