Cardano's core protocol engineers move to new firm BlockPQR

@IOGroup has confirmed that the IO Labs engineering teams responsible for core @Cardano infrastructure, covering the ledger, indexer, formal methods, and uptime work, are transitioning to a new firm called @blockpqr. The company was founded by Leonard Hegarty, a former director of technical delivery at Input Output.

What Changes and What Stays the Same

Despite the personnel move, the accountability structure remains largely unchanged. IO retains primary responsibility for protocol milestones, with Intersect gating each release and all code continuing to land in open repositories. For $ADA stake pool operators and everyday users, the practical experience of running or interacting with the network is expected to be seamless.

The move fits a pattern that has been building for some time. Cardano has been moving away from a single delivery organisation toward a network of specialist partners contributing to core infrastructure. Since 2024, IO and its partners have been managing a transition that is expected to conclude in 2027, resulting in several independent firms maintaining at least three Cardano node implementations in Haskell, Rust, and Go, alongside a complete set of formal specifications overseen by member-based community organisations.

Part of a Broader Decentralisation Push

Starting in August 2026, IO is transferring control of critical infrastructure components to independent specialist teams, with community organisations providing oversight. The handover will extend through 2027. Intersect, the member-based body that coordinates Cardano development, continues to serve as the release gate throughout the process.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has described the engineering decentralisation as the final push of the Voltaire era, the governance and decentralisation phase Cardano has been building toward since 2024. Formal specifications will be supervised by community organisations such as Intersect and Pragma, while the wider Cardano community will be able to review and vote on them.

The creation of BlockPQR and the absorption of former IO Labs engineers is one of the more concrete steps in that plan, placing specialists who have deep familiarity with the Cardano stack inside a dedicated independent firm rather than under IO's direct employment.

Sources
IO Labs: Cardano Engineering Partners Overview
Input Output: IO Treasury Proposals Overview
Crypto Briefing: Cardano Reduces Reliance on Input Output