Cardano’s development teams are shifting to a round-the-clock work schedule in a bid to speed up a long-awaited network upgrade known as Leios. The change was announced by founder Charles Hoskinson in a recent livestream, and it signals a pretty serious push to get this thing moving.
Basically, they’re adopting what’s called a “follow-the-sun” model. Once a team in one part of the world clocks out, another team in a completely different time zone clocks in. The idea is that work on the upgrade never really stops. Development just keeps going, 24 hours a day.
Why the Rush on Leios?
Leios isn’t exactly new. It was first talked about back in 2022 as a major scalability fix for Cardano. The goal is to handle transactions in parallel using a new three-tier block structure, which should, in theory, allow the network to process a lot more activity a lot faster.
But it’s been slow going. Hoskinson didn’t mince words—he called the upgrade “competitively necessary” now. The delay has apparently stretched long enough that a more aggressive approach is needed. He’s pretty convinced that once it’s live, Leios could help make Cardano one of the fastest blockchains out there, maybe even going toe-to-toe with heavyweights like Solana and Ethereum.
A Strict New Development Mandate
This shift in workflow isn’t just a suggestion—it’s mandatory. Hoskinson was blunt about there being zero tolerance for resistance within the engineering teams. According to him, developers who expressed doubt or pushed back have already been reassigned. In some cases, contracts were outright terminated.
It’s a firm stance, and it shows how much priority is being placed on Leios right now. New developers are being brought in specifically to focus on this upgrade, replacing those who weren’t on board with the accelerated pace.
For anyone interested in tracking how this round-the-clock work is translating into actual progress, Hoskinson pointed toward GitHub. Commit timestamps and frequency should reflect the non-stop development cycle.
It’s a big bet. Whether this round-the-clock model will actually deliver Leios faster remains to be seen, but it’s clear the team is willing to make major changes to try.
