 It offers a WebSockets API that enables local clients to speak Ouroboros' mini-protocols via JSON/RPC.
 
 Can you explain Ogmios in one three sentences?
Ogmios is a lightweight bridge interface for cardano-node. It offers a WebSockets API that enables local clients to speak Ouroboros' mini-protocols via JSON/RPC. Ogmios is a fast and lightweight solution that can be deployed alongside relays to create entry points on the Cardano network for various types of applications (e.g. wallets, explorers, chatbots, dashboards…)

Can you explain Ogmios to me like I’m five?
To understand what Ogmios is, you must first understand where it fits in Cardano landscape. Cardano is a network of programs (a.k.a nodes) connected to each other and exchanging messages to run the Cardano blockchain. A Cardano node has an interface that allows for other programs to interact with it (very much like buttons on a remote to control the TV). However, that interface relies on novel communication methods, that were designed in-house by the networking team at IOG. To this day, the only tooling that fully implement those unique communication methods is written in Haskell* (as if all the buttons on the remote control were in Chinese, but you only speak French). So to interact with a Cardano node, one has no other choice than to write a Haskell program, which is a bummer for many application developers.

This is where Ogmios comes into play. Ogmios is written in Haskell, so it can speak with Cardano nodes just fine. But it also translates all the interfaces provided by the node using communication methods that are more common and accessible to the vast majority of developers (namely, WebSockets & JSON). Ogmios is a sort of translator; instead of speaking to a Cardano node directly, applications can speak to Ogmios using a language they know, and Ogmios translates it to the node and back to the applications.

