Welcome to Intersect’s update #135: Shaping 2027

Intersect and ecosystem partners have put forward a new approach to Cardano’s 2027 budget, and feedback is open now. Node 11.2 has arrived as a pre-release, bringing Dijkstra testing closer, and stake pool operators have a security advisory to act on.
If you do one thing this week: read the budget proposal and share your feedback on DRepTalk.

Latest on Cardano upgrades

Security advisory for SPOs.

A critical Linux kernel vulnerability, CVE-2026-98432 (CVSS 9.8), affects many Linux distributions, including Ubuntu. Fixed kernel updates are already available for some distributions; others, including Ubuntu, are still preparing releases. If you run a stake pool, check which kernel your block producer and relays use, and apply the fixed kernel and reboot as soon as your distribution publishes it. We'll share more guidance on X and in SPO channels as it becomes available. Read the Ubuntu advisory.

Node 11.2 is out as a pre-release. It carries the full Dijkstra hard fork feature set apart from Leios, and will move DijkstraNet into the Dijkstra era so downstream teams can start integration testing. SPOs on DijkstraNet need to upgrade before the testnet hard fork. Check the breaking changes and known issues on the 11.2 release page first.

Node 11.3 includes Leios and is set to deliver the complete Dijkstra feature set. A tagged pre-release is realistically three to four weeks away, two at the earliest.

SPOs can now begin onboarding to the network using the config files available on Cardano book, which also hosts the link to the Dijkstra testnet faucet. Epochs are one-day in length and a Kleioscan explorer is also available. Happy testing!

Have Questions? Join the #wg-hard-fork channel on the Intersect Discord or email hard-fork@intersectmbo.org.
Intersect's Hard Fork Working Group meets weekly; see the Intersect Luma calendar.

Node diversity workshop
Preparations continue for the Node Diversity Workshop in London on November 12–13, organized by the Amaru team. The agenda includes examining future hard fork features from both implementation-cost and community-needs perspectives, helping inform how future upgrades are scoped and prioritized across an increasingly diverse node ecosystem. For those wishing to attend, invitations remain open until November 5, if you want to add people to the event please email the organizer Damien.

Civics updates

Are you still matched with an active DRep? Civics discussed in their weekly meeting the upcoming retirement of DRep keys announced this week by Emurgo, reflecting that delegation isn't a one-time decision. The Civics Committee is asking every ADA holder to take a few minutes in November to check who represents them, whether they're still active, and whether their votes and rationales still reflect your views. Keeping a DRep that suits you is an informed choice too. Tools such as DRepTalk, cgov's DRep picker can help you compare Dreps on more than voting power alone and with the retirement of these two large DReps, this could be an opportunity to increase decentralization and the spread of voting power. Civics will launch a “Check your DRep” campaign throughout November to watch out for.

Constitutional Amendment Portal (CAP) updates

CAP-12: Dijkstra era parameters. The proposed constitutional amendments for the Dijkstra hard fork are live on the CAP portal and the conversation is lively, with 20 revisions and 32 discussion entries at the time of publishing. Parameter values and guardrails may still change until Node 11.3 benchmarking is done, but the rest of the text is open for discussion now. SPOs, DReps and Constitutional Committee members who weigh in at this stage help shape the amendment before it reaches an on-chain vote.

Get started: head to cap.intersectmbo.org

Live governance actions*

( 🟢-Yes | 🔴-No | ⚪️-Abstain |⏳- Not yet voted )

*data from Adastat Oct 30 20:00 UTC
** SPO votes not counted for NCL outcomes but the ledger allows SPOs to vote on Info Actions
Follow vote progress with your favorite Cardano explorers:

GovTool | Tempo | Cexplorer | AdaStat | CardanoScan | CGov | Civitas | DRepTalk

A more strategic 2027 Cardano budget: have your say.

Cardano's first two budget cycles laid the foundations for decentralized treasury funding. They also left DReps facing a large volume of proposals that were hard to compare, with little expert guidance and a lot of time pressure. Intersect, working with the Cardano Foundation and ecosystem stakeholders including members, Input Output, the DRep Council and delivery partners, has proposed a new approach for 2027: the Cardano Ecosystem Budget Process (CEBP).

What would change: (In brief)

• Clear annual objectives, linked to Cardano 2030.

• The Net Change Limit (NCL) divided into seven budget domains.

• A steward for each domain, who sets out a strategy, suggests a budget cap and helps proposers bring clear, comparable proposals to DReps.

