Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Is Building a New Programming Language for the Network

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson says he is personally developing a new programming language for the network. He shared the news on X on Sunday and said he is working on it with Lucas Rosa, a software engineer at Input Output Global who co-created Aiken, one of Cardano’s main smart contract languages. It is unusual for the head of a network this large to write developer tools himself, especially while running a company full of engineers. No name, public code or release date has been shared yet.

Transaction Intents, Proof Carrying Data and Groth16

The language is expected to support three tools. Transaction intents let a user state what they want done and leave the steps to the app, such as a trader asking to swap one token for another only if the final price meets set conditions. Proof carrying data attaches cryptographic evidence to a piece of information, showing it follows certain rules, so another app can verify it without redoing the calculations.

Cardano Smart Contract Languages Today

Together, these tools could help developers build apps that coordinate trades, check complex conditions and pass verified information between services, with Cardano checking only a small proof at the end. Developers currently write smart contracts on Cardano in Plutus, which is built on Haskell, and in Aiken. Midnight, the privacy focused blockchain built by Hoskinson’s company Input Output Global, has its own language called Compact for apps that handle confidential data.