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OGMIOS

Project Acropolis is reimagining the Cardano node as a living ecosystem where developers can build applications from within, not just interface from outsideCardano's mathematical foundations and formal verification approach have established it as a leader in blockchain security and reliability. However, these same architectural choices that ensure exceptional security have created a developer experience that requires significant upfront investment in specialized knowledge, tools, and infrastructure. The result is a paradox: one of the most technically robust blockchains has remained challenging for many developers to build on, limiting ecosystem growth despite its strong technical advantages.Recognizing this opportunity, Input | Output (IO) is developing <a href="https://github.com/input-output-hk/acropolis">Project Acropolis</a> – a fundamental reimagining of the Cardano node architecture. Instead of treating the node as a fortress that applications must interface with from the outside, Acropolis transforms it into a modular, extensible ecosystem where developers can build applications from within using familiar tools and standard interfaces. This approach preserves Cardano's security guarantees while dramatically reducing barriers to entry.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Meet Alice: why her Cardano onboarding challenge matters to everyone</h2>To understand what this transformation means in practice, let’s follow Alice, a fictional composite character representing many Rust developers with DeFi experience. This hypothetical scenario illustrates common challenges developers face when approaching Cardano development.Attracted by Cardano's mathematically guaranteed security, she wanted to build a yield farming tracker – exactly the kind of financial application that benefits from Cardano's rigorous approach.In our hypothetical scenario, Alice might reflect: 'The security model was compelling, but I encountered a learning curve that made quick prototyping challenging. I would have needed to invest significant time in learning Haskell and specialized protocols before becoming productive.'Alice's experience highlights an opportunity: while Cardano provides unmatched security guarantees, developers wishing to integrate with the node may experience a steeper learning curve than with other blockchains, which may be discouraging.Note: While smart contract developers now have Aiken as an alternative programming language to learning Haskell and Plutus, developers who want to integrate their backend systems with the Cardano node don't yet have this same type of accessible pathway. That’s what Project Acropolis is addressing.&nbsp;What if there was a way to preserve Cardano's technical advantages while providing familiar development interfaces?<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Cardano's developer evolution</h3>Decentralization, robust governance, and mathematically verified security make Cardano one of the most trusted blockchains. This is a result of deliberate architectural choices that prioritize security and correctness, which also create opportunities to improve developer experience.While Cardano's emphasis on formal methods provides exceptional security guarantees, it also means developers need specialized knowledge to be productive. Paul Clark, IO’s lead architect working on developer experience improvements, describes the current architecture as having a ‘citadel mentality’ – exceptionally secure, but with limited entry points.Today's development experience includes several areas ripe for improvement:<ul><li>Infrastructure requirements: accessing Cardano data through DB Sync requires up to 64GB of RAM and significant cloud hosting costs</li><li>Interface complexity: custom networking protocols require specialized knowledge compared to standard REST APIs</li><li>Specialized expertise: core development leverages Haskell, requiring dedicated learning time</li><li>Architectural constraints: the unified node design prioritizes reliability but limits extensibility.</li></ul>This points to a challenge: how to preserve Cardano's technical advantages while making development more approachable?<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">The game-changing vision: when the node becomes the ecosystem</h2>This is exactly the problem Paul Clark and his team at IO are tackling with project Acropolis – an initiative to redesign the Cardano node with a modular architecture, enabling greater node diversity, easier integration, and more decentralized development. Their solution goes beyond making Cardano easier to access – they're fundamentally reimagining what a blockchain node can be.‘We talk about the node’s ecosystem – all the applications and interfaces around it, like <a href="https://github.com/IntersectMBO/cardano-db-sync">Cardano DB Sync</a>, <a href="https://github.com/CardanoSolutions/ogmios">Ogmios</a>, and <a href="https://github.com/blockfrost">Blockfrost</a>. In my analogy, you've got the citadel in the middle and buildings around it. But my vision is that the node becomes sufficiently porous so you can build applications directly into the node, not just next to it, but actually part of it.’&nbsp;This is the fundamental insight: the node IS the ecosystem.Instead of applications struggling to interface with the blockchain from outside, they become part of the node infrastructure. Application functionality becomes embedded in the architecture. For example, decentralized exchange (DEX) protocols become part of the data processing pipeline.Clark's vision transforms the node from a fortress into a living ecosystem where innovation happens from within.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">How modular architecture changes everything</h2>The technical foundation enabling this transformation is a ‘modular, event-driven architecture’ built on Caryatid, an application-independent framework that enables this modularity by providing message buses, module loading, and configuration management. It allows modules to run efficiently within a single process or be distributed across multiple processes for scalability, all without changing application code. Think of it as replacing an ancient citadel with a modern city district – specialized buildings instead of high walls and a single drawbridge. It’s more about buildings with interconnected pathways and roads – a network of buildings.