Cryptoupdated 1h ago2 min read
Charles Hoskinson Personally Develops New Cardano Programming Language With Groth16 Proofs
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Hoskinson personally developing a Cardano language integrating intents and Groth16 proofs. He has not released a name, specs, or deployment timeline.
Hoskinson’s new Cardano language
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said he is personally developing a new programming language for Cardano, and he described it as “the first of its kind enabling intents + PCD via Groth16 proofs.” Hoskinson said the language would bundle transaction requests with cryptographic proofs, but he did not share a name, technical specifications, or a release date. Hoskinson said the language would combine transaction intents, proof-carrying data, and Groth16 proofs, with intents letting an application state a desired outcome and leave the steps to the app.
Input Output Global engineer Lucas Rosa is named as a collaborator on the project, and Rosa is described as a co-creator of Aiken, one of Cardano’s main smart contract languages. Hoskinson’s announcement also left open how the new language would relate to Cardano’s existing smart contract tools, since Cardano developers already write in Plutus and Aiken.
What the components promise
Hoskinson framed transaction intents as a way for users to express what they want done without spelling out every step, and he tied that intent-based approach to proof-carrying data. Hoskinson said the proof-carrying data would be verified through Groth16 cryptographic proofs, which the reporting describes as a system that produces compact zero-knowledge proofs. The reporting said proof-carrying data attaches cryptographic evidence to information so that validity can be checked without repeating the underlying calculations.
The same coverage said Cardano already supports smart contracts in Plutus, built on Haskell, and in Aiken, while Midnight uses a language called Compact for apps handling confidential data. The announcement’s lack of a name, public code, and release timeline left developers without documentation to judge how the new language would work in practice.
Adoption stakes for ADA
CryptoSlate tied the language announcement to a broader adoption test, saying Leios was still awaiting deployment and that the language had no launch date.
CryptoSlate said Cardano’s decentralized exchanges processed approximately $927,000 in transactions over the preceding 24 hours as of Oct. 19, and it said weekly trading volume stood at $8.35 million, down 25% from the previous seven-day period.
CryptoSlate also said the network recorded 12,716 active addresses and 28,146 transactions during the day, generating approximately $2,196 in blockchain fees.
24/7 Wall St. said ADA was trading at around $0.22 as of October 19, 2026, down 12.9% over the past week and 18.6% in the last 14 days.
24/7 Wall St. said Hoskinson’s post did not clarify how applications built with the new language would handle fees, or whether it would connect to Midnight, leaving ADA holders uncertain about where value would accrue.