Cardano Foundation - Private

The Cardano Foundation votes YES. We support the results of the Intersect-facilitated Constitutional Committee Election 2026.

A PDF version of this rationale is also made available.

We participated in the preceding off-chain election, although the proposed committee roster does not completely reflect our initial preferences, we believe the final composition is adequate to preserve the necessary operational continuity for the Constitutional Committee to execute its duty of ensuring the Cardano Constitution is upheld. We also express our appreciation to Intersect for overseeing the election process.

The Cardano Foundation votes YES.

NOTE on 'Internal Voting':
The fields constitutional and unconstitutional below reflect the CF governance teams' individual opinions whether they are for or against the proposal. Reason for this inconsistency is, that CIP-136 is at the moment only applicable to CC rationales, but we want to record the internal opinions of our DRep assessment transparently as well.

The Cardano Foundation votes YES. The Plutus memory increase completes a two-step change we have already supported, and the reduction of minPoolCost to 75 ada is a proportionate, evidence-based response to the declining share of block rewards.

A PDF version of this rationale is also made available.

We commend Intersect's Parameter Committee and the author of PCP-006 for this action. Our decision is driven by three factors:

1. Plutus Change Completion: This implements the second half of the 25 percent increase to `maxTxExecutionUnits[memory]` and `maxBlockExecutionUnits[memory]` approved on 1 October 2025. Following Preview testing in July 2026, node 10.2 and 10.3 benchmarks show adequate headroom, justifying our continued support.
2. Proportionate `minPoolCost` Correction: With rewards near 300 ada per block, the 170 ada floor absorbs ~57 percent of a single-block pool's gross reward, raising the delegator penalty to ~52.8 percent and projecting 100 percent by epoch 758. Reducing the floor to 75 ada restores that share to ~25 percent, ensuring long-term economic predictability.
3. Empirical Evidence: The 2023 reduction from 340 ada to 170 ada showed that a lower floor does not trigger a race to the bottom; 340 ada remained dominant. Operators can maintain higher fees if necessary, making a repeat concern unlikely.

The Cardano Foundation votes YES. Both changes are evidence-based, committee-reviewed, testnet-validated, and within constitutional guardrails.

NOTE on 'Internal Voting':
The fields constitutional and unconstitutional below reflect the CF governance teams' individual opinions whether they are for or against the proposal. Reason for this inconsistency is, that CIP-136 is at the moment only applicable to CC rationales, but we want to record the internal opinions of our DRep assessment transparently as well.

Cardano Foundation votes YES on this Hardfork Governance Action to fork into "van Rossem". We have been actively involved in the Hardfork Working Group, where we monitored readiness along many different verticals (Exchange readiness, Technical readiness and SPO readiness, et al).

A PDF version of this rationale is also made available.

Cardano Foundation votes YES on this Hardfork Governance Action to fork into "van Rossem".

NOTE on 'Internal Voting':
The fields constitutional and unconstitutional below reflect the CF governance teams' individual opinions whether they are for or against the proposal. Reason for this inconsistency is, that CIP-136 is at the moment only applicable to CC rationales, but we want to record the internal opinions of our DRep assessment transparently as well.

Cardano Foundation votes YES on this governance action. We support this parameter change to improve developer flexibility and network scalability. Benchmarks confirm that the network has sufficient headroom to accommodate these increases without compromising block propagation or security guarantees.

A PDF version of this rationale is also made available.

Our support for this proposal is driven by the following factors:

• Developer Experience & Scalability: Increasing the per-transaction memory limit by ~17.9% and the per-block limit by ~16.1% addresses immediate pain points for developers. It allows for more complex Plutus scripts to run without requiring inefficient workarounds, while maintaining the capacity to fit four maximum-sized transactions per block.

• Technical Validation: We rely on the data provided by the IOE Performance and Tracing team. Detailed benchmarking (on node versions 10.2 and 10.3) indicates that despite the increased memory budget, critical system resources (Kernel RSS, CPU usage) remain stable, and block diffusion remains well within the target of 95% propagation within 5 seconds.

• Process & Guardrail Compliance: This proposal is the result of over a year of analysis by the Intersect Parameter Committee. We specifically point to the "Part 1 of 2" implementation strategy in this instance because it is required by the Constitutional Guardrails (specifically MTEU-M-04), which limit the maximum increase per epoch. In general, we advocate for bundling parameter changes to minimize the frequency of governance actions requiring Stake Pool Operator (SPO) votes, thereby reducing their operational burden.

The Cardano Foundation votes YES. This update represents a technically sound, data-backed optimization of the network's parameters. It unlocks necessary capacity for the ecosystem while adhering to established safety guardrails.