The testnet achieved 6 times the throughput of mainnet, while $ADA is still sitting at $0.22.
Around October 17, progress on Cardano’s Leios upgrade was disclosed in quick succession. Here’s the bottom line upfront: the scaling is real, but the mainnet launch and the price are still pending.
1. Test data. Results from the 41-day public testnet (Musashi Dojo) Earth phase, published by IOG: a peak of 26.8 TxkB/s, compared with 4.51 TxkB/s for the current mainnet Ouroboros Praos—about 6 times higher. During the stable period at the end of the test, Leios carried 54% of on-chain traffic, with 18 times as many transactions as mainnet over the same period. The test produced 127,000+ blocks, 30,000 endorser blocks, and nearly 8,000 certificates, and uncovered 5 implementation-level bugs (which IOG characterized as implementation bugs, not design flaws).
2. Three caveats. First, the traffic was synthetic load, not real user-paid transactions. Second, these are prototype testnet results and shouldn’t be taken as mainnet figures. Third, the mainnet launch will have to wait for the Dijkstra hard fork (targeted for the end of 2026, with the first window on December 5). DReps, stake pool operators, and the Constitutional Committee must also complete the on-chain governance vote. After activation, parameters will be increased in stages, not all at once.
3. Price reality. $ADA is around $0.22 today (CoinMarketCap data, down about 0.6% over 24 hours), still 93% below its 2021 peak of around $3.1. On October 17, Hoskinson said, “Cardano is only complete once Leios is live”—the founder has staked the network’s completeness on this upgrade.
4. The real test isn’t the technology, but demand. Cardano staking rewards = transaction fees + reserve releases, and the reserve portion declines over time. Leios’s scaling creates room for long-term economic viability. But the protocol expands capacity; whether that capacity gets filled depends on demand. There’s a weak positive signal on-chain: Cardano’s stablecoin market cap grew 25.8% over 90 days to $68.3 million (cointurk, October 17 data).
The technology has already shown it can scale by 6 times. What remains to be proven is whether anyone is willing to keep paying for that 6-fold capacity. For the December 5 window, first watch whether the governance vote passes.
#ADA #Cardano #Scaling
Not investment advice.
Around October 17, progress on Cardano’s Leios upgrade was disclosed in quick succession. Here’s the bottom line upfront: the scaling is real, but the mainnet launch and the price are still pending.
1. Test data. Results from the 41-day public testnet (Musashi Dojo) Earth phase, published by IOG: a peak of 26.8 TxkB/s, compared with 4.51 TxkB/s for the current mainnet Ouroboros Praos—about 6 times higher. During the stable period at the end of the test, Leios carried 54% of on-chain traffic, with 18 times as many transactions as mainnet over the same period. The test produced 127,000+ blocks, 30,000 endorser blocks, and nearly 8,000 certificates, and uncovered 5 implementation-level bugs (which IOG characterized as implementation bugs, not design flaws).
2. Three caveats. First, the traffic was synthetic load, not real user-paid transactions. Second, these are prototype testnet results and shouldn’t be taken as mainnet figures. Third, the mainnet launch will have to wait for the Dijkstra hard fork (targeted for the end of 2026, with the first window on December 5). DReps, stake pool operators, and the Constitutional Committee must also complete the on-chain governance vote. After activation, parameters will be increased in stages, not all at once.
3. Price reality. $ADA is around $0.22 today (CoinMarketCap data, down about 0.6% over 24 hours), still 93% below its 2021 peak of around $3.1. On October 17, Hoskinson said, “Cardano is only complete once Leios is live”—the founder has staked the network’s completeness on this upgrade.
4. The real test isn’t the technology, but demand. Cardano staking rewards = transaction fees + reserve releases, and the reserve portion declines over time. Leios’s scaling creates room for long-term economic viability. But the protocol expands capacity; whether that capacity gets filled depends on demand. There’s a weak positive signal on-chain: Cardano’s stablecoin market cap grew 25.8% over 90 days to $68.3 million (cointurk, October 17 data).
The technology has already shown it can scale by 6 times. What remains to be proven is whether anyone is willing to keep paying for that 6-fold capacity. For the December 5 window, first watch whether the governance vote passes.
#ADA #Cardano #Scaling
Not investment advice.