Cardano is gearing up for what could be its most significant upgrade yet, with the Ouroboros Leios protocol promising to catapult the network from its current 10-15 transactions per second to hundreds of TPS while maintaining its foundational principles of decentralization and security. At a recent Tokyo community event, Input Output’s leadership unveiled ambitious plans that could reshape Cardano’s competitive position in the blockchain landscape.
From 10 TPS to 500 TPS: The Technical Leap
Michael Smolenski, Cardano Core product manager at Input Output, outlined the upgrade’s scope during the Midnight Japan Tour event. The initial Leios mainnet release targets a remarkable “50 times improvement,” translating current throughput from approximately 10 TPS to around 500 TPS. However, Smolenski emphasized a more nuanced metric: “transaction kilobytes per second,” aiming for 300 transaction kilobytes per second to account for varying transaction sizes.
The upgrade introduces new architectural components, most notably “endorser blocks” that work alongside existing “ranking blocks.” This dual-block system enables the network to “pack a whole lot more transactions” into each processing cycle, with confirmation times ranging between 20 to 80 seconds based on current prototype results.
Strategic Scaling: The Roadmap to 10,000 TPS
Rather than attempting a dramatic overnight transformation, Cardano’s team has mapped out an incremental scaling strategy. The roadmap begins with the 500 TPS target for the initial mainnet deployment, progresses to demonstrating 1,000 TPS capabilities in the near term, and ultimately aims for 10,000 TPS. This measured approach reflects concerns about overwhelming stake pool operators (SPOs) who form the network’s backbone.
Smolenski stressed the economic imperative driving these improvements, noting that SPOs need network usage around 50 transactions per second to support operational costs through transaction fees rather than relying solely on block rewards. With a first public Leios testnet targeted for the end of Q2 this year, followed by a mainnet hard fork, the timeline positions Cardano for a major competitive push in 2026.
Solving the Blockchain Trilemma
Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, framed Leios as more than a speed upgrade, positioning it as a breakthrough in consensus technology. “Why Leios is special is it’s not TPS,” Hoskinson explained, “It’s actually a resolution of the hardest problem in consensus and blockchain, the blockchain trilemma.” The traditional challenge forces networks to choose between decentralization, security, and scalability, but Hoskinson claims Leios achieves all three simultaneously.
The protocol represents the culmination of a decade-long research effort that began in 2016, incorporating more than two dozen academic papers, contributions from over 15 engineering firms, and work by 168 scientists. Hoskinson emphasized the protocol’s fail-safe design, noting that if issues arise, “the protocol fails to what we have today. It collapses to Ouroboros Praos,” referencing Cardano’s current consensus mechanism.
Governance and Treasury: The Long-Term Advantage
Beyond technical improvements, Hoskinson highlighted Cardano’s governance infrastructure as a sustainable competitive advantage. The network’s on-chain governance system, backed by a treasury worth approximately one billion dollars, provides ADA holders with direct control over funding future upgrades and coordinating network evolution.
This governance capacity addresses what Hoskinson sees as the transient nature of pure technical differentiation in the blockchain space. While competitors may match throughput improvements, Cardano’s structured approach to community-driven development and funding creates a framework for sustained innovation over time.
Market Context and Timeline
With ADA currently trading at $0.2638, the Leios upgrade represents a critical juncture for Cardano’s market position. The 2026 timeline aligns with broader industry scaling efforts, as major blockchain networks race to solve throughput limitations while maintaining decentralization principles.
The upgrade’s success could significantly impact Cardano’s ability to compete with faster networks that have gained market share partly due to superior throughput. By maintaining its commitment to academic rigor and gradual implementation, Cardano aims to achieve sustainable scaling without compromising the security and decentralization that define its identity.
The Ouroboros Leios upgrade represents Cardano’s most ambitious technical development since its inception, promising to transform the network’s capabilities while preserving its core philosophical commitments. As the 2026 target approaches, the crypto community will be watching closely to see whether Cardano can deliver on its promise to solve the blockchain trilemma and reclaim its position among the top-performing smart contract platforms.