Michael Smolenski

Product - @IOGroup @Cardano

[Nicolas Cerny @NicolasC3rny]

Cardano Upgrades just crossed the DRep approval threshold.

Upgrades include:

1. CIP-159 Account Address Enhancement
2. Multi-Asset Treasury CIP
3. Native Babel Fees

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

Great session with the team yesterday on the Cardano Upgrades proposal — three workstreams that unlock real utility:

1️⃣ Enhanced Account Addresses — semi-Ethereum-like accounts, opening the door to microfees and new use cases

2️⃣ Multi-Asset Treasury — project funding in stable currencies for better budgeting and planning

3️⃣ Babel Fees — bridge to Cardano and transact in your native currency, seamlessly

Listen to the full session here 👇
@IOGroup

[Cardano Over Coffee @coc_space]

Back and bringing you more proposers sharing proposals! Let's learn more about the IO Cardano Upgrades proposal today! https://t.co/A6f2eTQDvK

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

Babel Fees could bring 2.5M+ additional monthly transactions to Cardano.

Pay fees in any token. Lower the barrier. Grow the chain.

Vote for Cardano Upgrades 🗳️

https://t.co/DhvLe8faOm

@IOGroup

[Cardano Over Coffee @coc_space]

Back and bringing you more proposers sharing proposals! Let's learn more about the IO Cardano Upgrades proposal today! https://t.co/A6f2eTQDvK

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

In 30 mins from now I'll be discussing Cardano Upgrades:
- Enhanced Account Addresses
- Multi-Asset Treasury
- Babel Fees

Come join and listen to the discussion, hosted by Christina Gianelloni from BlinkLabs
- Enchances Account Addresses
In 30 mins from now I'll be discussing Cardano Upgrades:Tr

[Cardano Over Coffee @coc_space]

Back and bringing you more proposers sharing proposals! Let's learn more about the IO Cardano Upgrades proposal today! https://t.co/A6f2eTQDvK

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

From the designs I've reviewed, the wallet bridging experience for a BTC holder will be seamless — they click a button and wrapped BTC appears. No extra steps.

Re: "They'll also still require some amount of ada to pay platform fees and minUTxO" - Nested Transactions will take care of this. It will be a pure native-to-native (wrapped BTC) experience.

A seamless, frictionless experience for the user is what we're aiming for here.

[Ensurable Systems @ensurablesys]

Security, stability, and growth are connected.

As Cardano enters its next phase, Ensurable Systems outlines three practical proposals to strengthen infrastructure, improve assurance, and support long-term resilience.

Read more: https://t.co/saF0eYMFEM

[dori @dori_coin]

It increasingly feels like Cardano is absorbing parts of Ethereum’s model.

In other words, it continues refining its own structural strengths while integrating key aspects of Ethereum’s design.

1. CNT's limitations are addressed by CIP-113's proposed programmable token model, which draws on ERC-20 and ERC-3643.

2. EUTxO's constraints would be addressed via CIP-159, aligning more closely with Ethereum's account model.

As a result, Cardano can preserve its architectural advantages while also leveraging Ethereum’s strengths. I think from a builder’s perspective, it’s becoming a very compelling choice.

[Ensurable Systems @ensurablesys]

@IOGroup 2/ CIP-159 Account Address Enhancement (₳7.07M)

The minUTxOValue floor blocks wallets from charging fees under ~1 ADA. The average tx fee is ~0.39 ADA — the maths don't work.

Lift it and you unlock micro-fees, cheaper batchers, and the account primitives L2s like Midgard need

[ADSL @DaLohals]

This is the proposal Cardano needs.

→ CIP-159: micro-fees below 1 ADA - wallets and DEXs can finally compete on price

→ CPS-23: multi-asset treasury - stablecoins held alongside ADA, funding insulated from volatility

→ Babel Fees: pay transaction fees in any native asset (USDCx, BTC, $LILY) - no ADA detour for new users

₳ 13.1M total, milestone-gated, Q3 2026 → Q2 2027.

Three of the most-needed capabilities, bundled, with proper governance gates. Vote yes by May 24.

This is how a chain matures.

https://t.co/mpEr4NJMWB

#Cardano #CIP159 #BabelFees

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

For clarification, those points are with reference to Harmonic's demo prototype, not Fluids implementation..

Regarding to responding to points raised on Harmonics design, justifying every point would take more than an X thread — there were multiple roundtable talks and direct meetings dedicated to working through these issues in detail.

Without going too deep, a major deal breaker was the need for the user to provide ADA collateral, which Harmonic maintained was important. This alone breaks the requirement for a native-to-native experience. On top of that, there were scalability concerns discussed at length during those conversations.

