Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has identified the upcoming Leios upgrade as the final major piece required for the blockchain to achieve what he considers a complete state. In recent comments, he listed core elements already in place, including decentralized consensus, on-chain governance, the extended unspent transaction output model, Plutus smart contracts, formal methods for security, multiple independent node clients, and broad ADA ownership, while naming Leios as the remaining step for high scalability.

Hoskinson clarified that this assessment represents his personal view of the project's original vision rather than a formal end to further development. He noted that Cardano's governance system can continue to support additional upgrades and changes after Leios activates.

Leios Design and Throughput Targets

Leios functions as an extension to Cardano's existing Ouroboros Praos proof-of-stake consensus protocol. Block producers generate larger endorser blocks alongside standard Praos blocks. A committee selected according to stake weight then certifies the transaction data. Certified endorser transactions enter the ledger under current chain rules. This approach seeks to expand data capacity while preserving the security and decentralization properties of the base protocol.

Developers aim for phased increases ranging from two times to as much as 30 times current mainnet capacity. Initial goals include moving from roughly 5 to 10 transactions per second toward 100 transactions per second, with longer-term potential to exceed 1,000 transactions per second depending on parameter settings and further validation. Separate protocol tests conducted in September 2026 demonstrated approximately 1,000 transactions per second under Leios conditions.

The metric of transaction kilobytes per second measures the volume of transaction data processed rather than the raw number of transactions. Higher complexity or larger transaction sizes increase the data load without necessarily raising the count of individual transactions in equal proportion.

Musashi Dojo Testnet Progress

Public testing continues on the Musashi Dojo testnet, also referred to as MusashiNet, which launched on June 23, 2026. The trial follows five sequential stages named Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void. During the Earth phase the network recorded a peak throughput of 26.8 transaction kilobytes per second. By comparison, the current mainnet operating solely under Praos processes about 4.51 transaction kilobytes per second, making the testnet result roughly six times higher.

Testing has involved the full protocol stack, including Praos blocks, endorser blocks, stake-weighted voting, and certification. Participants generated more than 127,000 blocks, around 30,000 endorser blocks, and nearly 8,000 certificates. Five technical incidents, including chain forks and synchronization problems, appeared during the process. Developers classified these as implementation bugs rather than fundamental design issues.

Input Output reports that the testnet has advanced into the Fire stage, marking increased activity and robustness testing.

Mainnet Path and Governance Requirements

The first mainnet deployment is planned as Linear Leios within the initial phase of the Dijkstra hard fork, targeted for late 2026. Activation depends on approval through Cardano's on-chain governance process involving delegated representatives, stake pool operators, and the Constitutional Committee. Stake pools will need to register BLS keys to participate in voting. After activation, throughput parameters are expected to rise gradually in stages rather than all at once.

Higher capacity could support expanded use cases such as global micropayment systems, supply-chain tracking, time-sensitive decentralized finance operations, large-scale digital identity solutions, and real-time voting mechanisms for substantial participant groups.

In related comments, Hoskinson referred to a privacy-focused partner network called Midnight as a separate project he described as a major personal undertaking. He did not release technical specifications, a launch schedule, or detailed feature plans for that network.

Leios remains under active public testing, with mainnet introduction contingent on continued successful validation and community governance decisions.