Input Output, the private engineering company behind Cardano, requested much lower funding from the community treasury in the new budget period than last year. Although the company is one of the main teams continuing the development of the Cardano blockchain, it has reduced the amount it planned to collect from the community treasury for 2026 to $ 46.8 million. That’s about half the $97.5 million demand in 2025.
Main projects: Leios and Pogun
The bulk of Input Output’s nine different offerings include the Leios consensus upgrade, which specifically aims to increase Cardano’s transaction capacity. It was stated that with the implementation of Leios, the network will be able to reach a capacity of more than 1,000 transactions per second, thus rivaling Solana and the fastest Ethereum layer-2 solutions. Leios will enter the testing phase in June; Full integration is planned by the end of the year.
The other major proposal involves the development of a new system called Pogun. With Pogun, it will be possible to move Bitcoin-based decentralized finance applications to the Cardano network. Thus, bitcoin holders will be able to borrow or earn income through Cardano without transferring their assets to a central intermediary. Pogun’s credit component is targeted to be published in the second quarter.
Radical change in community funding
In Cardano, just like other major blockchains, funds allocated for development are accumulated from the community pool through transaction fees on the network. Decisions regarding the fund are made by approximately 1,000 delegates, called DRep, who are elected to represent ADA owners. In this vote, Input Output takes its first concrete step to increase its independence by reducing its traditional share and receive less support from the community in the coming years. The company aims to reduce the dependence on community funding over the years, with development work increasingly being divided and carried out by expert teams.
By the end of 2026, the majority of the work currently carried out within Input Output is expected to be undertaken by external engineering groups such as VacuumLabs and Midgard Labs. Recommendations include improvements to Cardano’s smart contract performance, innovations in developer tools, and expansion of API services.
Voting process and new era in Cardano
Separate managers have been appointed for each of the offerings, and payments are scheduled to be made as certain milestones are reached. That means funds will be released gradually based on completed phases, as in a construction project. Voting will continue until May 24. This process will also weigh whether the Cardano community and DRep delegates will approve Input Output as easily as they have in the past.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson also plans to share a video this week to provide direct information to voters; Thus, delegates will have direct information about the details of the proposals.
Following the high funding approval received last year, the Cardano Foundation took over the grant management and the organization Intersect took over the responsibility of software development, somewhat balancing the impact of Input Output in the development fund. With the new structure, other teams that apply can now receive a share of the grants.
He also pointed out the growth in the Input Output ecosystem. The total supply of the new Cardano stablecoin USDCx, which entered circulation in a short time, reached 14.6 million. The total amount of assets invested in the Cardano network increased from $137.5 million to $142.7 million.
Ultimately, which projects DRep delegates will approve will show how open the Cardano community is to non-Input Output solutions in the new era.