My point isn't to dismiss anyone's work. It's that when there are claims that something is "implemented" and frames it as "move on, nothing to see here" — that's a over simplification and incorrect.

There are hard engineering problems with difficult tradeoffs that have been carefully considered and worked through in order to arrive at this proposal.

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

1. Verus is a Zcash fork, which is itself a Bitcoin fork — it inherits the same dust threshold logic. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and others all enforce dust limits for the same reason. Cardano's minUTXO is more sophisticated because native tokens and datums make UTXOs variable in ledger footprint size. Verus doesn't face this because it doesn't have the same multi-asset functionality — not a fair comparison.

2. A smart contract script on Cardano can be designed so the payee only unlocks the non-minUTXO portion, while the app or sender reclaims the minUTXO deposit. This is a common dApp pattern. The ADA is not lost or locked — it's recovered.

I think I've covered this thoroughly and the official docs speak for themselves. Happy to leave it here.

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

Hey Adam, appreciate you kicking the tyres on this — exactly what the process is for.

1) There are possible ways to engineer micropayments solutions, but they come with trade-offs in UX and scalability that limit real-world adoption.

2) We researched the existing implementations extensively. The major recurring issues were poor UX and single-org control of the fee-abstraction layer, which introduces cost overhead and a central point of dependency. This proposal is designed as an open, permissionless standard at the protocol level.

3) On multi-asset treasury whitelistingagreed, that's exactly the kind of decision good governance exists to handle.

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

1. "all other networks do not have this issue" — Cardano uses the eUTxO model, so needs to cater for this. Bitcoin (also UTXO-based) has dust limits for the same reason. Account-based chains like Ethereum don't have this specific problem because they don't maintain individual UTXOs — balances are just numbers on accounts.

2. "how people recover the minUTXO" — You spend the UTXO as an input to a new transaction, and all the ADA in it (including the minUTXO portion) is available for the transaction's outputs. There's no special recovery process — it's just how spending works in the UTXO model.

If minUTXO were genuinely designed to lock up supply, it would have been a far bigger controversy — the community, researchers, and auditors would have flagged it long ago.

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

Most chain upgrades are invisible to users. These three aren't.

Cardano Upgrades is adding micro-fee support for wallets and DeFi apps, a mechanism for the treasury to hold stable-value assets, and the ability to pay transaction fees in any native asset.

Three new reasons for developers to build here — and for more adoption to follow!
@IOGroup

Read the plan and vote to make it happen ↓
https://t.co/DhvLe8faOm

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

Worth clarifying — minUTXO exists to prevent ledger bloat from UTXO spam, not to lock up supply. The ADA is fully recoverable when you spend the UTXO. The official ledger docs even use the word "recover" for getting that ADA back. It's essentially a refundable deposit.

https://t.co/9FpJCKi31z

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

Some context that might be helpful for this discussion:
• We conducted extensive research on existing projects that have implemented concepts, ideas, and early-stage implementations of Babel Fees — including Aquarium.

• We spoke directly with the Aquarium team and had a genuinely constructive conversation. Their work is appreciated.

• The main limitation we identified with current solutions is user experience. Protocol-level support opens the door to a significantly smoother flow that smart-contract approaches struggle to match.

• There's also the question of decentralisation — a system operated by a single project team (current design) versus an open, permissionless mechanism baked into the protocol (Cardano Upgrades) are fundamentally different propositions.

• On the point about censorship: this concern becomes negligible when multiple independent providers compete to service requests.

[Michael Smolenski @MichaelSmoIO]

Hi Matteo, I'm the Product Owner for the Cardano Upgrades proposal that includes the Babel Fees workstream.

A few points worth sharing:

• We conducted extensive research on existing projects that have implemented concepts, ideas, and early-stage implementations of Babel Fees — including Aquarium.

• We spoke directly with the Aquarium team and had a genuinely constructive conversation. Their work is appreciated.

• The main limitation we identified with current solutions is user experience. Protocol-level support opens the door to a significantly smoother flow that smart-contract approaches struggle to match.

• There's also the question of decentralisation — a system operated by a single organization versus an open, permissionless mechanism baked into the protocol are fundamentally different propositions.

• On your point about censorship: this concern diminishes when multiple independent providers compete to service requests. That's exactly the model we're designing for.

We're not dismissing the design pathways others have pursued — we're building on the learnings to deliver something that works at the protocol level for the whole ecosystem.

[Input Output Group @IOGroup]

The team at @ensurablesys have shared their view.

DReps: this is one to review closely.

IO: Cardano Upgrades targets:
• Wallet economics
• Treasury stability
• Onboarding friction

Through CIP-159, Multi-Asset Treasury, and Babel Fees.

The proposal outlines scope, milestones, and delivery approach.

Read the full rationale: https://t.co/YuSnZFFzoB