{"id":71709,"date":"2026-02-10T11:01:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=71709"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:01:31","slug":"cardano-founder-reveals-leios-solves-the-blockchain-trilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=71709","title":{"rendered":"Cardano Founder Reveals Leios Solves The Blockchain Trilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Cardano is preparing a layer-1 upgrade it says will push mainnet throughput from roughly 10\u201315 transactions per second to hundreds, while keeping the network\u2019s decentralization and security profile intact. At a Tokyo community event<\/a> on the Midnight Japan Tour, Input Output\u2019s Michael Smolenski and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson framed Ouroboros Leios as both a scaling step and a broader consensus breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Smolenski, Cardano Core product manager at Input Output, told attendees Leios is \u201can upgrade to layer 1 to make Cardano faster,\u201d with active development underway and a target release \u201cthis year in 2026.\u201d He described the current throughput ceiling as suitable for proving out Ouroboros\u2019 design, but insufficient for the next phase of adoption and for the economics of stake pool operators (SPOs).<\/p>\n

Cardano\u2019s Leios Eyes 50x Speed Boost In 2026<\/h2>\n

\u201cUp until now the speed of the network has been around [\u2026] 10 to 15 transactions per second,\u201d Smolenski said. \u201cBut now we need to move on to higher transaction throughput in order to compete and drive further adoption. Another factor, SPOs, they in the long term need to support the cost of their operations from transaction fees instead of from block rewards [\u2026] they need to see network usage of around 50 transactions per second.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial Leios mainnet <\/a>release is pitched as a \u201c50 times improvement,\u201d with Smolenski translating that into an early move from roughly 10 TPS to around 500 TPS. Rather than sticking to transactions-per-second as the headline metric, he emphasized \u201ctransaction kilobytes per second\u201d to account for varied transaction sizes, calling out a target of \u201c300 transaction kilobytes per second\u201d and a confirmation window \u201cbetween 20 to 80 seconds,\u201d based on prototype results.<\/p>\n

Smolenski described Leios as Cardano\u2019s \u201cnext generation consensus protocol,\u201d built around additional block types. \u201cThere\u2019s a new block. It\u2019s called an endorser block,\u201d he said, adding that existing blocks would be referred to as \u201cranking blocks.\u201d The practical consequence, in his telling, is the ability to \u201cpack a whole lot more transactions\u201d by bundling them into endorser blocks, alongside other prioritization mechanics he did not detail on stage.<\/p>\n

He also stressed that scaling will be incremental to avoid overburdening node operators. The team plans to demonstrate higher throughput in steps, first targeting 500 TPS on mainnet, then proving 1,000 TPS in the near term, with an eventual ambition of 10,000 TPS<\/a>. \u201cWe can\u2019t just go from where we are [\u2026] and go up to 10,000 transactions per second because this needs to be done in a strategic manner,\u201d Smolenski said, repeatedly pointing to the need to \u201cbring the SPOs along with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

On timeline, he said a first public Leios testnet is targeted \u201cat the end of Q2 this year,\u201d ahead of a mainnet hard fork.<\/p>\n

Hoskinson: \u2018Not Just TPS\u2019 But The Trilemma<\/h2>\n

Hoskinson widened the frame, positioning Leios as the culmination of a decade-long research<\/a> and engineering pipeline. \u201cOuroboros Leios didn\u2019t begin in 2026 [\u2026] Leios actually began in 2016, 10 years ago,\u201d he said, describing \u201cmore than two dozen papers,\u201d \u201cdozens of protocols,\u201d and contributions spanning \u201cmore than 15 engineering firms\u201d and \u201c168 scientists over a 10-year period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Leios is special is it\u2019s not TPS,\u201d Hoskinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s actually a resolution of the hardest problem in consensus and blockchain, the blockchain trilemma [\u2026] you have decentralization, you have security, and you have scalability [\u2026] we\u2019re told you can only pick two.\u201d He then made the core claim: \u201cThis protocol is decentralized, secure, and fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also said<\/a> the blockchain trilemma has effectively been solved, comments he made just a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Hoskinson also argued the design is engineered to degrade safely. \u201cIf the protocol fails, the protocol fails to what we have today. It collapses to Ouroboros Praos,\u201d he said, referencing a prior network incident he characterized as a soft fork in which \u201cCardano split into two networks\u201d and later \u201ccame back together by itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same remarks, Hoskinson repeatedly returned to governance capacity as the longer-horizon advantage, suggesting pure technical differentiation is transient. He pointed to Cardano\u2019s on-chain governance and treasury \u2014 \u201ca billion dollars in it [\u2026] that you control [\u2026] the ADA holders,\u201d he said \u2014 as the mechanism to fund upgrades and coordinate change over time.<\/p>\n

At press time, ADA traded at $0.2638.<\/p>\n

\"Cardano<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cardano is preparing a layer-1 upgrade it says will push mainnet throughput from roughly 10\u201315 transactions per second to hundreds, while keeping the network\u2019s decentralization and security profile intact. At a Tokyo community event on the Midnight Japan Tour, Input Output\u2019s Michael Smolenski and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson framed Ouroboros Leios as both a scaling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-71709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}