IO: Consensus Initiative

{
  "schema_version": "1.2.0",
  "id": "onchain-io-consensus-initiative-leios",
  "ingestion": {
    "ingested_at": "2026-05-11T16:30:00Z",
    "ingested_by": "claude-opus-4.7",
    "source_documents": [
      "https://www.cardanocube.com/governance/gov_actions/gov_action1w0shrfxqwv95kk0v4cn34wylz25a2cmqkq5jpc0e2yrahhqava3qyxkn2yk",
      "https://ipnso-com.ipns.dweb.link/?cid=QmPdBp8QjKaPdYdvwLxzDiCxX85hGx8H6rxbSvTTuLkcx2"
    ],
    "extraction_notes": "IO 2026 portfolio (tx #2). HIGHEST YES IN THE ENTIRE IO BATCH at 932.31M — more than 2x the next highest (Cardano Upgrades at 550M). Explicit No only 33.06M — smallest in the IO batch. DReps clearly view Leios as the most critical and least controversial of all IO proposals. Second-largest ask in IO batch (₳27.7M) after Maintenance (₳62M). Proposal explicitly excludes mainnet hard fork from acceptance criteria — accepts it as a risk, not a promise. Includes substantial caveats on parameter targets being aspirational."
  },
  "source": {
    "channels": [
      "onchain"
    ],
    "hydra_id": null,
    "onchain_tx_hash": "73e171a4c0730b4b59ecae271ab89f12a9d56360b02920e1f95107dbdc1d6762",
    "onchain_action_id": "gov_action1w0shrfxqwv95kk0v4cn34wylz25a2cmqkq5jpc0e2yrahhqava3qyxkn2yk"
  },
  "identity": {
    "title": "IO: Consensus Initiative",
    "proposer_name": "Input Output (IO)",
    "proposer_id": "io-research",
    "proposer_type": "organisation",
    "proposer_url": "https://www.iog.io",
    "doxxed": true,
    "primary_contact": "Carlos Lopez De Lara; Sebastian Nagel (named in IO Momentum overview)",
    "team_size_disclosed": null,
    "team_size_disclosed_note": "Cross-functional team: Consensus, Ledger, Networking, Cryptography, Node/API (release candidate); Consensus, Performance & Tracing, Testing, Network, Research, Formal Methods (high confidence); Consensus, Network, Ledger, Node/API, Comms, Product, Architect (hard-fork enabling). Tweag and TxPipe cited as consortium members in IO Momentum overview."
  },
  "classification": {
    "official_pillar_primary": [
      "Infrastructure & Research Excellence",
      "Ecosystem Sustainability & Resilience"
    ],
    "official_pillar_secondary": [
      "Adoption & Utility",
      "Community & Ecosystem Growth"
    ],
    "official_pillar_confidence": "stated",
    "working_category_suggestion": "Core Infrastructure",
    "working_category_confidence": "high",
    "tags": [
      "leios",
      "consensus",
      "throughput",
      "cip-164",
      "ouroboros-praos",
      "endorser-blocks",
      "hard-fork",
      "dijkstra",
      "testnet",
      "srl",
      "formal-specification",
      "agda",
      "conformance-testing"
    ]
  },
  "ask": {
    "ada_amount": 27714342,
    "ada_amount_note": "Budget: Development ₳23,834,334 (86%), Engagement ₳1,662,861 (6%), Operations ₳831,430 (3%), remainder 1% each.",
    "usd_amount": 6651442,
    "usd_peg_price": 0.24,
    "pegged": true,
    "currency_basis": "usd_pegged",
    "usd_peg_vs_market": "conservative",
    "implied_buffer_pct": -8,
    "duration_months": 9,
    "milestone_count": 3,
    "milestone_payments_disclosed": false,
    "milestone_schedule_disclosed": "names_only",
    "raw_ask_text": "Total Treasury Ask: ₳27,714,342. USD figures ($6,651,442) are provided for reference only, based on an ADA/USD rate of 0.24. The initiative will be delivered by IO engineering teams. Milestones: Release Candidate (Q4 2026), High Confidence (Q1 2027), Hard-fork Enabling (Q4 2026 – Q1 2027)."