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">From citadel to ecosystem</h3>The current Cardano node is monolithic – a single, complex system handling everything in one package. Acropolis breaks this into loosely coupled modules that communicate through message buses and can be mixed, matched, and extended.Key innovations:<ul><li>Standard interfaces: familiar REST or gRPC APIs instead of custom mini-protocols</li><li>Modular components: run only the modules you need</li><li>Polyglot development: interface in any language while the core framework uses Rust</li><li>Event-driven architecture: subscribe to relevant events instead of polling for changes</li><li>Custom extensions: write your own modules and get direct access to everything happening inside the node.</li></ul><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Real impact: who's already excited</h2>Real projects addressing real pain points are already lining up to use Acropolis.Partner chains plan to embed cross-chain logic directly into Acropolis nodes instead of using existing generic and inefficient indexing solutions.Blockfrost currently runs expensive infrastructure to make Cardano data accessible. With Acropolis, they could dramatically reduce costs while improving performance.Sundae Labs is also looking at Acropolis’ modularity, and has some exciting plans to leverage that to upgrade the ‘Scooper’ software, which batches and executes orders, and as a key component of several other projects they have in the works.The real excitement comes from projects that don't exist yet – applications that become possible when infrastructure barriers disappear.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Timeline and current status</h2>Project Acropolis, which began in October 2024 with Paul Clark working on the Caryatid framework, is in the ‘early explorer phase’ – a small team proving the vision is technically feasible. While the project now includes Sundae Labs developers and other Cardano engineers, the team remains deliberately small.<ul><li>Phase 1 – data node (current): building foundational infrastructure and replacing DB Sync with modular, REST-accessible components</li><li>Phase 2 – validating node (2nd half of 2025): adding transaction validation and script execution</li><li>Phase 3 – full node (future): block production and multi-peer networking.</li></ul>‘You go out there and try anything – it's like skunk works where you experiment, and if something breaks, you iterate. Think of early explorers mapping rivers, mountains, and bogs, clearing jungle to find the path. The next phase is stabilization: making it habitable with flexible design, establishing methodology while keeping it adaptable. We're proving this technology works this particular way, but it's not the only approach. You could do it completely differently, and the cost wouldn't be a complete rewrite because it's modular.’<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Re-imagining Alice's experience with Acropolis</h2>Let's revisit our hypothetical scenario with Alice, but this time imagine her development experience with Acropolis available as an option.In this scenario, when Alice decides to build her yield farming tracker, she discovers that Acropolis documentation offers a different approach: REST API endpoints for liquidity pool data, standard subscription methods for real-time updates, and examples across multiple programming languages.&nbsp;She finds herself working with familiar patterns – HTTP requests and standard web technologies. Within hours, she has basic pool data flowing into her Rust application. By day's end, she's prototyped a notification system using transaction event subscriptions.The experience reveals a possibility: rather than building an isolated external application, Alice could contribute a ‘yield analytics module’ that becomes part of the broader ecosystem. This modular approach means other developers could build on her work, extending it or using it as a foundation for their own projects.Her focused weekend effort could become reusable infrastructure, potentially accelerating future development for the entire community.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">The bigger picture: opening the floodgates</h2>The real promise of project Acropolis isn't just making Cardano development easier – it's fundamentally expanding who can participate in the Cardano ecosystem.When blockchain infrastructure becomes as accessible as web development, building on Cardano feels as natural as building a REST API, and applications can live inside the ecosystem instead of struggling to interface with it from the outside, that's when the community will realize the true potential of decentralized ecosystems.While the technical barriers served their purpose in establishing security, they also created unintended obstacles for developers like Alice, limiting growth potential. Paul Clark's vision of the node-as-ecosystem represents a path toward the best of both worlds: maintaining Cardano's mathematical rigor and security while opening the doors to a vastly larger community of builders.&nbsp;For developers who've been waiting for the right moment to explore Cardano, that moment may be approaching faster than expected. The walls are coming down, and the ecosystem is about to get much bigger.<hr>Project Acropolis is currently in active development. Developers interested in following the project or getting involved can track progress through <a href="https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/page-1/">IOHK’s blog</a>.&nbsp;Follow Paul Clark on X: @towlennerSee <a href="https://github.com/input-output-hk/acropolis">Acropolis</a> and <a href="https://github.com/input-output-hk/caryatid">Caryatid</a> GitHub repositories.<h3 style="margin-left:0px;"><a href="https://iohk.io/en/blog/authors/joseph-fajen/page-1/">Joseph Fajen</a></h3>Technical WriterEngineering

