Cardano Outlines Leios Upgrade for Capacity Gains

Input Output has outlined a staged rollout plan for Cardano’s Leios upgrade, targeting an initial three to five times today’s transaction capacity before later governance votes could raise it to 10 to 15 times. According to CryptoNews, the update released on Oct. 20 states that Leios will arrive with the Dijkstra hard fork, followed by stake pool registration, live network load exercises, and at least two protocol parameter updates.

Rollout and Stake Pool Requirements

The developer’s plan separates the network upgrade from the steps needed to activate Leios and permit higher traffic. Stake pool operators must generate BLS voting keys after the hard fork and register them through updated pool certificates. Input Output estimates that activation requires voting-key registration covering roughly 90 to 95% of delegated stake to allow for offline or slow pools, well above the 75% threshold needed to certify an endorser block.

Before Dijkstra, Input Output plans a constitutional update covering new protocol parameters and guardrails prepared by the Intersect Parameters Committee. The constitutional amendment needs support from delegated representatives representing 75% of stake and two-thirds of the Constitutional Committee. The hard fork requires 60% of DRep stake, 51% of stake pool operator stake, and two-thirds of the committee, while later throughput changes require 67% of DRep stake.

## Key facts

• Leios targets an initial 3 to 5 times increase over Cardano's current capacity, with later potential gains reaching 10 to 15 times.
• Activation requires stake pool registration of BLS voting keys covering approximately 90 to 95% of delegated stake.
• Input Output's Oct. 20 update specifies that Leios arrives with the Dijkstra hard fork.
• Earlier MusashiNet testing in August reached roughly 5.94 times the Praos mainnet ceiling.
• Only 21 of 103 listed Cardano apps have enabled leaderboard transaction tracking.