We are at a very exciting inflection point with respect to Cardano's engineering and the diversity of ideas and teams. In the beginning there was one philosophy that was rigorous, safe, and effective, but it also deeply alienated many who wanted to contribute, prevented new ideas from entering our ecosystem, and resulted in a very slow delivery of features.

The team didn't want deadlines, focused on purity of practice, and thought in terms of years and decades. This benefited us tremendously in an age of unsafe practices, but also made it difficult for Cardano to grow and thrive.

Now in 2025, we are opening up the ecosystem augmented with small agile teams like Aiken and Midgard, while preserving the knowledge, experience, and rigor with IOR and our formal methods group using Agda. We also see different clients that will and should challenge the assumptions, designs, and features of prior teams to accommodate new protocols, economic realities, and our progress as a community.

Some are always unhappy with change and will look for easy scapegoats and want a return to days that never actually existed. But many will welcome a real opportunity to contribute, the faster pace of development, and the competition of ideas.

There are times I miss the old days. But the new days will be filled with even greater opportunities and exciting new capabilities. That's the nature of all great products and projects