Cardano Hard Fork Scheduled for Next Month, Midnight Launch Imminent

Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson confirmed during a Feb. 19 livestream that the network is on track for a hard fork 'next month.' This will coincide with the launch of Midnight, another project he expects to arrive in the coming weeks.

Hoskinson described the convergence of these two parallel tracks as protocol and developer-stack upgrades on one side, and the Midnight network launch on the other. He noted that even experienced teams find it challenging to ship major chains like Midnight.

He also highlighted ecosystem developments, including a LayerZero integration connecting Cardano to more than 80 blockchains, and USDCx - a stablecoin-like asset designed for non-EVM systems that preserves 'privacy' and can't be frozen. He called this the 'best compromise' for a tier-one stablecoin in the ecosystem.

Hoskinson expressed satisfaction with the pace of progress on Leios, the long-awaited scalability upgrade, which remains scheduled for delivery sometime this year. He flagged additional near-term milestones including a new Plutus version, continued Aiken development, node diversity and the integration of Pyth as a 'tier one Oracle' for Cardano.

Hoskinson used the livestream to argue that the industry's central battle is shifting from enforcement actions to questions of custody and settlement architecture. He warned about factions pushing to route crypto transactions through permission federated networks owned by large financial institutions, which he sees as a threat to user freedom and control.