• An Open Contributions domain with no steward, so anyone can still go straight to DReps.

DReps would keep every decision: the annual objectives, how the budget is split, who the stewards are, and every treasury withdrawal. In the words of the proposal, "facilitation does not equal gatekeeping."

How it would be agreed.
Feedback now shapes a first info action on the overall approach, targeted for submission on November 10. If DReps support it, a second round follows in December or January, with one info action per stewarded domain and one setting the 2027 NCL. Any domain DReps reject rolls into Open Contributions. 2027 would be a trial year, reviewed before 2028.

Please tell us what you think. Read the full proposal and share your feedback on DRepTalk, or the Cardano Forum thread. We'll gather feedback over the next few days and respond to it in full shortly.

Delivery Assurance updates

Mithril: Snapshots over IPFS - Mithril had M1.1 and M1.2 approved, totalling ₳658,718.
Teragone completed a Proof of Concept validating the distribution and restoration of snapshots through IPFS, reducing reliance on centralized cloud infrastructure. The work covered aggregator and client updates, testing infrastructure, and a write-up of key findings and challenges. These results will inform development of an IPFS MVP, with cloud storage intended to serve as a fallback.

Can you find what you need on the treasury dashboard? What would make it more useful?
The Sundae Treasury dashboard shows how funds managed by Intersect are administered and paid out to vendors, milestone by milestone.

As the 2026 cycle gets underway, your feedback can help identify where information could be clearer, what’s missing, and what would make it easier to follow how treasury funds are being used. Whether you use it regularly or have only visited once, we’d welcome your views.
Take the anonymous, two-minute survey by November 6.

Intersect Knowledge Base tip of the week
Follow the hard fork as it happens on our knowledgebase. Wondering where the 11.2 and 11.3 timings above come from? Every Hard Fork Working Group call is written up in the meeting minutes on Cardano Upgrades. There's a record of every meeting back to December 2025, including the go/no-go call that led to the van Rossem hard fork. It's the place to see what's been agreed, what's still open and what's coming next on the road to Dijkstra. The latest minutes are from October 27.

Explore these features in detail, view the GitHub repository, and find the smart contract audits completed by MLabs and TxPipe on the Administration Services Hub pages.

Connecting with the community 
A hard week for the wider crypto community. On October 29, Binance reported that about $6.3 billion was stolen from its wallets, the largest crypto theft on record. Deposits and withdrawals are paused while it investigates, and Binance says it will cover the losses.
Our thoughts are with those affected. For updates, rely on Binance's official channels only.

Moments like this are a good prompt for us to check how we hold our own ADA. Self-custody, where you hold your own keys in a wallet you control, is a long-standing principle in crypto and close to the heart of a decentralized community like Cardano. It does also bring its own responsibility: keep your recovery phrase offline, never share it, and be wary of anyone who contacts you offering help. Scammers will often pose as exchange or wallet support after a big incident like this so do be extra cautious.

Membership updates

Members joined Intersect Insights live on October 29 on X for the Monthly Members Meeting. Missed it? Rewatch the meeting on YouTube.

Intersect Annual Member Survey 2026: Have Your Say!

As we prepare for the 2026 Annual Member Meeting, planned for early December, our Annual Member Survey is open, and we'd like to hear from every member.

Tell us what you value most about your Intersect membership, what makes taking part difficult, and what we should focus on improving. It takes five to six minutes, and your answers will help shape Intersect's plans and priorities for 2027.

👉 Complete the Annual Member Survey 2026 Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts!

Events and what’s on

What’s on next week: 

TSC session on post-quantum cryptography. The Technical Steering Committee hosts IO Research to talk through post-quantum security work for Cardano.

Developer Office Hours #86: BlockSign. The Cardano Foundation's Developer Office Hours welcome BlockSign on Friday November 6, 09:00 to 10:00 UTC. BlockSign describes itself as bringing asset operations, optional custody, DeFi access and legal e-signatures together for enterprises and professional investors. Register here, or catch up on past sessions in the YouTube playlist.

Node Diversity Workshop, London. The Amaru team hosts a second node diversity workshop at the London Marriott Hotel Canary Wharf on 12 and 13 November, for node implementation teams and ecosystem contributors. Invitations close on Thursday November 5. Follow Amaru on X for attendance details.

That’s it for this week’s update. Thank you for reading. To learn more about Intersect’s work, explore the 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.