The Cardano community has approved a $71 million (96 million ADA) treasury proposal from Input Output Global (IOG) to support a year-long development initiative. This plan focuses on enhancing scalability, interoperability, and the overall developer experience. Despite raising concerns about transparency, cost, and accountability, the proposal received 74% approval. Funding will be milestone-based, with oversight from Intersect, smart contracts, and a dedicated committee. Major upgrades include Hydra for faster transactions, Project Acropolis for flexible node architecture, and system optimizations to lower RAM usage and reduce costs. IOG must also provide monthly progress updates and financial reports. A competing bid from Cardano’s Technical Steering Committee was not selected. This decision marks the first time that Cardano’s development funding has been authorized through direct community governance. Meanwhile, blockchains like Solana and Ethereum are also pushing ahead with network upgrades, expanding their block capacities and transaction processing limits to improve scalability.