Cardano's Hard Fork and Midnight Network Launch Confirmed by Hoskinson
Cardano is on track for a hard fork next month, according to founder Charles Hoskinson. In a recent livestream, he confirmed that the network's Leios scalability upgrade remains scheduled for delivery sometime this year.
Hoskinson framed the coming weeks as a convergence of two parallel tracks: protocol and developer-stack upgrades on one side, and the Midnight network launch on the other. He described Midnight as a project unusually difficult to ship even for teams with experience launching major chains.
On ecosystem developments, Hoskinson pointed to a newly announced LayerZero integration that connects Cardano to more than 80 blockchains. He also drew attention to a stablecoin-like asset called USDCx designed for non-EVM systems, which preserves 'privacy' and 'can't be frozen.'