IO: Hydra
**Proposal as pdf: [https://ipnso-com.ipns.inbrowser.link/?cid=Qmbk3jHKKLQ1VrniKaD7sGMscJxCKvoXqt1sQoEnRLTku4](https://ipnso-com.ipns.inbrowser.link/?cid=Qmbk3jHKKLQ1VrniKaD7sGMscJxCKvoXqt1sQoEnRLTku4)** **Hydra is the only production-grade Layer 2 on Cardano, already running live workloads for Delta DeFi, Masumi, Intersect, Vtechcom and others.** This proposal funds four workstreams - performance optimization, operational excellence, ecosystem support, and developer experience - delivering a feature-complete and hardened Hydra v2 so we offer a competitive scaling solution to existing builders and new builders adopt Cardano. Hydra delivers sub-second finality, near-zero fees, and high parallel throughput with L1-grade settlement. It unlocks verticals such as institutional and perpetual DEXes, agent-to-agent commerce, micropayments, gaming, point of sale, and verifiable information processing. The work aligns with the treasury's TVL, transaction, active-user, throughput, reliability, and protocol-revenue KPIs, and with Pillars 1, 2, 4, and 5. The ask is **₳5,100,781**. This will be milestone-gated, with independent third-party assurance and Intersect providing administrative treasury governance.