The Cardano community has overwhelmingly approved a $71 million ADA development fund, and IOG will progressively advance key upgrades such as Hydra scaling.

Blockchain development company Input Output Global (IOG) has successfully obtained approval from the Cardano community through voting to receive approximately $71 million worth of 96 million ADA tokens to support a year-long core protocol upgrade plan. The funds will be distributed in phases based on milestone delivery, supervised by the Cardano ecosystem governance body Intersect, marking the first time the Cardano community has directly approved core development treasury funding, aimed at enhancing network performance, drop transaction costs, and strengthening smart contracts functionality.

[Community vote passed with high approval, milestone funding] The Cardano core development team Input Output Global (IOG) proposed a funding request, which was passed with a 74% approval rate (200 votes in favor, 6 against, and 7 abstentions) in the community vote. IOG will receive 96 million ADA (approximately 71 million USD at current prices) to support a one-year upgrade of the core protocol stack. This vote is a milestone, as it marks the first time the Cardano community has directly approved the allocation of funds from the treasury for core development work.

[Funds Linked to Delivery, Multiple Oversights Ensure Transparency] The substantial ADA funds will be distributed in stages based on the completion of development milestones, with the delivery process supervised by the Cardano ecosystem governance body Intersect. To ensure transparency in the use of funds and controllability of project progress, IOG is required to submit monthly progress reports, detailed work hour records, and quarterly budget breakdowns. Additionally, smart contracts and a dedicated supervisory committee will provide an extra layer of oversight, strengthening the project's on-chain governance accountability mechanism.

[Key Upgrade Goals: Expansion, Node Optimization, and Cost Drop] The upgrade plan includes several key directions:

• Hydra protocol enhancement: Improve the performance of Cardano's Layer 2 scaling solution Hydra to achieve faster and lower-cost off-chain transaction processing capabilities.
• Project Acropolis Node Restructuring: A redesign of the Cardano node to make it more modular and developer-friendly, which is seen as a key move to attract new core contributors to the Cardano ecosystem.
• Performance Optimization and Cost Reduction: Implement performance improvements to reduce RAM consumption and drop the operating costs of Staking Pool Operators (SPO).
• Smart Contracts and Interoperability Foundation: Laying the foundation for more advanced Cardano smart contract capabilities and enhancing cross-chain interoperability with other blockchain networks.

[Current Performance and Upgrade Expectations] According to data from the blockchain analysis company Messari, the average block time of Cardano is currently about 20 seconds, and the transaction cost is approximately 0.34 ADA. This series of upgrades aims to significantly improve the network's Transaction Processing Efficiency (TPS) and Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (Gas Fee Optimization), enhancing its strength in the competition among public chains.

[Community Concerns and Competitive Proposals] Although the proposal was ultimately approved, it still raised scrutiny from some community members. The main concerns focused on the large scale of the funding request, insufficient transparency in resource allocation details, and whether it would be more appropriate to split the proposal into several smaller, individually votable parts. The Cardano Technical Steering Committee (TSC) had submitted a competing proposal, but it did not receive the endorsement of Intersect. Intersect board member Adam Rusch emphasized that the choice of which path to take ultimately depends on the community.

[Cardano joins the mainstream public chain upgrade trend in 2025] Cardano is not the only Blockchain undergoing significant upgrades in 2025. Solana recently increased its Block capacity by 20%, reaching 60 million computing units. Ethereum implemented the Pectra hard fork in May, raising its Gas limit to nearly 45 million, and plans to make further upgrades in 2025. This wave of mainstream public chain technology upgrades highlights the industry's continued investment in enhancing scalability and user experience.

[Founder ADA Holding Audit Progress] Last month, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson stated that the audit of the ADA held by IOG is nearing completion and is prepared to present the full report to the public via a live stream after finalization. This audit stems from a series of allegations that emerged earlier this year, including NFT artist Masato Alexander's accusation that Hoskinson improperly controlled $619 million worth of ADA by manipulating the ledger and the so-called "genesis key" during Cardano's Allegra hard fork in 2021. Hoskinson has denied all related allegations.

Conclusion: The Cardano community has recently approved nearly 100 million USD in core development funding, highlighting the community's trust in the IOG technology roadmap and its strong demand for the continuous evolution of the network. The phased disbursement of funds and multiple oversight mechanisms aim to balance funding efficiency with community accountability. As key upgrades such as Hydra scaling and node optimization progress, whether Cardano can enhance its performance and developer attractiveness in the increasingly fierce Layer 1 Blockchain competition will become an important observation point in the crypto market in 2025. Meanwhile, the release of the audit report is expected to bring an end to the recent allegations.