Cardano Transfers Core Infrastructure to External Teams

The founding developer of the Cardano blockchain has announced a major plan to transfer responsibility for its core infrastructure to external teams, a move aimed at reducing the network's long-standing dependence on its original creator. Input Output Group (IOG) revealed the transition on Friday, July 17, 2026, stating that development of the Haskell node, Plutus smart-contract platform, Daedalus wallet, Hydra scaling technology, and developer relations will be handed over to specialized external partners.

The handover will begin in August 2026 and is scheduled to continue through 2027 in a phased approach designed to ensure stability. The external teams assuming responsibility include Se7en Labs, a firm with experience in Solana blockchain infrastructure, and Teragone, a research team already leading development on Cardano's Mithril staking protocol. The process aims to have independent teams maintain at least three separate implementations of the Cardano node software, written in Haskell, Rust, and Go.

Input Output founder Charles Hoskinson described the shift as the "last stage of the Voltaire era," a governance and decentralization phase the project has been building...