  },
  "treasury_return": {
    "has_return_clause": true,
    "mechanisms": [
      {
        "type": "unspent_funds",
        "trigger": "Funds undisbursed at end of delivery period OR partial delivery / scope reduction",
        "deadline": "End of delivery period (Q1 2027)",
        "excluded_costs": [],
        "estimated_return_pct": null,
        "estimated_return_pct_note": "Proportional to undelivered scope"
      }
    ],
    "treasury_favourability": "moderate",
    "treasury_favourability_confidence": "high",
    "treasury_favourability_note": "Standard IO 2026 proportional return. ADA-denominated. No revenue share. Leios mainnet activation (which would generate significantly more protocol revenue) is explicitly not in scope — it depends on governance and external readiness.",
    "treasury_favourability_set_by": "ai",
    "raw_return_text": "All funds not disbursed by the end of the delivery period will be returned to the Cardano Treasury. In the event of partial delivery or scope reduction, unspent funds associated with cancelled or reduced deliverables will be returned proportionally."
  },
  "lifecycle": {
    "pipeline_state": "onchain_live",
    "hydra_submitted_at": null,
    "hydra_close_at": null,
    "hydra_support_pct": null,
    "onchain_submitted_at": "2026-04-22T00:00:00Z",
    "onchain_vote_close_at": "2026-05-24T00:00:00Z",
    "onchain_result": null,
    "status_last_checked_at": "2026-05-11T16:30:00Z"
  },
  "links": {
    "hydra_url": null,
    "adastat_url": null,
    "ipfs_cid": "QmPdBp8QjKaPdYdvwLxzDiCxX85hGx8H6rxbSvTTuLkcx2",
    "ipfs_gateway_url": "https://ipnso-com.ipns.dweb.link/?cid=QmPdBp8QjKaPdYdvwLxzDiCxX85hGx8H6rxbSvTTuLkcx2",
    "github_url": "https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-leios",
    "website_url": "https://leios.cardano-scaling.org/",
    "forum_thread_url": null,
    "other": [
      {
        "label": "CIP-164: Ouroboros Leios",
        "url": "https://cips.cardano.org/cip/CIP-0164"
      },
      {
        "label": "Leios Roadmap",
        "url": "https://leios.cardano-scaling.org/docs/roadmap/"
      },
      {
        "label": "Leios Strategy",
        "url": "https://leios.cardano-scaling.org/docs/strategy"
      },
      {
        "label": "Monthly review demos",
        "url": "https://leios.cardano-scaling.org/docs/development/monthly-reviews"
      },
      {
        "label": "Leios dev tracker",
        "url": "https://engineering.iog.io/leios"
      },
      {
        "label": "Impact Analysis",
        "url": "https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-leios/blob/main/docs/ImpactAnalysis.md"
      }
    ]
  },
  "content": {
    "abstract": "Leios is Cardano's consensus upgrade delivering 10–65x throughput increase (Endorser Blocks + committee-based validation on top of Ouroboros Praos). Previous cycle (ending June 2026) delivers early public testnet. This proposal funds testnet-to-mainnet-ready: (1) Release Candidate — conformance testing against Agda spec, integration into primary node; (2) High Confidence — parameter exploration, load testing, adversarial red-teaming, updated threat model; (3) Hard-fork Enabling — stable interfaces, documentation, SPO/developer workshops, testnet hard-forks, governance artifact preparation. Mainnet hard fork itself is explicitly excluded from acceptance criteria.",
    "problem_statement": "Cardano's 2030 strategy targets 27M monthly transactions (30x growth from ~800K today). At 50-70% sustainable utilization, this requires at least 6x current capacity (~7-10 TPS). Ouroboros Praos cannot meet this alone. Leios is the only path to the required capacity in the current cycle.",
    "proposed_solution": "Leios enhances Ouroboros Praos with Endorser Blocks and committee-based validation — an overlay protocol, not a replacement. Three objectives: (1) SRL 5-8 release candidate via substantial consensus rewrite, Dijkstra ledger era integration, Agda conformance test suite, node integration; (2) Systematic validation via parameter exploration, continuous load testing, adversarial testing, threat model update; (3) Hard-fork enabling via stable N2C mini-protocols, utxo-rpc API, Cardano Blueprint documentation, SPO/dev workshops, DB-Sync/Mithril/Blockfrost tactical support, testnet hard-forks, mainnet parameter graduation plan, governance artifact preparation.",
