Input Output Group has named Serokell and AlwaysTrue as the latest organizations taking on Cardano engineering work, as the company says its core teams are taking the final steps toward autonomy.
Summary
- Consensus engineering is moving to Serokell, while AlwaysTrue takes on developer experience work.
- Team transitions run on separate schedules from November 2026 into early 2027.
- Treasury-backed development uses on-chain voting and milestone payments administered through Intersect.
- IOG says it will continue protocol research and development alongside specialist engineering partners.
IOG described the teams as taking their “final steps into autonomy” in a post promoting an X Space hosted by Matthew Capps. The discussion, titled “Decentralizing Cardano’s Core Development,” introduces the people leading the independently operating teams and their continuing collaboration with the company.
Cardano assigns consensus and developer tools to specialist teams
In its Nov. 5 announcement, IOG named two transfers: consensus engineering to Serokell and developer experience, or DevX, to AlwaysTrue. Engineers are moving with their existing work, with individual transitions scheduled between November and early 2027.
Serokell worked with IOHK before Cardano’s 2017 mainnet launch, helping build its first node and the initial implementation of the Ouroboros proof-of-stake protocol.
The consensus team maintains the software that selects which chain nodes follow, alongside the hard fork machinery used to move between network eras.
Robertino Martinez, who led the DevX initiative proposed by IOG and ratified by delegated representatives this year, continues that work at AlwaysTrue. The initiative covers documentation, libraries, tools, examples, and deployment support.
Consensus code will remain in IntersectMBO’s public GitHub repositories, while the developer tools maintained by AlwaysTrue remain open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
Treasury funding follows votes and delivery milestones
IO Labs’ funding explanation says Cardano development receives treasury support through proposals reviewed against the constitution and voted on by delegated representatives, known as DReps. Payments are released against verified milestones, with the same model applying to IOG, specialist partners, and other teams seeking treasury support.
The company says workstreams remain funded during the handovers. Its explanation describes Intersect as administering funding standards, while partners deliver through public repositories, test plans, and reviews.
For its own 2026 proposals, IOG’s treasury FAQ describes a direct submission process in which DReps vote on each initiative separately. Intersect continues to oversee disbursement after approval.
Funds pass through treasury reserve and project-specific smart contracts. A five-entity oversight committee checks key administrative actions on-chain, and milestone payments require third-party assurance before release. The committee comprises Sundae Labs, the Cardano Foundation, Dquadrant, Xerberus, and NMKR. Unspent money returns to the treasury when delivery closes, accompanied by a public reconciliation.
IOG continues development as earlier transfers take effect
IO Labs describes its continuing role as protocol research and development, carrying work from foundational research into production while specialist partners handle defined engineering responsibilities.
The company’s Sep. 17 Plutus announcement set Oct. 1 as the start of that team’s move to Midgard Labs. Plutus checks whether transactions satisfy smart contract rules, and its engineers continued collaborating with IO Labs during the transition.
Earlier transfers assigned Daedalus wallet maintenance to Se7en Labs and Mithril to Teragone. ICAN Group took on platform engineering, quality assurance, cryptography, performance, and tracing.
In a Sep. 15 engineering note, BlockPQR said it was continuing ledger, formal specification, node engineering, and block-producing infrastructure work. The firm stated that IOG retained primary responsibility for the associated initiatives and milestones while Intersect checked delivery milestones.
BlockPQR said nodes continued operating as before, with upgrades passing through the hard fork working group and test networks before deployment on mainnet.
Cardano governance already gives holders a formal vote
As crypto.news reported in January 2025, the Plomin upgrade activated Cardano’s full on-chain governance framework. Official documentation dates its enactment to Jan. 29, 2025, and identifies protocol updates, treasury withdrawals, and future hard forks among the decisions available through that framework.
IO Labs describes three governance roles: DReps vote on governance actions, stake pool operators vote on a defined subset, and the constitutional committee checks constitutionality.
Intersect’s July 2026 technical update traces its stewardship of core repositories to December 2023, when Input Output began transferring the first 25 repositories. Its listed repositories include Cardano Node, Cardano CLI, DB Sync, Cardano API, Cardano Ledger, Ouroboros Consensus, and Ouroboros Network.
