Cardano’s scaling roadmap took a concrete step forward after Anastasia Labs CEO Philip DiSarro reported on September 16 that Midgard—the project’s native Layer-2—now runs a “functional node” with live pathways for settling state on Layer-1 and finalizing state commitments.
He added that the next engineering checkpoints are “the delivery of L1 deposits and withdrawals, and the forced transaction inclusion mechanism,” concluding, “Things are coming together nicely and we’re extremely excited to bring this into the hands of the community.”
At a technical level, DiSarro’s note points to three pillars that matter for any rollup-style L2: settlement, commitments, and inclusion. “State settlement on the L1” refers to the process by which the L2’s canonical state is anchored to Cardano’s base layer, ensuring that, even though transactions execute off-chain, ultimate security and finality derive from the L1.
“State commitment finalization” describes recording cryptographic commitments to L2 state so that disputes can be resolved and the correct state can be proven against the L1. The mention of a forthcoming “forced transaction inclusion mechanism” is equally significant, as such mechanisms are widely used in rollup ecosystems to mitigate sequencer censorship by giving users an escape hatch that compels inclusion via the base chain when necessary. DiSarro did not publish specs in this update, but these terms map cleanly to the rollup design goals Midgard has articulated publicly since its unveiling.
Midgard’s positioning has consistently been that of a Cardano-native optimistic rollup that is “tokenless,” avoids cross-chain bridges, and aims to let developers redeploy existing dApps without rewriting for a new execution environment. The project’s X profile describes it as “a tokenless Layer 2 using optimistic rollups to bring throughput and efficiency to Cardano. No bridges. No chain switching. Just ADA, smart contracts, and …” a framing that aligns with the practical focus on developer ergonomics and minimizing surface area for trust.
Beyond social updates, Midgard has been tracked through Cardano’s community treasury process. In Fund12 of Project Catalyst, Anastasia Labs secured ₳500,000 for an open-source build-out, publishing milestone plans that ranged from architecture specifications to an L2 node MVP.
At press time, ADA traded at $0.8759.