    "deliverables": [
      "Leios Release Candidate (SRL 5-8) — Q4 2026",
      "Conformance test suite against Agda formal specification",
      "Leios block structure and encoding for Dijkstra ledger era",
      "Integration into primary Cardano node implementation",
      "Parameter exploration and graduation plan",
      "Load testing + adversarial red-teaming on public testnet",
      "Updated threat model with validated mitigations",
      "Stable N2C mini-protocols and utxo-rpc API interfaces",
      "Cardano Blueprint implementation-independent technical documentation",
      "SPO and developer workshops",
      "Testnet hard-forks (Preview as deployment pipeline entry)",
      "Mainnet parameter graduation plan",
      "Contingency procedures + governance artifact preparation"
    ],
    "milestones": [
      {
        "name": "Release Candidate (Q4 2026)",
        "deliverable": "Mainnet-ready Leios implementation at SRL 5-8",
        "ada_release": null,
        "deadline": "2026-12-31"
      },
      {
        "name": "High Confidence (Q1 2027)",
        "deliverable": "Parameter exploration, load testing, adversarial red-teaming, updated threat model",
        "ada_release": null,
        "deadline": "2027-03-31"
      },
      {
        "name": "Hard-fork Enabling (Q4 2026 – Q1 2027)",
        "deliverable": "Stable interfaces, documentation, workshops, testnet hard-forks, governance artifacts",
        "ada_release": null,
        "deadline": "2027-03-31"
      }
    ],
    "team": [
      {
        "name": "Carlos Lopez De Lara",
        "role": "IO co-lead (named in IO Momentum overview)",
        "background": null
      },
      {
        "name": "Sebastian Nagel",
        "role": "IO co-lead (named in IO Momentum overview)",
        "background": null
      },
      {
        "name": "Tweag",
        "role": "Consortium member (named in IO Momentum overview)",
        "background": "Specialist Haskell engineering firm"
      },
      {
        "name": "TxPipe",
        "role": "Consortium member (named in IO Momentum overview)",
        "background": null
      }
    ],
    "risks_disclosed": [
      "Ecosystem (Medium/High): Community readiness for HF — external factors/entities outside IO control; coordination with Intersect HF Working Group",
      "Technical (Medium/High): Low confidence in meeting Delta EB assumption — may require lower parameter set than CIP-164 target",
      "Ecosystem (Low/High): Leios not accepted as Dijkstra era scope by Hard Fork Working Group",
      "Technical (Medium/High): Missing the window for Dijkstra era hard-fork",
      "Ecosystem (Low/Low): Hard-fork delayed by other features in release candidate",
      "Process (High/Medium): Final cardano-node integration takes longer than expected",
      "Ecosystem (Low/High): Constitution and guardrail script changes not approved by governance"
    ]
  },
  "metadata": {
    "open_source": "yes",
    "open_source_url": "https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-leios",
    "has_prior_funding": true,
    "prior_funding_sources": [
      "IO prior treasury allocations (same as other IO 2026 proposals); Leios R&D funded in 2025/26 cycle (public testnet milestone delivered June 2026)"
    ],
    "has_prior_delivery": true,
    "prior_delivery_evidence": "CIP-164 merged. Alpha feature-complete implementation complete. Early public testnet deployed (dedicated; not hard-forkable). Monthly review demos published. Leios website and dev tracker active.",
    "admin_model": "intersect",
    "administrator_name": "Intersect",
    "oversight_committee": [
      "Sundae Labs",
      "Cardano Foundation",
      "DQuadrant",
      "Xerberus",
      "NMKR"
    ],
    "administration_fee_pct": 3,
    "duplicate_of_existing_solution": {
      "value": "no",
      "confidence": "high",
      "set_by": "ai"
    },
    "duplicate_notes": "Leios is the canonical Cardano consensus upgrade — no alternative team or approach exists for this scope. CV26 IOR funded the research phase; this funds the engineering delivery phase (SRL 5-8)."
