Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson revealed on October 18, 2026, that he is personally developing a new programming language intended for the Cardano blockchain.
In a post on the social platform X, Hoskinson stated that the project is underway and that he is collaborating with another developer.
He characterized the language as the first of its kind, designed to support intents alongside proof-carrying data through the use of Groth16 proofs.
The collaborator identified by the handle @rvcas is Lucas Rosa, a software engineer associated with Input Output Global.
Rosa is recognized as a co-creator and maintainer of Aiken, an existing smart-contract language used on Cardano.
Public materials for Aiken list him among its authors, and his personal site notes a role connected to tooling for the Midnight project.
Cardano already offers developers two primary options for writing smart contracts:
Plutus, which draws from the Haskell functional programming tradition that underpins much of the network’s original design, and Aiken, a more recent alternative aimed at improving accessibility.
I'm actually personally developing a programming language for Cardano. It's the first of its kind, enabling intents and PCD via Groth16 proofs. @rvcas is building it with me
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) October 18, 2026
Hoskinson’s announcement positions the new language as an additional tool rather than a replacement whose precise relationship to these existing options has been clarified.
At a conceptual level, the features Hoskinson highlighted address common challenges in blockchain application design.
An intent allows a user or application to declare a desired outcome—such as completing a token exchange only if a certain price condition is met—while leaving the precise sequence of intermediate steps to be determined by the surrounding system or other parties.
Proof-carrying data refers to a technique in which computational results are accompanied by cryptographic evidence that every preceding step satisfied the required rules.
A verifier can then confirm the entire history by examining a single compact proof instead of re-executing the full computation.
Groth16, the specific zero-knowledge proof system referenced, is a well-established construction published in 2016.
It generates proofs that consist of only three group elements, keeping them small enough for efficient verification on-chain.
Because the proofs are zero-knowledge, they can demonstrate that certain conditions were met without exposing the private inputs that went into the calculation.
Combined, these elements could enable applications to coordinate complex multi-step interactions and transfer verified information between services while limiting the data that must be revealed publicly.
Hoskinson has not released a name for the language, published any code, shared technical specifications, or indicated a development or launch timeline.
The announcement itself appeared as a reply in a broader discussion about Cardano’s characteristics as a decentralized foundation for applications.
Separate recent comments from Hoskinson have referenced ongoing conceptual work related to Midnight, a privacy-oriented companion chain, though no direct technical linkage between that effort and the new language has been detailed.
The disclosure adds another layer to Cardano’s evolving developer tooling at a time when the network continues to introduce features such as enhanced programmable token standards. Whether the language ultimately streamlines the creation of applications that rely on verifiable outcomes and privacy-preserving checks will depend on the concrete design choices that have yet to be made public.
