Welcome to Intersect update #113

Yes, it’s a long update this week, but that's a reflection of the pace of activity across the Cardano ecosystem. This update covers news of the van Rossem upgrade, the launch of Hydra voting for the 2026 budget process, leadership elections across newly onboarded committees, and the latest supplier milestone delivery from Midgard Labs. We also welcome Tangem as a new Enterprise Member, recap May's Monthly Members Meeting, and shine a light on the connective work Intersect carries out across the ecosystem every day. These updates aim to provide a reliable reference point that you can return to week after week.

Read on for the full picture.

Contributors: Bosko M, Kevin H, Hard Fork Working Group, Parameter Committee, Intersect Technical Steering Committee

Cardano upgrades

The Hard Fork Working Group has decided to defer the van Rossem hard fork initiation governance action on mainnet, pending PreProd Testnet hardfork and community testing.

A revised mainnet submission target is now June 8, a go-no-go decision scheduled with desire to submit then after the epoch boundary. If submitted on June 8, the potential mainnet hard fork dates would be June 23, 28, and July 3, 8, 13, 18. These potential dates are dependent on DRep, SPO and CC ratification.

Node v11.0.1: This is the latest stable release and is recommended for all ecosystem participants ahead of the hard fork.

DB-Sync: The inflated epoch.out_sum and epoch.fees issue from May 20 (occurring at the first epoch boundary after restart, rollback, cache miss, or upgrade) has been properly resolved in version 13.7.1.0.

Upgrade to 13.7.1.0 is recommended; 13.7.0.5 remains van Rossem-compatible but requires the migration script from the release notes.

Key Timeline Dates

• Mainnet hard fork: submission deferred from May 29; new targeted submission date is June 8.
• PreProd hard fork: Enactment date set for June 5.
• Mainnet Plutus Cost Model Update: Parameter update governance action was submitted on mainnet on May 26. With potential enactment dates of June 8, 13, 18, 23, 28, and July 3.

Upgrade readiness

• Ogmios is forked, and will be made van Rossem compatible shortly through the respective transparent PR, and it will give much needed time to Ogmios author to assess changes from his perspective and merge into the original code for the mainnet fork enactment moment.
• Daily readiness assessments continue, with the next formal decision point at the working group meeting.

Operational aspect: The Hard Fork Working Group continues meeting twice weekly to maintain coordination across wallets, infrastructure providers, exchanges, tooling teams, and node integrators as rollout sequencing progresses through Preview and PreProd stages.

Readiness tracking has been collaboratively maintained during the working group calls to better reflect overall ecosystem preparedness.

In Memory of Max van Rossem: “...On January 11 2026, after Max's passing, his son Max Louis Hans van Rossem was born. He will grow up in a world where the blockchain his father helped shape carries his family name, a hard fork named not for a product or a protocol milestone, but for a human being who gave his time, his mind, and his heart to a decentralized future he believed in.…” 
Contributors: Civics committee, Thomas L, Ian H, Intersect, Intersect Steering Committee, Simo S, Intersect 

Civics Committee Updates

Working Group Updates

• Governance Incentives: The group continues to refine its master incentives mapping document and gather feedback on Cardano Problem Statement 20 (CPS-20). The group is considering on-chain polls to gauge ecosystem sentiment regarding DRep compensation, and the fine line between public service and the risk of power concentration. The Working Group meets weekly on Tuesdays at 12:00 PM UTC.
  
  
• Constitutional Amendment Process (CAP): While testing continues on the portal's migration to a dedicated database, a concept was submitted pushing for stricter constraints around periodic independent audits. The goal is to address loopholes where proposals allocate generic line-item budgets for self-audits without naming independent, third-party vetting bodies. The Working Group meets weekly on Thursdays at 9:00 AM UTC.
  
