The Intersect Hard Fork Working Group has proposed naming Cardano’s next hard fork, which will upgrade the protocol to version 11, “van Rossem,” in tribute to DRep Max van Rossem. The community has a tradition of naming hard forks in memory of DReps who have made a lasting impact on the blockchain ecosystem, beginning with Byron.

Naming the 2026 hard fork in honor of van Rossem continues a long-standing tradition passed down through Shelley, Allegra, Mary, Alonzo, Vasil, Valentine, Chang, and Plomin. The Vasil, Chang, and Plomin hard forks were named in tribute to recently deceased DReps, in recognition of their families and of the Cardano community as a whole.

In addition, the Hard Forks Working Group said that the Cardano community remembers Max as a brilliant and deeply committed DRep, as attested by those who worked with him. He played a key role in shaping the Cardano Constitution and contributed to many governance discussions that helped shape and optimize the network.

Max plays a key role in the first election of the Constitutional Committee

The Danish representative, van Rossen, was a member and co-chair of the working group on the election of the Constitutional Committee, which oversaw the first fully elected Constitutional Committee (CC). He also played a key role in drafting the network’s foundational governance documents, serving as a delegate representing Cardano at the Constitutional Convention in Buenos Aires, Brazil. Max is one of the main architects behind the inclusion of Article VIII in the Cardano Constitution.

Furthermore, Max founded AdaMoments, a project that enables ADA holders to preserve their personal history by storing images, videos, and texts as permanent moments on the Cardano ecosystem. As a member of the Dutch community, he has also hosted meetups and fostered exchanges among Cardano blockchain users.

At the same time, Intersect announced in late 2018 a hard fork project to version 11 of the protocol. This update is expected to improve node security, ledger consistency, and Plutus performance without requiring a transition to a new ledger era. These updates will include improvements to reference input rules, VRF key uniqueness, and Plutus primitives. These changes represent the next step in development funded by the Cardano treasury for the Cardano ecosystem.

Cardano launches polls to confirm the name of its upcoming hard fork

The Hard Fork Working Group has launched a poll within the Cardano ecosystem to choose the proposed name for the hard fork. Voting will take place from January 13 to February 14, 2026. Participating DReps must stake a minimum of 100,000 ADA in order to vote. As of today, eight DReps have voted YES, representing 1.57% (91.24 million ADA) of the total ADA staked (14.16 billion ADA). The most recent vote was recorded more than 20 minutes prior to publication.

In parallel, the final vote will be submitted to the Technical Steering Committee (TSC) for review and ratification. The Hard Fork Working Group will also establish a think tank and meet every two weeks to discuss and coordinate matters related to this hard fork. This upcoming hard fork will require network-wide coordination, but with a significantly lower integration burden than previous era transitions.

All other information related to hard forks will be communicated at a later stage via the Intersect knowledge base. An open Intersect working group will also be established to include community members who wish to participate in current and future hard forks of the mainnet.

The latest proposed update will introduce improvements without requiring a ledger era change, allowing Cardano to remain in the same era, currently Conway. This update, carried out within the same era, introduces fixes, enhancements, optimizations, and other new features that do not require an era transition.

These changes will collectively improve script performance, reduce execution costs, and expand developer capabilities across the Cardano network. They will also strengthen the rigor and transparency of governance.