Cardano’s Next Major Upgrade Begins Testing as Dijkstra Testnet Goes Live

Intersect, a member-based organization for the Cardano ecosystem, shared upgrade news in a recent X post. Intersect stated that the public Dijkstra testnet is now open for participants, with SPOs encouraged to start joining ahead of the 11.2 release and hard fork to pv12.

A respin of the Dijkstra testnet took place on October 21 and is now publicly available for all participants. It is currently running protocol version 11 (Conway) on node version 11.1.3.

In the meantime, SPOs can now begin onboarding to the network using the configuration files available on Cardano Book, which also hosts the link to the Dijkstra testnet faucet.

Node development continues

Meanwhile, development continues on node version 11.2, with a tagged version expected soon. This includes the full Dijkstra hard fork feature set, apart from Leios.

Once available, node version 11.2 will be used to hard fork the public Dijkstra testnet, DijkstraNet. The Cardano network is using node 11.1.3 until 11.2 is released. Cardano node version 11.2 is expected to introduce several additional capabilities, most notably LSM clearance for mainnet use.

Development continues on node version 11.3, with substantial work remaining and a tagged release still at least two weeks away. The weekly RC 2026w42 pre-release is considered a Leios-based prototype including the complete Dijkstra hard fork feature set, including Leios. This prototype provides an early integration opportunity for downstream tooling teams to explore Dijkstra functionality on the Musashi testnet, ahead of the formal 11.3 release.

CIP-23 introduces a new protocol parameter, minPoolMargin, which specifies a lower bound on the variable fee (margin) a stake pool may set is now confirmed as fully included in the Dijkstra hard fork scope, addressing a long-standing request from SPOs.

What’s coming?

Ouroboros Leios is planned to arrive with Dijkstra, Cardano‘s next hard fork. However, this is only the beginning of the rollout; Cardano will not suddenly reach full Leios capability. Stake pool operators (SPOs) will first register new BLS voting keys. Once enough stakes have registered, Leios can start using endorser blocks. Capacity will be increased in stages, depending on mainnet outcomes and governance approval.

The initial target is about 3 to 5 times the current Praos ceiling of 4.5 kilobytes of transactions per second (TxkB/s). At least two subsequent protocol parameter improvements seek to increase that to 10 to 15 times the current throughput. Any subsequent increases will be determined by demand, the needs of builders, and the economics of operating the network.

Dijkstra also includes nested transactions, account enhancements, guard scripts, Plutus V4, freely withdrawable staking rewards and a new pledge-leverage parameter.