  
• Ecosystem Budget & Strategy: The committee published its official responses to feedback left on the Civics budget proposal. During the session, members highlighted a stark ecosystem imbalance: out of 350 million ADA in the current network limit, roughly 200 million has been allocated to infrastructure and growth, while zero funding directed toward governance initiatives. The committee will sync with representatives from IOG next week to align on long-term governance strategy and pain points.
  
  

If you want to get involved in balancing the scales for Cardano governance, jump into our working group sessions or join the conversation on Discord!

Recently closed governance actions

 

Live governance actions*

 *data from 2026-05-28 at 1600 UTC

Contributors: Simo S, Budget committee, Duncan S, Intersect 

2026 Budget Process Update — Hydra Voting Underway

Hydra Voting for the 2026 Budget Process is now underway and will remain open until June 12, 2026 at 12:00 UTC.

Current participation continues to grow, with:

• 25 DReps having cast votes so far
• Representing approximately ₳953.3 million in voting power
• Average proposal participation currently at 72.1%

To move forward through the Intersect budget process, proposals must achieve 67% approval of participating stake within Ekklesia.

Following the close of voting, an audit period will take place before final results are published and qualifying proposals move forward into Treasury Withdrawal preparation.

If you're a DRep and haven't voted yet, we encourage you to review the proposals and participate before voting closes.

Community members are also encouraged to engage with their DReps and help ensure strong participation in shaping the 2026 Cardano ecosystem budget.

📂 Hydra Voting Platform

📘 Voting Guide

Current Highest-Supported Proposals Snapshot*

*Snapshot taken during active voting. Results will continue to change as additional DReps participate.

Intersect Admin Update

This week’s supplier spotlight is on Midgard Labs, who recently submitted milestones 2-5 as part of their Optimistic Rollups Project – a modular framework for deploying optimistic rollup Layer 2s on the Cardano blockchain, designed to enhance transaction throughput, reduce costs, and enable advanced decentralized applications.

These milestones include:

• Milestone 2 - Onchain Smart Contracts:
• Operator registry contract
• FIFO state queue
• Deposit/Withdrawal contract
• Phase 1 fraud proof contract
• Deployment & testnet integration guide
• Milestone 3 - Offchain SDK & Tx Builder:
• SDK repo with core APIs
• Tx Builder fork with Midgard logic
• Code examples & developer guide
• Milestone 4 - Midgard Node MVP:
• Node MVP (GitHub repo)
• REST API for Tx submission and block querying
• Validator logic implementation
• Milestone 5 - Fraud Proof Engine Completion:
• Complete fraud proof contracts
• Proof verification tooling
• Testing suite

Further information

The submitted Milestone Acceptance Forms can be viewed via the Treasury Smart Contracts UI Dashboard.

Progress can be found via the project’s Open Source Repository.

The technical specification of the project can be found in the Anastasia Labs repo.

Contributors: Larisa M, Intersect 

Intersect, the Coordination Layer Behind the Ecosystem

Now the 2026 Budget Process has moved into its voting phase, attention is likely going to move focus to individual proposals and governance, - balanced and thoughtful decisions will need to be made.

A reminder that for now, all community members can continue to read the proposals through the Hydra voting tool, ask questions, share feedback, and participate in discussions throughout the voting period. These conversations remain an important input for DReps as they evaluate proposals and help them make informed voting decisions.

Over recent months, Intersect has supported a huge range of ecosystem functions, including committee operations, Constitutional Committee elections, budget administration, governance action processing, hard fork readiness coordination, delivery assurance, supplier management, constitutional workstreams, community workshops, member events, and governance education initiatives - really, just to name but a few.

Many of the activities Intersect performs aren’t products, protocols, or individual projects. The work carried out is often the connective tissue that helps hundreds of contributors, organizations, committees, vendors, and community members work together effectively across a decentralized ecosystem.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be highlighting these functions in more detail, helping make visible the operational work that Intersect carries out day to day that continues to support Cardano's governance and ecosystem coordination.

