Summary:
- The first UPLC Programming Language Conference (UPLC 2025) was held at the University of Edinburgh in late October
- It brought together language designers, researchers, and developers to collaborate on the future of Cardano’s programming languages
- Keynotes covered Plutus's research history, smart contract optimization, and new formal verification tools
- Sessions also explored new tools like the Jai-to-UPLC compiler, the UPLC-CAPE benchmarking framework, and zk-SNARK integration
- The Plutus team is currently finalizing an intra-era hard fork that will add 14 new primitives and two new built-in types
- Feedback from the event will directly inform the roadmap for Plutus V4 and the upcoming Dijkstra era.
Development is often a solitary pursuit, but true innovation requires collision. The inaugural UPLC Programming Language Conference (UPLC 2025) offered a rare moment of convergence for the Plutus Core ecosystem. It was about the ‘hallway track’ – spontaneous deep dives and debates that happen when a diverse community gathers in one room.
This gathering was timely. The Plutus ecosystem has matured rapidly, evolving from the early days of Plinth to a vibrant landscape of new compilers, developer tools, and benchmarks like UPLC-CAPE. With formal methods now verifying not just the core language but the smart contracts themselves, the foundation is stronger than ever. UPLC 2025 was the moment to inspect that foundation and decide how to build the next floor.
Connecting history to high performance
The keynote sessions anchored the event in a narrative that stretched from the academic roots of computer science to the bleeding edge of blockchain efficiency.
Philip Wadler opened by tracing the lineage of Plutus Core (UPLC) back to the foundations of lambda calculus. His message was a reminder that Cardano’s architecture isn't arbitrary; it is rooted in decades of rigorous research. He invoked a powerful sentiment for builders: ‘If you want a language that will still be viable in 50 years, pick one that is 50 years old’. This historical context sets Cardano apart – we are engineering for longevity.
Moving from theory to practice, Philip DiSarro delivered a masterclass on efficiency. He pulled back the curtain on lesser-known optimization strategies, giving developers the practical ‘cheatsheets’ needed to write leaner, faster smart contracts.
Completing the trifecta of history, practice, and assurance, Romain Soulat demonstrated the future of security. He showcased blaster, a tool that transforms formal verification from a manual headache into an automated asset. By automatically optimizing and proving theorems, it promises to make high-assurance development accessible to more builders.
A showcase of community innovation
Beyond the keynotes, the schedule was dominated by the community's own inventions. The sessions proved that the ecosystem is expanding far beyond the base protocol.
- New languages and tools: developers explored the Jai-to-UPLC compiler and the Gastronomy debugger, tools designed to make the developer experience smoother and more intuitive.
- Benchmarking and speed: progress was shared on compiling UPLC to RISC-V (for execution on BitVMX) and the new JVM-based evaluator, signaling a push for broader compatibility and raw performance.
- Bridging the gap: the Mesh team tackled the often-overlooked challenge of off-chain integration. Their session focused on smoothing the friction points where on-chain logic meets off-chain applications – a critical step for mass adoption.
The road ahead: immediate upgrades and long-term vision
The energy from UPLC 2025 is already translating into code. The Plutus team is currently finalizing an intra-era hard fork. Think of this not as a renovation, but as a significant tooling upgrade for the workshop.
This update introduces:
- 14 new primitives to expand what developers can build
- Two new built-in types for better data handling
- Unified primitives across Plutus V1, V2, and V3 to clean up technical debt.
These changes directly reflect the themes heard in Edinburgh: better ergonomics, more expressive power, and relentless optimization.
Looking further out, the conversations from UPLC 2025 are shaping the roadmap for Plutus V4 and the Dijkstra era. Whether it is supporting cross-chain transactions or unifying datatype encodings, the feedback loop between the core engineering teams and the wider community is now tighter than ever.
UPLC 2025 demonstrated that code is written by people, and the best code is written when those people communicate deeply. We look forward to the next opportunity to build together.
Dive deeper
Want to see the discussions that are shaping the future? Watch the full UPLC 2025 presentation playlist here.
