Tag: plutus

The Cardano Vasil Upgrade

According to the Cardano project team, their much anticipated Vasil Upgrade hard fork will proceed on September 22, 2022. The upgrade will bring more scalability and also lower transaction costs on the Cardano blockchain. A smart contract platform, like its competitor Ethereum, Cardano represents a third generation blockchain design.

There have been previous delays to the upgrade due to flaws discovered while testing during the summer of 2022. The Cardano project developers have been criticized for moving too slow in meeting targets, but this was to make sure that the software is stable and secure. What many don’t realize is that this is part of the team’s strategy to deliver a product that is tested for quality, making it less prone to failure. Let us not forget that many cryptocurrency projects have ended in failure due to poor development, not to mention tokenomics.

Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson mentioned in a YouTube video (from Altcoin Daily):

“We built Cardano to be the financial operating system of the world …. we understood a roadmap to get there … we’ve maintained actually that level of security and quality that people have come to know …”

Charles Hoskinson

In essence, what Hoskinson is saying is that in order to have a working cryptocurrency token, it has to meet rigorous testing and quality assurance. Despite news of errors in the protocol, it was during testing that they occurred. Errors were discovered on the test network, so that means it can be corrected before deploying to production. Development takes plenty of time in order to guarantee an ecosystem that is reliable and safe to use. The team is now ready to deploy the upgrade to the main network, and this should improve the network significantly.

Cardano is at the Goguen phase (smart contracts) of the roadmap to the Basho phase (scaling). This is the release of the Cardano smart contract platform that uses Plutus, a functional programming language that uses Haskell. This also includes the release of Marlowe which is a high level programming language for financial applications that can also be used for building smart contracts. Plutus is more advanced for high-end developers, while Marlowe can be used by users with no previous background in software development.

What will be interesting is what happens in the Cardano ecosystem after the upgrade. For Cardano’s native token ADA, this could mean a big price boost provided there are no complications during and after the upgrade. Traders and investors are keeping an eye on the price of ADA, as the news has been received positively so far (ADA spot market price was at $0.49 as of writing). This has kept ADA among the top 10 in the cryptocurrency market so far (based on CMC 9/4/22).

Cardano sets itself apart from other tokens. It is not a ‘meme’ nor is it considered a purely speculative asset like many coins that have no utility (i.e. ‘shitcoins;). Instead it has its own unique philosophy that is in line with the fundamentals of cryptocurrency, but based on the foundations of sound engineering. It is building a community with its own ecosystem, much like Ethereum. If Cardano can deliver on the many features it hopes to provide users, we can expect it to remain one of the top (if not the top) cryptocurrency in the market.

Disclosure: This is not financial advice. This is for educational purposes only. Do your own research always to verify information.

The Alonzo Hard Fork – The Road To Cardano Smart Contracts

The launch of the Alonzo hard fork signals the next stage in the Cardano roadmap. This provides the path to the Goguen phase, which introduces smart contracts to the network. This will take place in multiple phases represented by colors. The current phase is called Alonzo Blue, to be followed by Alonzo White and Alonzo Purple. What is coming are the feature for developing applications. Alonzo is the upgrade that will allow developers to build DApps (Decentralized Applications) that run on a secure and mathematically verifiable network.

According to the Cardano testnet site:

“The ‘Alonzo’ hard fork will bring exciting and highly-anticipated new capabilities to Cardano through the integration of Plutus scripts onto the blockchain. These will allow for the implementation of smart contracts in Cardano, enabling the deployment of a wide range of new DeFi applications for the first time.”

Cardano (ADA) has been criticized for its slow development pace. This has anxious investors waiting for the release of products built on top of the Cardano blockchain. The Cardano team are doing this with purpose to be able to release a peer reviewed system that is stable, secure and quality tested. That can only be possible by following the roadmap set by the developers. It begins with the foundation to build a core network that was introduced in the Byron phase. Next came the decentralization of the core network, which was the purpose of the Shelley phase. Now comes the ability for developers to build on top of the Cardano blockchain, like how developers use the Ethereum blockchain for smart contracts and DApps.

The smart contracts used in Cardano are written using the Plutus programming language. It is based on the functional programming language Haskell, which is used for reliable and mission critical application development (e.g. aerospace and defense software). The aim here is to provide a more stable code for smart contracts, which are critical in nature. That means a more sound way to execute DApps on the network, that minimizes logic errors and capable of scalability.

The Alonzo Blue phase will bring the testnet live by the end of May 2021. It will be open to a select group of partners and developers to test the codebase. The Alonzo White phase comes around July 2021 and will bring in more participants for testing. Alonzo Purple will then open up the testnet to the public. This is in preparation for opening the system up to other users to test the performance of Cardano smart contracts. With these developments, the smart contract platforms will get more competitive in the cryptocurrency markets. Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) are going to see a new platform to compete with.

Unlike most projects, Cardano has a reputation for being slow. Founder Charles Hoskinson wants to take the slow tortoise approach to development, rather than giving too many updates right away. The team’s objective is to release quality controlled and tested software that is reliable and secure. They want to make sure they avoid many bugs and flaws that could compromise the system. Perhaps we can now see the fruits of their labor.