Hydra is Cardano’s sharpest weapon in competing with other ecosystems - especially in today’s rapidly growing markets for real time and high frequency applications. Today, most developers building: • DeFi • Gaming • Prediction Markets • AI Agent Payments • Consumer Payment Systems automatically remove Cardano from their shortlist before even seriously evaluating the technology. Not because Cardano lacks vision. But because modern dApps demand highly optimized user experiences: - Sub-second finality - Near-zero fees - High throughput - Real-time interaction And this is exactly why Hydra matters. After nearly two years of researching, building, and experimenting with Hydra alongside my team, I truly believe Hydra is one of the most important technologies for Cardano’s future. Not because it is “just another scaling solution.” But because Hydra has the potential to completely redefine what can actually be built on Cardano. Hydra is not just a TPS story. Hydra is the key to unlocking entirely new categories of applications for Cardano - applications that are extremely difficult to build competitively on L1 alone. (We already have a fully functional product currently in testing, and we hope to demonstrate this to the community very soon.) 🙌 That is why I want people to support this proposal from the Hydra team at IOG. Because this proposal is not simply about funding infrastructure. It is about creating a real path for Cardano toward: • A production-ready L2 ecosystem • Attracting developers • Expanding consumer-facing applications • And generating measurable on-chain economic activity As a builder actively developing on Hydra, I can say this very clearly: Hydra is entering the stage where builders are beginning to ship real products. This is an extremely important moment. If Cardano wants to compete for the next generation of applications, we cannot afford to simply wait for scaling narratives until 2027. We need real usage, real users, and real feedback loops starting now. That is why I believe supporting the next phase of Hydra is critically important for the long-term growth of the Cardano ecosystem ! @sharan_konerira