Cardano (ADA) Founder Charles Hoskinson Announces Shift to Agile Development Model for 2025

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has announced a shift in the project's development model for 2025. This new approach introduces agile engineering teams

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has announced a shift in the project’s development model for 2025. This new approach introduces agile engineering teams, primarily to achieve faster execution of Cardano’s development goals. A key milestone for these teams is the delivery of the Ouroboros Leios protocol, now targeted for 2026.

Since its inception, Cardano has followed a formal methods approach, prioritizing safety and academic rigor. While this strategy ensured high standards in code quality and network stability, it came at the cost of slower feature rollouts and limited community involvement.

In his tweet, Hoskinson admitted that the early model, although effective for secure development, isolated contributors and slowed Cardano’s growth.

“The original development team didn’t want any deadlines, we prioritized doing things in the best possible way, and we took a very long-term view, often thinking in terms of years or decades,” he said.

This focus on perfect execution and a relaxed timeline led to a slower pace of development, which some community members observed.

However, Cardano’s contributions to secure blockchain development are noteworthy, especially considering the widespread unsafe development practices in the industry at the time.

To adapt and accelerate development, Cardano is now bringing in smaller, independent development teams. This structural change aims to improve delivery speed and encourage more diverse contributions to the ecosystem.

Groups like Aiken and Midgard are contributing to the ecosystem alongside IOG’s formal methods group, which continues to use Agda for secure implementations.

This multi-client and multi-team strategy allows competing ideas and designs to coexist, providing flexibility for new protocols and use cases.

“We are opening up the ecosystem,” Hoskinson said, adding that it’s augmented with small agile teams, “who are focused on delivering value quickly, and we are preserving the knowledge and rigor of our formal methods.”

In response to community concerns regarding the termination of key team members’ contracts, Hoskinson offered a direct explanation.

“Because I want Leios in 2026, not 2028,” he said. “No time for more games or delays. Cardano needs to get to the next level.”

Ouroboros Leios is a significant scalability upgrade expected to drastically increase transaction throughput and network efficiency. It’s designed to be a key step in expanding Cardano’s capabilities.

After summarizing the changes for 2025, a commenter named Hudhra Nomi noted the progress made in areas like scalability (Leios, Hydra), interoperability (IBC, Bitcoin integrations), and governance (Chang upgrade, New Constitutional Layer).

“I think we’re moving much faster than before,” he added.

Another community member emphasized the importance of competition and collaboration in decentralization, stating that these new teams will contribute to the ecosystem.