Cardano Targets 3 to 5 Times Current Capacity With Leios Upgrade
Key Facts
Input Output outlined a path to introducing the Leios upgrade to Cardano in an announcement published on 20 October 2026, targeting initial capacity of roughly 3 to 5 times the current level. The upcoming Dijkstra upgrade will introduce the new protocol alongside other changes, opening a new era of rules for the network. After its introduction, Leios capacity will increase gradually through protocol parameter updates, according to the company's announcement. The hard fork enables the protocol, after which stake pool operators register the signing keys needed to activate its voting process. Final activation requirements are still being defined, making the transition to operation dependent on completing arrangements for operator participation.
The scaling plan draws on tests in which Leios peak throughput reached 26.8 kilobytes of transaction data per second, according to results published by Input Output on 27 August 2026. The company described the result as "6 times the current mainnet limit." This measures the volume of transaction data the network processes per second, while the company's labs present a monthly usage target in a separate roadmap. In an earlier development report, the company announced the completion of the "Earth" phase of the "Musashi Net" public testnet. That phase lasted 41 days and produced more than 127,000 blocks, according to its closeout report published on 21 August 2026.
The official Leios specification describes the design as an optimistic consensus protocol intended to handle larger volumes while preserving the security properties of "Ouroboros Praos." The capacity expansion comes with a change in transaction inclusion time through the expanded processing path. According to the specification, this rises to between 45 and 60 seconds, compared with about 20 seconds in the design's baseline comparison. On implementation, development work included moving certified endorsement blocks in the background from the volatile database file to the immutable data file. Input Output included this work in its development report published on 25 September 2026, as part of preparations for the protocol's operational infrastructure.
The project has an economic objective tied to network revenue, alongside expanding its technical capacity to process transactions. The Leios specification says Cardano's reserve funds more than 85% of epoch rewards, making fee revenue growth an objective of scaling. Input Output Labs links the design to the roadmap's ambition to reach 27 million transactions per month in 2030, compared with about 800,000 transactions per month in the published comparison. To fund development, the company submitted a treasury request for 27.7 million ADA, according to its announcement on 14 May 2026. The request aims to take Leios from a testnet prototype to a mainnet-ready release candidate, linking funding to preparations for deployment.
On implementation rules, Block Pi Qr reported that rules governing voting keys and how stake pools register them had been incorporated into the official specification. Two components remained under review in its report published on 16 October 2026: the block structure and the chain rule that verifies the certificate and applies endorsed transactions. Expanding the authority to modify parameters also requires constitutional changes, according to the Cardano Foundation. The constitution allows governance to change only the parameters listed in its guardrails, while unlisted parameters remain fixed at their launch values. According to Input Output, the amendment process requires ratification by delegated representatives, followed by confirmation from the Constitutional Committee that the change is constitutional, to prepare the framework governing protocol adjustments.
The node 11.3 release plan lists the integration of Dijkstra features with the linear version of Leios among the next steps. According to an Intersect update published on 9 October 2026, this integration aims to prepare a hard fork release candidate. The release path thus brings together features of the new Dijkstra era and the protocol that will deliver the capacity expansion. The target mainnet deployment date is December 2026, according to Input Output Labs' Leios page. This step is subject to community review and on-chain governance before the upgrade moves from testing and preparation to the targeted deployment.