Input Output

Breaking down the walls: making Cardano more developer-friendly

[Zug, Switzerland, November 13, 2024] – Cardano Foundation, an independent, Swiss-based not-for-profit organization tasked with advancing the public digital infrastructure Cardano, launched its first <a href="https://ucarecdn.com/a8efed51-3bb9-46e9-aecb-9db64975c891/">Financial Insights Report</a> today. The report is an important milestone in its ongoing commitment to uphold the principles of openness, integrity, and community engagement. Complementing the <a href="https://cardanofoundation.org/blog/cardano-foundation-launches-2023-activity-report">Activity Report</a> published earlier this year, the Financial Insights Report details how the Foundation directed its funds and the tangible impact it made across its three core focus areas: operational resilience, education, and adoption.Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, said, "This report represents a natural evolution of our open-source philosophy, where transparency is not merely a concept but a core principle we wholeheartedly embrace. This report highlights the importance of accountability, disclosing the allocation of our resources, and how they help advance Cardano as a public digital utility across a wide range of industries. We have 100+ employees working with institutions, businesses, regulators, and policymakers to solve societal and enterprise challenges in new ways across 25 countries."In 2023, the Cardano Foundation allocated $19.22M across the Foundation’s three mutually reinforcing focus areas of operational resilience, education, and adoption. Additionally, $4.55M was dedicated to central operational costs as the Cardano Foundation expanded its capacity to support and drive forward key initiatives. Each investment reflects its commitment to building a robust and sustainable ecosystem.In keeping with its central mission of bridging Cardano and the world by working to progress Cardano as a public digital utility, the Cardano Foundation has focused intensively on scaling the diversity, quality, and quantity of activities on Cardano. To achieve economic escape velocity for Cardano, on-chain activities must include a balanced mix of legacy and blockchain-native use cases. Scaling the diversity, quality, and quantity of activities on Cardano is core to the Foundation’s mission. This goal faces several hurdles, from the cost and complexity of implementation and ownership to a lack of comfort with blockchain. The Cardano Foundation addresses such gaps with targeted initiatives on operational resilience, education, and adoption. Highlights from the 2023 Transparency Report include:Financial Summary As of 31st December 2023, the Cardano Foundation’s assets amounted to $478.24M, of which 82.5% was held in ADA, 10.1% in BTC, and the remainder as USD liquidity. The Cardano Foundation was funded by the aforementioned initial endowment in ADA and a proportion of the proceeds from the distribution of ADA vouchers. The Foundation has and continues to utilize these assets to fund activities aligned with its statutory purpose and mission. Constituted as a Swiss foundation, the Cardano Foundation’s efforts are driven by a long-term view, prioritizing the resilience, adoption, and longevity of the Cardano blockchain and its ecosystem without the pressure of short-term financial goals or shareholder value interests.Operational Resilience Operational Resilience, which encompasses all efforts to improve Cardano’s suitability and recognition as an infrastructure component of institutional-grade use cases, received $2.12M for its share of expenses. The Foundation bolsters the Cardano infrastructure's resilience, reliability, and durability and works towards a broader understanding of blockchain and its associated opportunities and risks. Highlights include:<ul><li>•Ran network without interruption for more than 2,000 days</li><li>•Tested decentralized governance mechanism with an SPO and the University of Zurich</li><li>•Supported the Valentine hard fork that brought improved interoperability</li><li>•Launched own block producer, refined stake pool delegation, and implemented continuous network monitoring</li></ul>Education Education, which contributes to information on and legal certainty for third-generation blockchains, received $4.18M for its share of expenses, promoting discussion and debate, supporting research, and explaining blockchain concepts to diverse stakeholders. During 2023, the Cardano Foundation continued its work to provide reliable information to support regulatory clarity, contribute to blockchain research, and encourage enterprise adoption, as well as the diversity of the developer community. Highlights include:<ul><li>•Launched the Cardano Academy, Cardano Explorer, and ‘Let’s Talk Cardano’ webinar</li><li>•Hosted the Cardano Summit 2023 in Dubai</li></ul>Adoption Adoption, which drives use of Cardano by businesses, organizations, and other institutions by creating the conditions for increased utility while also reducing the adoption and running costs through improved tooling, received $12.92M for its share of expenses, contributing to the longevity of the Cardano development ecosystem, including by fostering open source. During the year, the funds were directed to the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to drive adoption of Cardano by supporting the development of use cases to demonstrate its wide-ranging utility and tools for the community to leverage Cardano in different ways. Highlights include:<ul><li>•Developed Identify Wallet and Ledger Sync to support enterprise-grade Cardano applications</li><li>•Launched open-source programming language Aiken to simplify smart contract development</li><li>•Optimized SPO rewards, upgraded Kupo and Ogmios, and improved Cardano Ballot to enable a customizable</li><li>•Collaborated with the Global Impact Challenge with Switzerland for UNHCR and the Georgian wine industry.</li></ul>The Cardano Foundation will publish its next Activity Report 2024 in Q1 of 2025, providing detailed insights into the initiatives and accomplishments of 2024.<a href="https://ucarecdn.com/a8efed51-3bb9-46e9-aecb-9db64975c891/">Read the Financial Insights 2023 Report now.</a>