Open Source Summit 2026 - Minneapolis, MN USA

The Open Source Committee, in collaboration with Cardano Foundation, secured a Gold Sponsorship at this prestigious event. Four OSC members and eight community builders, including Tex (Terence McCutcheon), OSC Secretary, attended. They participated in numerous talks and engaged with conference participants about Cardano as an open source project. Each attendee agreed to provide a video update from the event. Catch up here: Open Source Summit 2026, Minneapolis, MN - Highlight Reel. 

 

Contributors: Abhik N, Ian H, Larisa M, Intersect.

This week, we welcome Tangem as a new Enterprise member. 

Tangem is known for making digital asset self-custody more accessible through secure, user-friendly hardware wallet solutions. Their focus on simplifying how people store, manage, and use crypto aligns strongly with the wider goal of making blockchain more practical and approachable for everyday users.

As Tangem joins Intersect, we look forward to exploring how their products and expertise can support Intersect members and the wider Cardano community, particularly around member benefits, education, and secure self-custody awareness.

Welcome to Intersect, Tangem. We’re excited to have you onboard and look forward to building together.

Intersect monthly members meetings - May

The final Thursday of every month means it's time for Intersect’s Monthly Members Meeting, a regular opportunity for members and the wider community to stay informed about current initiatives and connect with others across the ecosystem.

This month's session covered a range of topics, including the 2026 Budget Process, Constitutional Committee Elections, hard fork readiness, committee activities, and an enterprise spotlight featuring Sundial Protocol.

Every month members can join live via YouTube or X to hear updates directly from Intersect teams and ecosystem contributors.

Following the livestream, members are invited to continue the conversation in the Virtual Hub through the Intersect members area. The sessions provide a fun opportunity to meet fellow members, engage with newly elected committee representatives, ask questions, share perspectives, and participate in open discussion.

Monthly Members Meetings take place on the last Thursday of every month, with livestream access available via YouTube and X, followed immediately by the member-only Virtual Hub session.

You can recap and watch May’s session on YouTube.

Newly elected committee members

We are pleased to welcome our newly elected committee members and update on the process they undertake as they join. Over the past weeks, Intersect have hosted onboarding sessions to help new members transition smoothly into their roles. Onboarding covers committee structures, expectations, governance responsibilities, ways of working, and the support available throughout their term. To ensure accessibility across our global community, we offered multiple sessions to accommodate different time zones, ensuring all participants had a consistent experience.

As committees begin transitioning into active work, the next phase will include introductions and collaboration among new members, and the election of chairs and vice chairs. This phase will run throughout June. While timelines may vary between committees depending on readiness and availability, all elections are expected to be completed by the end of the month.

A huge thank you goes to all newly elected members for stepping forward to contribute, as well as to existing committee members, and everyone supporting the onboarding process.

Job vacancy at Intersect

We’re looking for a Procurement & Legal Lead to help strengthen and mature our procurement, contracting and legal operations.

This is a remote-first position, with some expectations of travel when required. There is the option to collaborate in person in our London workspace (Tower Hill) if you are based in London.

For more information and to apply, visit the Intersect website.

What’s on next week

UK Cardano Meetup

On Saturday, May 30, Discover Cardano will be hosting a Meetup event in Loughborough, UK. A full day event running from 9AM - 5PM and is aimed at those that have an interest in getting further involved with the community, governance and learning more about what Cardano has to offer.

Constitutional Committee elections 2026

There are regular CC Election Process AMA sessions scheduled every Tuesday throughout the upcoming CC elections. Times alternate weekly to accommodate different time zones. These sessions are open for anyone with questions about the role or needs help with technical resources.

Next session: Tuesday, June 2 2026, 3PM - 4PM UTC

Subscribe to the Luma Calendar

van Rossem hard fork

Now that progress towards the hard fork is in full swing, the Hard Fork Working Group meets every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe to the Luma calendar

Monthly SPO call

The monthly SPO call takes place on Thursday, June 4, 2026 at 3PM UTC on the “IOG’s Technical Community” Discord.

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. Subscribe to the public Google and Luma calendars.