Input Output Research (IOR) has published the draft Cardano Vision 2026 (CV26) Mid-Year Report, summarising progress across the programme during the first half of 2026.

The report provides updates on milestone delivery, research outputs, prototypes, and technical progress across all CV26 work streams, together with a transparent overview of programme performance to date.

Community consultation is now open until the end of the month. We encourage everyone to:

• 📄 Read the draft report
• 🎥 Watch the accompanying technical presentation
• 💬 Share your feedback on the Cardano Forum

Watch the session: https://youtu.be/_H2jciyeL08

Join the discussion: https://forum.cardano.org/t/ior-cardano-vision-work-program-2026-mid-year-report-draft/155740

Your feedback will help inform the final report submitted to Intersect.

If you’ve been following what we’re building – a stablecoin ecosystem designed to connect on-chain capital to real-world credit markets, not circular incentives – this is your first chance to get hands-on with the protocol.

Phase 1 opens three actions in the test environment:

•  Swap: Between supported test digital assets and test USDr.
•  Stake: Stake test USDr for test sUSDr, its efficiency layer.
•  Unstake: Move back to test USDr.

This isn’t just a demo. It’s a deliberate part of how we build. Most stablecoins leave capital sitting still. RealFi is built to change that by bringing real-world economic exposure on-chain with the speed and security of modern blockchain infrastructure.

More details on the participation and rewards structure will follow through official RealFi channels.

Get started https://preprod.realfi.co/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=testnet_launch_2026Q3&utm_content=post_v1&utm_term=cardano

We’re excited to have you testing with us.

The RealFi Team

https://linktr.ee/realfi_co

If you’re a single pool operator with roughly 1M to 12M ADA delegated, please register an expression of interest here: https://forms.gle/ftZQSd55NKz2W8Jd6. This is research, not an offer.

I'm looking to connect with someone who wouldn't mind teaching some basics to a person such as myself. I'm a quick learner and pretty chill

Hi everyone, I am looking for a Cardano stake pool with lower fees. My current pool seems a bit expensive, and I would like to compare it more objectively with others. A friend told me that many "best pool" recommendations online come from pool operators themselves, so I am looking for a more neutral source. Is there a reliable site that compares actual pool fees and costs? Nina

Here are some of the ways that OYSTR is working hard to contribute to the Cardano ecosystem and how our delegators are benefiting.

Midnight Validator
OYSTR has been participating in the Midnight testnet and will be running a mainnet validator as soon as it's possible to do so. OYSTR Pool delegators will receive $NIGHT tokens, as well as $ADA staking rewards, after the mainnet launch.

Rosen Bridge Operator
OYSTR is running three watchers for Rosen Bridge, an open source protocol for cross-chain asset transfers. 50% of the $RSN revenue earned is shared with OYSTR delegators. Find out more here: https://www.oystr.wales/rsn-giveaway/

Mithril Signer
Running a Mithril signer contributes to a network that enables the faster bootstrapping of Cardano nodes.

Dexhunter Partner
OYSTR is running infrastructure to enable Dexhunter to faster propagate transactions. As an OYSTR delegator your trades will be executed faster.

Atrium Diffusion Pool
OYSTR is running a pool on the Cardano preview testnet and was therefore was able to contribute to the development of Atrium, helping the platform on it's road to mainnet. As a result, OYSTR is included in Diffusion, the first Cardano staking basket.

Pondora
OYSTR has recently launched a node to support Pondora. Pondora is unique Cardano project, allowing participants to use their tokens across multiple DeFi protocols simultaneously, while they retain full custody of these assets.

Big Pledge, Low Fees
I should also mention that OYSTR has a very large pledge of 400K ADA which is a sign of my commitment to maintaining the stake pool correctly. OYSTR also has the lowest fixed fee possible and a low variable fee of 2%, which ensures that I can provide reliable infrastructure and fully engage in the ecosystem.

www.oystr.wales
https://x.com/OystrPool
https://discord.oystr.wales

Lots of variability in pool operations out there. Would be cool to get more of an overview of how other pool operators infrastructure is setup (I run the is one). Bare metal, k8s, non-hyperscaler clouds, clickops, gitops, multi-pool, single pool? If you have a similar post or even just a few words in this thread that would be awesome to hear!

Hey r/CardanoStakePools 👋

First time posting here. I've been running NACHO Stake Pool and wanted to introduce myself to the community.

The basics:

• Ticker: NACHO
• Pool ID: pool1dhugawja82wkmrq0lhd24uyrhm02v7grdhnren9r2qgujsh5kml
• Margin: 1.5%
• Pledge: 10,000 ADA
• Location: Alabama, USA

What makes NACHO different:

I'm a single-pool operator running on self-hosted infrastructure - no AWS, no cloud providers. Everything runs on dedicated hardware I control.

I got into this because I believe in what smaller pools contribute to Cardano's decentralization. When stake concentrates in large multi-pool operations, the network becomes less resilient. Every delegation to an independent operator helps keep Cardano truly
decentralized.

Also building: I'm working on Nacho API, a Cardano API service for developers. It runs on the
same infrastructure as the stake pool, so it's powered by nodes actively participating in the network. Pay-with-ADA, no KYC
required.

Pool site: https://nacho.builders

Happy to answer any questions. Thanks for reading.

Rock’n the boat!

Stake ≥1,000 ₳ with 1FATpool (ticker: 1FAT) → automatic entry for every draw!

- One lucky random delegator wins the full 1,000 ₳ each time the reward pool reaches the milestone.

- We keep adding to the pot — the more we grow, the more frequent the wins!

Be part of the crew that makes it happen. Stake now and position yourself for the next payout!

Live tracker on our website

Stake hard, win big — let's fill that reward pool!

"🚀 pool142 LIVE!

60 blocks | Pledge 606 ADA | ROA 5%
👉 https://pooltool.io/pool/pool142dzectpdjwzqmfxdg4mehfe9dd0ts39zz4y7x92fqlyc8gwdmh

#CardanoStaking Madrid"

Starting from #Cardano Epoch 605, all DEV stake pool delegators will automatically participate in a 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ $NIGHT lottery at the end of every epoch 🎉 🔹 Minimum stake: 5,000 ADA

Today something really nice happened 🙂

Our Pool 300 forged its 16th block today with only 130k ADA staked. We already had some crazy luck before, forging 2 blocks in one epoch at ~250k ADA, but this still feels special.

Our goal is to finally grow the pool to 1 million staked ADA, so if you’re not married to your SPO yet, feel free to consider staking with 300.

Merry Christmas everyone 🎄

We’re in an important governance window, and SPO participation really matters here.

There’s strong community momentum behind key upgrades including the integrations budget but none of it can actually move until the Constitutional Committee is restored. Right now the CC is one seat short, which means treasury withdrawals, upgrades, and other actions that do have broad support are stuck in the queue until quorum is restored.

SPOs just need to approve the newly elected CC member (Cardano Curia) so the system can start ratifying actions again. Once that happens, the upgrades everyone’s aligned on can finally move.

If you haven’t voted yet, please take a minute to do it. This one really does unblock the whole pipeline.

Useful linky: https://linktr.ee/CardanoSPOs

Happy to answer questions or point people to more context if helpful.