Cardano Foundation

Cardano Foundation Launches 2023 Financial Insights Report

Intersect

Intersect Development Update #26 - August 9th

<article>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Cardano’s Node 9.1.0 launch is pivotal for the Chang Hard Fork, marking significant progress in on-chain decision-making.</li>
<li>While ADA’s price hasn’t surged yet, the upgrade holds potential for a future rally similar to the Alonzo Hard Fork.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
Following the innovative launch of Cardano Ogmios v6.4.0, we <a target="_blank" href="https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/ada-down-despite-cardanos-launch-of-ogmios-v6-4-0-upgrade/">reported</a> last month, Cardano has launched Node 9.1.0, which is crucial for the upcoming Chang Hard Fork upgrade. This node introduces the final version needed to implement on-chain decision-making within the Cardano ecosystem. The Dawn of the Chang Hard Fork Era is equipped with a crucial feature, the Conway genesis file, which differentiates it from the previous Node 9.0.0.
This launch was announced by Intersect on X and confirmed by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson on his personal X account. The Chang Hard Fork upgrade, initially scheduled for the first half of 2024, is expected to significantly advance Cardano’s infrastructure and capabilities.
<blockquote>
Node 9.1.0 is here!
The final version to bring on-chain decision making to Cardano is here. As with all hard-forks, Cardano upgrades when the community is ready.
SPO's ➡️ <a target="_blank" href="https://t.co/UwgSE0dWc0">https://t.co/UwgSE0dWc0</a>
DApps, wallets, exchanges &amp; more get <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReadyforChang?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ReadyforChang</a> ➡️ <a target="_blank" href="https://t.co/vDJ4yyIdHP">https://t.co/vDJ4yyIdHP</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://t.co/fnHLgupBmn">pic.twitter.com/fnHLgupBmn</a>
— Intersect (@IntersectMBO) <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/IntersectMBO/status/1816491283676033133?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2024</a></blockquote>
However, unlike the previous update, as discussed in the CNF earlier <a target="_blank" href="https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/ada-price-shoots-up-10-as-159-projects-launch-on-cardano-accompanied-by-9-62m-native-tokens-and-84-2m-transactions/">report</a>, which drove ADA price up 10% as 159 projects launched on Cardano, accompanied by 9.62M native tokens and 84.2M transactions, this upgrade is still taking its time to hit the expected surge. Previous upgrades like the Alonzo Hard Fork in 2021 had a substantial positive impact on ADA’s price, suggesting potential similar outcomes with the Chang Hard Fork.
The upgrade could potentially lead to a price rally, as it is expected to break the upper boundary of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/cardano-foundation-launches-pragma-a-new-chapter-in-open-source-blockchain-development/">wedge pattern</a>. As of now, according to CoinMarketCap data today, Cardano (ADA) is trading at $0.3966, with a decrease of 2.47% in the past day and 5.75% in the past week. See ADA price chart below.
<hr /><h6>Recommended for you:</h6><div><div><h2>Subscribe to our daily newsletter!</h2></div>          No spam, no lies, only insights. You can unsubscribe at any time. </div>
</div>
This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. The content does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any securities or financial instruments. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with financial advisors before making investment decisions. The information presented may not be current and could become outdated. </article>

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