Cardano Dijkstra Hard Fork Set for Late 2026 and 2027
Cardano is gearing up for one of its most significant technical transitions yet. The Dijkstra hard fork, scheduled to begin in late 2026 and continue into 2027, will introduce new transaction capabilities, consensus improvements, and changes to the blockchain's underlying node infrastructure.
The upgrade will be implemented in two phases: the first phase is expected to reach the Cardano mainnet in late 2026, introducing Nested Transactions and Linear Leios. The second phase, planned for the second quarter of 2027, will introduce Peras through an intra-era hard fork.
Amaru, a new node implementation written in Rust, is also being developed as an alternative to Cardano's established Haskell-based node. Amaru is expected to begin producing blocks on the Cardano mainnet in November 2026, potentially giving stakeholders more flexibility and reducing dependence on a single implementation.