Meeting Minutes September 24, 2025

Attendees:

Name	Attendance	Role	Voting Seat (Y/N)	Term
Kevin Hammond	Yes	Chair	Y	October 2025
Adam Dean	Yes	Vice Chair	Y	October 2025
Terence ‘Tex’ McCutcheon	Yes	Secretary	N	N/A
Lorenzo Bruno	No	Secretary	N	N/A
Markus Gufler	No	Member/Seat	Y	October 2025
Nicolas Biri	Yes	Member/Seat	Y	April 2026
Duncan Coutts	No	Member/Seat	Y	April 2026
Jonathan Kelly	Yes	Member/Seat	Y	October 2025
Sebastian Nagel	No	Member/Seat	Y	April 2026
Benjamin Hart	Yes	Member/Seat	Y	October 2025
Neil Davies	No	Member/Seat	Y	April 2026
Alexander Moser	Yes	Member/Seat	Y	April 2026

Community/Other Attendees

• Christian Taylor

• Fergie Miller

• Ryan Williams

Recording: Technical Steering Committee - 2025/09/24 - Recording

Transcript: Technical Steering Committee - 2025/09/24 - Transcript

Chat Transcript: Technical Steering Committee - 2025/09/24 - Chat Transcript

Intros

Adam: Guy who does stuff and things, TSC Voting Member, OSC Voting Member, DripDropz LLC, Adam Dean, LLC Alex: TBD Ben: TBD Duncan: Architecture, TSC voting member, partner at Well-Typed LLP. Johnny: Non-Custodial Co-Management SysOps Engineer (Tech Janitor) for 3 Mainnet Cardano SPO Clients. Keystone Ambassador. Voting Seat Member on Technical Steering Committee and Open Source Committee. Kevin: TBD Lorenzo: TBD Markus: SPO, Monitoring, operative Core Infrastructure, CEX-Support, TSC voting member, Self-Employed Neil: Performance and Network Architecture, TSC voting member, Parameter Committee (Networking) member Nicolas: Director of Software Architecture, TSC member. Sebastian: Software Architect, CEO nCoding GmbH, TSC voting seat member Tex: Open Source Program Manager (Intersect), GMC/MCC/OSC Secretary, Committee Liaison

Agenda 9.24.25

• IOR mid-year reports - Fergie Millar

• Feedback on Leios CIP - Adam/Nicolas

  • Linear Leios Proposed

  • Review Session organised?

• Join next CIP Editors Meeting

• Next Leios monthly meeting conflicts with TSC meeting - cancel TSC meeting?

• Slot battle discussion with SPOs - Duncan C

• Feedback from Node Diversity Workshop in Toulouse, 22-23 September - Markus/Sebastian/Kevin

  • https://hackmd.io/zYPLaKpSS4WTzjTpVINIvw

  • The organisers will provide a report after the workshop

• Positive technical discussion

• Intersect Security Manager Role - Kevin

• Any Items arising from ISC - Adam

• maxTxExecutionCost[memory] Parameter Change - Alex/Kevin

• Report on LSM Trees - Duncan C

Decisions/Actions

Decisions

• Next TSC Meeting Time Shift: The next Technical Steering Committee (TSC) meeting will be postponed by 30 minutes to allow members to attend the conflicting Laos monthly meeting.

• CIP Editors Meeting Attendance: TSC members agreed to ensure there is representation at next week's CIP Editors meeting to discuss the Leios CIP.

• Security Incident Manager Hiring Process Confirmed: The TSC confirmed its role and formal involvement in the recruitment process, including the requirement for candidates to be interviewed by the Open Source Committee (OSC) Chair and the Intersect Steering Committee Chair (Kevin).

• Parameter Change Vote Scheduled: A formal vote on the timing of the submission for the Max TX Execution Cost (memory) parameter change governance action will be held during the next TSC meeting.

Actions

• Circulate Parameter Metadata (Kevin): Kevin will circulate the draft metadata for the Max TX Execution Cost parameter change to the group out of band.

• Check Meeting Time (Kevin): Kevin will double-check the new 30-minute later start time for the next meeting with Sebastian.

• Document Hard Fork Stages (Kevin): Kevin will write down the different stages and all necessary components required for a hard fork process to provide as input for the Hard Fork Working Group.

• Invite Carlos to Parameter Committee: The Parameter Committee will invite Carlos (and a team member) to their call in two weeks to determine the urgency for adding the new min margin parameter.

• Provide Recruitment Input (All TSC Members): Members are requested to provide input on the Security Incident Manager role, including suggesting key questions for candidates and being ready to assist with the interview process.

• Share R&D Link (Fergie): Fergie was to drop the link to the open monthly Cardano R&D session in the meeting chat.

• Postpone Discussion: The discussion on the slot battle was postponed to the next meeting, as Duncan was not present.