  },
  "relationships": {
    "bundle_with": [
      "onchain-cardano-vision-2026",
      "onchain-io-developer-experience-initiative",
      "onchain-io-ensurable-cardano-maintenance",
      "onchain-io-cardano-high-assurance",
      "onchain-io-vacuumlabs-plutus-enhancement",
      "onchain-io-cardano-upgrades",
      "onchain-io-midgard-l2-scalability"
    ],
    "supersedes": [],
    "competes_with": [],
    "depends_on": [],
    "notes": "CV26 includes MEV analysis and adversarial modelling for Leios as research outputs — complementary to this engineering delivery. The Maintenance Initiative must keep node infrastructure running during the Leios testnet/hard-fork process. L2 scalability proposal (Hydra/Midgard) is complementary — Leios is L1 throughput; Hydra/Midgard are L2 scalability. Dijkstra hard fork (separate governance action) is needed to include Leios block structures. Tweag and TxPipe are consortium members — TxPipe appears across multiple IO proposals in this corpus."
  },
  "community_signals": {
    "comment_count": 0,
    "notable_objections": [],
    "notable_endorsements": [],
    "forum_thread_urls": [],
    "live_voting_state": {
      "as_of": "2026-05-11",
      "drep_yes_ada": 932310000,
      "drep_no_ada": 4860000000,
      "drep_explicit_no_ada": 33060000,
      "drep_no_confidence_ada": 201000000,
      "drep_not_voted_ada": 4630000000,
      "drep_total_active_stake_ada": 14940000000,
      "cc_yes": 1,
      "cc_no": 0,
      "cc_not_voted": 6,
      "interpretation": "FAILING but HIGHEST YES in entire IO batch by far (932M — 2x next highest). Lowest Explicit No in IO batch (33M). DReps strongly support Leios specifically. Still failing due to the weight of Not Voted + No Confidence. This proposal likely passes if the IO bundle abstention problem resolves."
    }
  },
  "ecosystem_demand": {
    "evidence_level": "strong",
    "evidence_level_confidence": "high",
    "evidence_level_set_by": "ai",
    "active_users_known": true,
    "active_users_examples": [
      {
        "name": "All SPOs (who must upgrade nodes for hard fork)",
        "kind": "user",
        "url": null
      },
      {
        "name": "DB-Sync, Mithril, Blockfrost (named tactical support targets)",
        "kind": "integrator",
        "url": null
      }
    ],
    "developer_demand_signals": [
      "2030 strategy target of 27M monthly transactions (30x growth) mathematically impossible without Leios",
      "CIP-164 merged through community CIP process — formal ecosystem endorsement",
      "Monthly review meetings with public demos — active community engagement maintained",
      "Public testnet already running — demand signal from real users",
      "Leios is the single highest-Yes proposal in the IO batch — DRep signal itself is strong demand evidence"
    ],
    "adoption_risk_notes": "Demand is structural and community-validated. Risk is engineering timeline and hard-fork governance — both explicitly captured as risks by proposer. Throughput limitation is currently a documented competitive disadvantage for Cardano in the DeFi market."
  },
  "incumbents": {
    "has_existing_solution": "no",
    "has_existing_solution_confidence": "high",
    "has_existing_solution_set_by": "ai",
    "existing_solutions": [],
    "differentiation_claim": "Leios is the only path to the required throughput increase in the current cycle. It is designed as an enhancement to Ouroboros Praos (not a replacement), preserving all existing security guarantees. No alternative consensus upgrade exists or is in development.",
    "differentiation_credibility": "high"
  },
  "risk_flags": {
    "aggressive_peg": false,
    "self_administered_no_oversight": false,
    "incumbent_already_delivering": false,
    "no_evidence_of_demand": false,
    "competes_with_in_batch": false,
    "concentration_risk": true,
    "failing_live_vote": true,
    "hard_fork_dependency": true
  },
  "risk_flags_note": "hard_fork_dependency: Dijkstra era inclusion and eventual mainnet hard fork both require separate governance actions outside IO's control. concentration_risk: IO portfolio bundle (~₳195M combined at $0.24). failing_live_vote: Despite 932M Yes (highest in batch), still failing — 4.86B total No; expires May 24.",
  "_meta": {
    "title": "IO: Consensus Initiative",
    "proposer": "Input Output (IO)"
  }
}