Cardano’s Hoskinson Teases ’Ouroboros Leios’—Scalability Breakthrough or Just Another Crypto Pipe Dream?

Charles Hoskinson just dropped breadcrumbs about Cardano’s next-gen protocol upgrade—Ouroboros Leios promises to turbocharge throughput while maintaining decentralization. Cue the usual crypto hype cycle.

Subheader: Proof-of-Stake Gets a Facelift

The upgrade tackles blockchain’s trilemma head-on, claiming to boost TPS without sacrificing security. Skeptics whisper: ’We’ve heard this before from every Layer 1 since 2017.’

Closing jab: If this fails, at least ADA holders can take comfort in their 80% losses from the 2021 ATH—a true HODLer baptism by fire.

In his words, “With just that one input block, you can see that maximum is about 6 TPS.” Moreover, he explained that increasing the input blocks can raise it to 11,000 TPS. 

Leios is different from other blockchain platforms in the sense that it will not be a standalone. It will be built over Cardano’s current proof-of-stake ledger, which will keep the network’s features intact. “It can collapse back down to the current protocol should any unforeseen fault occur,” Hoskinson explained. 

As part of the Leios Research agenda, Hoskinson has also tweeted on X about the creation of a testnet to run the protocol at the fastest speeds. He said, “We’ll populate it with thousands of AI agents to trade amongst each other. Any Cardano DApps want to sign up to deploy on Face Melting Net? FMN.” 

Hoskinson also noted that the Leios upgrade is a huge change that will affect nearly every part of the Cardano blockchain. The update will impact the ledger, consensus rules, cryptography, and other key components of the network. 

He mentioned that implementing these changes could take between nine to twelve months. “It typically takes about nine months to twelve months of implementation effort from a SIP to bring this into the protocol,” he said. However, even with all these complex changes, Hoskinson is confident in Cardano’s ability to stay ahead of the curve.

Leios will launch alongside several Layer-2 solutions, such as Hydra and Mithril. The founder concluded by saying “Leios is the crowning achievement of ten-plus years of careful thought, research, and engineering.” If everything goes as planned, the network’s stakeholders could vote on the Leios Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) in early 2026.

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