Topic	Discussion	Notes
Agenda Finalization	Kevin shared the agenda in the chat. Kevin asked Johnny (Jonathan) and others if they had additions.	No additions to the pre-circulated agenda.
Actions Arising from Previous Meeting	Tex (Terence) reviewed previous actions. Revised wording for candidate application questions was handled. Summary of node diversity workshop (metadata for governance action) and a dedicated discussion in the CIP editors discord for the Leios CIP were noted as likely on the current agenda. Nicolas is leading the proposal for the release calendar, with Adam and Sebastian to be the voice of the TSC promoting it to developers.	Actions reviewed and mostly on the agenda or handled. Kevin noted he had feedback for Nicolas on the release calendar from the node diversity workshop.
Research Work Program Update (Fergie)	Fergie gave an update on the 2025 research work program (first year of a 5-year program). It covers nine focus areas and 34 research streams. Methodology: research → web3 innovation team → engineering. Commits to 20 research outputs (papers) and six innovation streams annually. Research is on track to deliver 28 research papers (40% over commitment) on the same budget.	Mid-year report shared on Cardano forum. Requesting three change requests to bring forward work on decentralized storage for smart contracts, state proofs, and blockchain bridges/interchains, and zero-knowledge workstream due to good progress. Next monthly Cardano R&D session (open meeting) is tomorrow on Ouroboros Omega (Agalos) and work in Leios (William Wolf).
2030 Vision Alignment	Kevin stressed the importance of research aligning with the Intersect 2030 vision. Fergie confirmed they are aware and welcome the discussion, having previously aligned work streams to the Product Committee's 2025 vision. Adam noted a series of review workshops for the 2030 vision draft are starting next week (Singapore, Osaka, Tokyo, Barcelona in mid-October) and is slated to go on-chain for formal community acceptance around November.	Fergie confirmed the need for an improved decision-making process for prioritizing innovation streams, combining "demand pool" (market) and "tech push" (science).
Significant Research Achievements	Kevin asked Fergie for the two or three most significant research achievements.	Fergie highlighted the Leios innovation stream, the zero-knowledge workstream (particularly UC snarks published at Crypto 25), and strong progress in Ouroboros and interchains research.
LEOCIP Feedback & Next Steps	Nicolas stated there hasn't been much progress and TSC members should read the CIP. Kevin noted good discussion at the Toulouse node diversity workshop. Agreed that the TSC needs to capture discussion outputs for the community.	A CIP editors meeting is next week. The next monthly Leios meeting is next Wednesday, October 1st, conflicting with this meeting. To accommodate attendance, the next TSC meeting will start 30 minutes later.
Slot Battle Discussion	Postponed as Duncan Coots, who requested the topic, was not present.	Postponed to the next meeting.
Node Diversity Workshop Summary	Kevin provided a summary, noting discussions on Antithesis (CF's testing tool), the role of the Security Council and TSC in managing security across diverse node implementations, and the release schedule. The Laos design is progressing rapidly, but the design is still being finalized.	Security Council/TSC role is to help set standards and procedures for mainnet readiness for multiple nodes. Discussion on the release schedule suggests four collection points per year, with only two being used for hard forks, necessitating longer latency for testing, tooling, and constitutional changes. Ledger/Consensus team preferred feature-based releases, while community stakeholders preferred time-based releases.
Security Incident Manager Role	Christian spoke to the need for this role due to Intersect's "very, very immature" security operations. The role will be a security incident officer to set up processes, be the point person for the Security Council, and form ecosystem partnerships for monitoring and response. The role will coordinate the disaster recovery fire drill.	Intersect HR will lead the interview process, with final candidates interviewed by the OSC chair and the Intersect Steering Committee chair (Kevin) for cultural and technical fit. TSC input is requested on the candidates.
Max Execution Cost (Memory) Parameter Change	Alex (Alexander) discussed the proposed change to the Max TX execution cost (memory) parameter. Kevin will circulate the draft metadata again. The change is intended to allow for larger Pluton scripts and remove some checkpoints, with a total goal of a 25% increase in the current memory unit setting via a two-stage process.	The earliest a formal governance action can be submitted is October 7th (after the 3-month re-announcement period expires), with voting starting in the epoch of the 11th. A formal vote on submission timing will occur next week.
Min Margin Parameter Addition	Alex introduced the addition of the min margin parameter. The two options for adding it are via the upcoming intra-era hard fork (as a fixed parameter only changeable by hard fork) or by waiting until Dystra in 2026 (as a fully parameterizable parameter).	Carlos (or a team member) will be invited to the next Parameter Committee call in two weeks to discuss the urgency of min margin and determine the appropriate process.
IC (Intersect Steering Committee) Updates	Adam provided an update. The IC discussed the Security Incident Manager position and confirmed the hiring criteria (shortlisted by Intersect staff, then interviewed by OSC chair, IC steering committee chair, and possibly an executive team member).	Updates on budget and election cycle were also discussed. Kevin signed off on the hiring process.
Closing & Next Meeting Time	Kevin confirmed the TSC members would be involved in the recruitment process for the Security Incident Manager. No other issues were raised. The next meeting will start 30 minutes later to accommodate the Laos monthly meeting.	Meeting Adjourned.